The Abdali Road Trip

The relationship between me & the wide-open roads is a romantic one and since I have relocated to Kuwait this romance has halted for a bit and I was itching to go back on the roads albeit this time not as a rider but as a co-passenger in a Car!!! And I didn’t mind it a single bit as at times enjoying the roads while sitting is also a great experience and I did the same during my July 2009 Mt. Abu “Abu AlphaMales Trip”…



My partner-in-rhyme this time was George, my friend here in Kuwait with whom I share a Motorcycling connection, he also owns 2 bullets back home and has been on Bike Rides down South. He recently bought a 2400 CC & 170 BHP strong Chevrolet Malibu car and we had thought of going for a road trip the day he bought the car…many weekends passed with the plan not materializing but this time we had nothing of it and come what may we were going on one and I was all excited to resume my romance!!!

After completing all the weekend chores (Read: cleaning my room & washing my clothes) we started the trip…don’t get surprised, I am a reformed man now!!! All on my own here and learning new tricks of the trade & loving each one of them…

But the big hoggers we are our first pit stop had to be a Lunch Break and we decided to have it in the Avenues Mall – the biggest shopping mall here and the one with the biggest food court as well, its humongous in size and on weekends is humming with people blabbering & eating away to glory, one can find literally all kinds of cuisines here & all major International food chain outlets here. I had my eyes set on a Hardees Grilled Chicken burger since last week only and my menu was set!!! George ordered a Butter Chicken meal and it was a sumptuous one for sure, I also had amazing Mango Juice with my Burger…we followed up the meal with a sutta each but then I saw the Häagen-Dazs Ice-cream Outlet and no power in this world could have stopped me from trying a new flavour there!!! I just loved the Cappuccino Crème Caramel Ice-cream I had…it was simply heavenly to say the least…





With our tummies full & heavy we finally started the 125-kms odd drive to the Iraqi Border known as Abdali…the roads were as expected smooth as silk and no wonder George was soon zipping at 120-130 kmph…I sat back and just started to enjoy the open roads with some nice music & my mind playing memory-games about the rides I have been to…Nostalgia had hit me hard!!!…I call them my own and this romance would surely continue till I die…

George’s car has the Cruise-Control feature and this time he had all plans to test it on the big-wide open roads…he started first with 120 kmph and then moved to 140 before hitting the 160 kmph mark and boy it was quick…but the car being such a nice & heavy machine we never felt we were speeding at 160 kmph and with no cabin noise whatsoever were enjoying immensely…but then I told him not to go overboard and come back to the 120 kmph speed…we were not in any sort of hurry and kept the Bakchodi flowing…





I must say that I would just love to get The Mighty One on those roads and zip it up to the maximum limit…literally no traffic…arid land on both the sides and great tarmac quality…but as we all know it would just remain a wish & I can just dream about it…



I badly needed a sutta-piss break & we stopped at a roadside Highway restaurant…sadly no Indian-style Dhabas here…this place was operated by an Indian who was so happy to see 2 Indians at his joint & chatted with us but had nothing great to eat so we decided just to have a lemonade each…and this was one life-changing experience for me…on a road trip & having a lemonade…things change rapidly…don’t they!!! Here I was drinking a bottle of Lemonade…a far cry from the Bike Ride days where Pit Stops meant only Child Beer to me & my comrades…full of sadness in our minds we clicked some pics and then decided to move forward…





After stopping here I thought about one thing...all of us talk about Job Satisfaction and the way we have to be continuously kept motivated by our employers and here were 2 Indians operating a small eatery literally in the middle of nowhere in such crazy climate & terrain and were still so happy to see us & chat to us...talks volumes about their level of motivations in life...chuck that bugger Arindam Choudhary and I would suggest people like these to some give motivational talks to the corporates & B-Schools out there!!!

We finally reached the Iraqi Border Post and from here we had to take a U-Turn and we did that and started the trip back home…the road on the other side had much fewer Traffic Cameras which made life easier for George and he was consistently driving over the permissible 120 kmph speed limit…



I was hungry again!!! Yes I was…so the next pit stop was a Burger King Restaurant…I decided to have a Hamour Fish Burger with a cup of cappuccino…Hamour is a type of fish exclusively found in the Gulf and is of an exotic variety and tastes amazingly well…I have had the grilled Italian version before which was simply delicious and the burger was also superb…the weather outside was getting very humid which made the Coffee-Sutta combo quite a sweaty one…I hurriedly finished it and straight went inside the car to get some AC relief…



And then finally our short Road Trip ended…some 170 kms long and had some real good fun…we promised each other that whenever my Kuwait Residency is stamped we would plan a Road Trip to Bahrain together…it would take some 5 hours to reach there and we would pass through Saudi Arabia to reach Bahrain…Inshallah our plan materializes fast…

Che would be back on the road again…

Till then ride safe & have safe sex…

Hasta la Victoria Siempre…