Whadda trip down memory lane!

The trip to Goa in Dec. 2005 that me and my dear friends, Ash and Paul, embarked on is arguably the most memorable one, and it only serves to remind our passion and love for the state.
Allow me to begin at the beginning. It was 30th December, around 9 in the evening that me and Paul met Ash at a restaurant in Andheri for a drink and to plan for the celebrations for the New Year. The first pegs downed, the spirit caressing some part of our minds, the conversation was safely doing rounds of some happening parties and we only had to settle down on one, when Paul suggested New Year at Goa. By this time, it was so late that any hopes of catching the last bus or train to Goa were dashed. If the suggestion wasn't bold enough, Paul went a step further by recommending travel on motorbikes and in a matter of minutes we were putting our heads together and weighing the pros & cons for the trip. By now, we had abandoned thoughts of every other party so much so that not even fragments of the earlier conversation lingered and before we knew it, we had all said "Aye Aye" to the trip. We stopped drinking ALMOST immediately and proceeded to our respective homes to pack our bags and get some rest. At 4am on December 31st, we met at Paul's place. Paul had already searched the internet for a map detailing the road route and had a printout ready. By 4:30, we commenced our trip.
Among one of the highlights of the trip was that since my pulsar bike was causing problems, I was riding my sista's Kinetic Zing, which is a light bike and has a maximum speed o' 80 km/hr. What the #@*&#? I know, but at that time it somehow seemed like a good idea. And it was the least of our worries. Paul was riding his Pulsar and Ash acompanied him as the pillion rider. After withdrawing money from our respective ATMs, we filled up our fuel tanks at the Sakinaka gas station and proceeded on our journey. The weather was very cold; chillll-led, as Satan would say it. We had not even crossed the city limit and we were shivering down to our timbers. Only the liquid in our bladders was adamant and refused to freeze, and we had to stop twice to take a leak before we reached the Vashi toll naka. On crossing the toll naka, we were smooth sailing, or should it be riding (damn my habit to beat around the bush) except for the fact that we had to stop a coupla times more before we reached a flyover which we took. It was only after ten minutes on the flyover that we realized that we had missed the right turn to Goa and we were actually on the Mumbai-Pune Express way. After the initial bouts of slandering and hurling curses at each other and "blame thy neighbour" stuff, we turned our bikes around and made the distance back to the point where we could exit the Express way (For those who have not been on the Express way, it is lined with a divider which does not allow you a U-turn; we had to travel the distance back in the wrong direction and more importantly 'TWO WHEELERS ARE NOT ALLOWED' on the Express way). Once we took the exit, we went to a restaurant and had steaming cups of tea in the hopes of thawing our insides. It only worked momentarily, for the moment we stepped out and mounted our bikes, we were shivering like leaves in the breeze and I wished we had carried some RUM with us. Once back on the right track, we did not stop till we had crossed the toll naka at Pen and we would have continued relentlessly, had it not been for a bonfire that caught Paul's attention. We parked our bikes and hovered around the bonfire till it got us warm right upto our family jewels. By this time it was already 7 am, and we still had a long way to travel. Once warm, we were again on our way. Ash relieved me from riding and I joined Paul as the pillion rider. We were still a good distance from Chiplun and it was almost 10 am when Paul's bike had a flat tyre and we had to drag it to a garage to fix it. Now people, Paul is a braveheart and I figure when you have to drag your bike through a good distance before you come a place inhabited by humans and then finally find someone amongst them who can actually fix a flat tyre, doubts start creeping in and even the strongwilled start developing jellyfeet. And Paul was no exception. Once the tyre was fixed, Paul started reasoning with us on whether it was actually a good idea to continue. Ash and me debated with Paul, trying to convince him that it was so and again the environment experienced the heat as a flurry of abuses were hurled at each other. Hats off to Paul as he endured every bit of what was being said but he simply held his ground and refused to budge. Finally Ash and me gave in and with a heavy heart, we did a roundabout and started our journey back to Mumbai. We took many pit-stops on our way back, and Ash was having a ball in abusing Paul for succumbing and we were laughing and enjoying the ride all the way back. Finally it was 5 pm by the time we reached Mumbai and we simply headed out to our respective homes to freshen up and again team up to attend a party at a friends place, which we had earlier rejected in favour of Goa. We brought in the New Year with a blast. As for the trip, it was a hell of an experience with a thrill unmatched. To top it all, I didn't have my driving licence on my person during the entire journey. Ask Ash!!!