Tuesday, January 15, 2008

REACHED Ahmedabad!

Yes! My ride has come to an end. I reached Ahmedabad more than three hours ago.

3800kms of riding, 37 days of fun have come to an end.

More than half the shops are closed here, but the ones that matter to
me are open: cycle shops and hotels :-) One cycle shop owner was
helpful enough to give me a box, and I have packed my cycle already.

Last day of riding generally turns out to be boring, and today was no
different. But reaching the end is always special. And this has been a
really long and rewarding journey.

Before I sign off, thanks for all your wishes and comments. Without
you, this blog wouldn't exist. Sometimes I do think if it is a good
idea to blog at all. Some contend that not forcing oneself to write
most days has its benefits, e.g. Like allowing for more time for
thoughts to stabilize. I had tried to write once a day to acheive some
sort of balance between writing everything at the end of the trip and
writing everything as it happens. Live blogging is no easy task, and
can be distracting at times. One fine day, who knows, it might become
possible to broadcast everything non-intrusively. But watching the
stream will take as much time as generating it! That's the charm of a
summary. Enough said about blogging. I hope you had as much fun
reading as I had writing the stories.

I have many more people to thank, but I'd be failing duty if I didn't
thank at least two people. First, KP. Right from getting the
components for the bike to reserving my return flight ticket, KP has
been my biggest help. Second, Raghava. Raghava made all this blogging
and the website possible. The mobile I'm carrying is his fantastic
E-70. It has this keyboard which makes typing a cakewalk.

I'll write a summary, detailed maps and pictures once I reach back. My
return flight to Bangalore is at 7:10 tomorrow morning, and after that
will be work as usual. But now is the time to relax in the hotel room
and remember the glorious moments of the trip...

--
Sent from Gmail for mobile | mobile.google.com

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Great Shree, Many kudos to you for successfully completing such a magnanimous journey. Really great achievement. Very very happy to see (or read? :) ) that you have safely reached Ahmadabad. Congratulations once again.

vindy said...

Awesome Shree..
Really a mind/body bending task you pulled off there! I had this blog as part of my RSS feed and daily it would be part of my to reads!

Thanks a lot for blogging all the way! I agreed it would be a frustrating task to rewind the events and type 'em down at the end of a tiring day..

Wish you the heartiest of Congratulations on this massive feat!

-Vindy

Deepak Majipatil said...

Congrats for the achievment,Shree
Hope to hear the experience from U as early as possible

Anonymous said...

Hi Shree, Have been following your ride through the days! Good to see that you have finally completed yet another super tour! Hope to catch up in Bangalore and check out the snaps!
Cheers,
Abhi

Anonymous said...

Congrats Shree, Cheers!!!

Anonymous said...

Hey shree,

Congrats and this is really challenging to finish 3800Km continuously. Wait for u to meet once u r in blore.

Shekhar said...

Hi! Shree,
I have been following you through out your journey through your blogs. I congratulate you for completing the cross country ride.

Well if you have a doubt whether you should blog or not...my take is not to stop the good work.I have really enjoyed each and every post of yours and your posts have also given me a bit of motivation to go cycling.

Well I must thank Prasad for making me aware of this ride. It is for him I could enjoy your blogs.
Thanks

Anonymous said...

Congrats shree, i was once talking about you and your ride to some of my folks and all of them were asking the same question "Is he riding alone". That takes some courage to ride alone.

Its been nice reading your blog. Keep up the good effort.
congrats once again.

ROhan said...

Congratulations dude !

Gauthaman said...

Congratulations Shree. East to West has come to end. How about a North to South next year? ;-)

We will book a restaurant and hear your story over a dinner.

Shree Kumar said...

Guys: Many thanks!

Must say that, once done it's actually looking like a short ride ;-) Hehe - remember I met this guy who was walking for 8 years all around the world, and would be walking for 4 more!

@vindy: I believe blogging is worth the effort. I was just thinking of the possibilities moving ahead. Usage of a mobile-with-keyboard this time was a real time saver.

@abhi: Snaps have to wait for a week atleast, but they'll be there finally :-) Also, some audio.

@gauthaman: North to South - forget it. Just too many people do it :-) Besides, I've already ridden a fair bit till the middle of India, so I'm more keen to focus on the North.