More Indian travelers are opting for extreme road trips to see the world

Meenakshi Sai, 51, looks like any other Indian woman, wearing a sari and a bindi on her forehead.

However, unlike many women in her country, she has been driving since the age of 18. As of 2020, less than 7% of India’s 236 million drivers were women, according to data website Statista.

“I have been driving ever since I was legally allowed to drive and have always enjoyed the sense of freedom and independence it gives me,” Sai said. “After my only daughter went to boarding school, I had a lot of time for myself. I started traveling a lot, both by myself and with friends.”

Sai was part of a team of eight Indians who drove 20,000 kilometers (12,430 miles) across five countries from Coimbatore, India, to St. Petersburg, Russia. To spread awareness about cervical cancer.

With increasing access to better cars and better roads in the country, more Indians are now taking road trips, both alone and in groups, both within India and abroad.

There is also the rise of slow travel. But Sai took her first road trip in 2016, before it became a trend.

“I drove to Thailand with a group of 20 people. It took us 13 days to get from Manipur in northeast India to Bangkok,” she said.

Her next big trip was from India to London, which she described as “complicated”.

“It took us six months to plan the itinerary,” she said. “It was difficult to find people among my friends and family who had the time or were willing to invest money in this trip.”

Eventually, through social media, she found two women (one from Mumbai and the other from Pollachi) who were interested in joining her.

The trip was long because Tata Motors sponsored it. The distance was over 14,900 miles and coincided with the 70th anniversary of India’s independence. It took the three women 70 days to travel through 24 countries, including Russia, Poland and Uzbekistan.

“I drove about 600 kilometers a day,” Sai said. “Many countries had issued us with date-specific visas, so we couldn’t afford to be late even by a few hours.”

Road conditions and changes in weather and altitude made the trip difficult, she said. As well as the fact that she is a vegetarian, she has had difficulty finding suitable dietary options in many countries.

“In countries like Kyrgyzstan, where there is a lot of meat, we ate a lot of potatoes and bread,” she said.

Sai now runs an overland driving company that organizes road trips across countries such as Namibia, Georgia, Armenia, Nepal and Mongolia.

“To drive through a country is to see it, connect with locals, stop where you feel like it, cross borders, and thrive in uncertainty. I also love the freedom it gives me,” she said.

In 2001, Mumbai-based Rishad Sarm Mehta, 51, drove from Delhi to the Nubra Valley in India’s northeastern Ladakh region.

“It was my first time driving in the Himalayan highlands and I had no idea how dangerous, narrow and high the roads would be and what the altitude would do to the body. This was a lesson I learned the hard way,” he said. Ta. Journalist and author.

Since then, Mehta has taken more than 100 road trips to around 50 countries. What was really exciting, he said, was the drive from Munich to Mumbai, which lasted two months and covered eight countries.

He also said that he drives different cars depending on his travels.

“I drove through the Bavarian and Austrian Alps in a Ferrari, then did a snow drive in Spiti in northern India in a Toyota Fortuner, then did a fall drive in New England in a Ford Bronco,” he said. “These were all my favorites.”

His advice? “There are a lot of great drives around the world, some I found by accident, some I researched beforehand… But the company has to be good, otherwise it’s a disaster. ” he said.

Tushar Agarwal, a software engineer, drove from London to Delhi in 2010.

He said the 51-day trip was life-changing and led him to quit his job in London and return to Delhi, where he co-founded a company called Adventures Overland with his friend Sanjay Madan in 2012.

“I felt like this was my purpose in life…I couldn’t look back,” Agarwal said.

Today, Adventure Overland is one of the largest road travel companies in India. We organize carefully selected road trips around the world.

Agarwal has traveled to 92 countries and road tripped on six continents. his The most adventurous trip called “amazing india world travel” is currently a 10-episode series on Discovery Channel. With co-founder Madan, The journey spanned six continents and 50 countries, earning him a Guinness World Record for longest journey by car in a single country with a 10,600-mile trip across Australia.

Traversing beautiful terrain, driving through unknown territory, crossing borders, and battling unfamiliar food and adverse weather conditions may not be for everyone.

But, as Mehta says, “The sense of freedom from being bound by timetables and schedules, and the spontaneity it brings, makes driving the ultimate adventure.”