Catching up lost sleep... Not so alcoholic after all.

Today I slept for more than 6 hours during the day time itself. 2.5 hours in the morning to late afternoon then it was 3+ hours during the evening, 3 45 pm to 7 20 pm.

I had travelled out of town and trekked hard for the 2 out of the last 3 weekends and other than that I was working out in the gym rest of the days.

My parents were shocked when they saw me sleep so much. I had not slept like this in the last 5 plus months odd. I used to sleep during weekends but it used to be 1 hour max 2 hours. I was wondering, what may be the reason for this.

I have been bit irregular at the gym this week, not working out regularly and absentee for the last 3 days and on weekend reason being out of town.

I did not have the usual after effects of workout, plus I had food, plus I had the satisfaction that I had got to travel out overcoming my mood swings. All this made me sleep like crazy. But the real thing was I had not worked out, working out induces pain, which rather disrupts deep sleep.

Your legs, shoulders, thighs are aching constantly, you feel purturbed by their movement, then how do we get deep sleep. Well that is what I think. It may be one of the reason, I have not slept properly in the last few months. Properly meaning this depth.

So, what is the solution for getting deep sleep even after work out. How do people who do manual labor get to sleep deep?

The answer is universal. Yes, that is what I told my parents all about, who again and again insist I am in bad company!

Its LIQUOR / ALCOHOL. Yes, please, though this may be my conclusion, I feel its pretty true. Why do people doing manual labor drink alcohol, why do drivers, especially truck drivers drink. Its this pain which makes sleep a far factor which makes them drink.

I am writing based on my personal experience, without hard work and without alcohol.

There have been days after my Himalayan treks where I had sleepless nights owing to the changes in altitude, plus location etc etc. Those days I was craving for sleep after a hard hard trek, but it never came. I used to wake up at 3 am in the morning, without sleep till 6-7 am and then sleep.

On such days I wish, I had a 90ml handy. But none whatsoever. I suffered without sleep.

My parents insist that, I have fallen into bad company talking about drinking, but the truth is, its more out of necessity than out of the need for sheer indulgence. Same with people who do hard hard work and who need a good sleep to get back to work and concentrate.

Cheers, and loads of respect to those people who put in hard hard work. Enjoy your drink guys!

When 500 kilometers took 12+ hours by road - TTTT 7

This one is like a continuation from the previous TTTT post. We had completed our beach trek, night dinner and were about to start to Bangalore by road from Gokarna. The bus chosen was a 22 seater. It was a nice group.

We reached Bangalore around 10 30 AM the next day, though we had started at 9 15 PM the previous night. There were few reasons:

- The route we had chosen, we had decided to come to Haveri and then hit NH4 and then to Bangalore, instead of the usual, Jog Falls, Shimoga road. Reason being 4 lane versus 2 lane.

- The vehicle which we had chosen had a front wheel wobble after or at 80 kmph. So the moment we touched 80, it used to wobble so bad that we had to cut down speed.

- We were driving at night, plus the driver had not slept properly for the last 2 days, reason being humidity along the coastal areas.

- The driver stopped at Chitradurga for some 1.5 hours. He just dozed off after stopping. So he was actually running short of sleep.

- Once we reached Tumkur, we stopped for a hotel at Kyatasandra. So this took around 45 minutes more! People were so fond of breakfast, considering, we would anyways be reaching Bangalore late, we could rather make the most of it, by eating yummy breakfast. Well that's what people thought!

Here we were, needing to reach office and there you go, reaching Bangalore was like an epic on this vehicle. I was like sitting close to the driver in the cabin, reason being, it was extremely hot and no one was ready to open windows in the vehicle.

The whole night, I was like gawking at the oncoming traffic on NH4, but one thing is for sure, it was not scary as we presume. Night driving on NH4 is surely possible.

Well, there goes one more tale! Couldnt reach office that day instead to chose to Work From Home!

Cheers,

When we ate free food after the trek - TTTT 6

This happened during November 2013, yep, almost 2 years back. We had completed our Beach trek, from Honnavara to Gokarna. We had one round of play in the backwaters of OM Beach.

The time was around 6 PM. It was time to get a fresh water bath and then head back to Bangalore. Instead the group chose something else. A visit to Gokarna Lord Shiva temple. The time flew and it was around 8PM. We thought, let us complete the dinner (prasadam) which was being served very close to the temple.

We completed the dinner and started towards Bangalore around 9 15 pm. Reached Bangalore around 10 30 am the next day.

Well, that's loads of time. The reason being, well, it can fit into another tale (blogpost) after all!

Cheers,

When we crossed state borders to pee - TTTT 5

During our weekend trips, we do many a time cross state borders, meaning we enter other states.  Entering other state by road requires vehicle permit for taxi segment vehicles. There have been couple of occasions, where we had chance to cross over to other state via the forest by walk of course!

The forest has no boundaries, but if we are caught in other state forest, we could get fined unless we have proper permission. Yes, unfortunately the forests too are demarkated, saying which part of the forest falls under which state.

During this trek, we started our road journey from Karnataka, crossed over into TamilNadu, then started the trek. During the trek we crossed over to the Kerala side, and then we completed the trek. We had to take a jeep ride from Kerala to TamilNadu border.

The jeep crossed the Kerala side and entered into the Tamilnadu side, and then stopped. It was over here at a distance of 0.5 kilometers, that our vehicle was parked. So before we could locate where our vehicle was, we thought of relieving ourselves.

Considering there were many people and checkposts in the Tamilnadu side, we thought it would not be a correct idea to do so. Ahead there were many street lights because of which we turned down.

So now only option left was to go back to Kerala side of the road which was a bit dark,

That is how we crossed the state borders just to pee!

Strange things do happen while travelling, its just about making them happen and recollecting them!

Cheers,