130-day Ride
Ali Mehndi, an avid bike and adventure-lover, rides across India, Bhutan and Myanmar
I’M ALI MEHNDI FROM Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh. I believe that life in an adventure and that the only way to be happy is to live the life you love and love the life you live. For me life is an adventure. I pay heed to the call of the road, and it was with that in mind that I set out on my motorcycle to discover, learn, grow and explore.
I wanted to discover my amazing country, create new bonds, share smiles and to spread a lot of love. There was neither a particular destination, nor a final goal; just this lone crazy motorcyclist and the long roads. I wanted to travel and explore my country, experience its vast and variegated culture, food, people, and places.
As it turned out, the journey was a highly fulfilling experience for me. It comprised every imaginable variety: dangerous roads, hot desert roads, the bewitching Western Ghats in the rainy season, beautiful beaches down south, gorgeous north-eastern states, all kinds of weather and terrain, breathtaking vistas, and, above all, a feel of my country and its amazing regions. Being a history-lover, I also got to visit some amazing monuments and their ancient intricate architecture.
I started from my home in Aligarh and rode for 130 days through 29 states of my country,
then Bhutan and Tamu (Myanmar) and clocked a total of 29,115 kilometres on my favourite Bajaj Pulsar 220.
Incidentally, the only reason for this journey was to explore my country thoroughly before I set out on a foreign jaunt. Most of us Indians plan our trips and holidays overseas without even seeing, far less exploring, our own fascinating, vast and divine land.
Scary, thrilling, breathtaking, mind-boggling, frightening, jaw-dropping: I can go on and on when it comes to describing my experiences during this long ride, but, most of all, they were wonderful!
I witnessed breathtaking landscapes, observed nature’s vibrant and intricate nuances, met a number of amazing people, made new friends, bonded with hundreds of quadruped buddies and savoured a lot of novel foodstuff.
What stands out in my memory now is the experience of riding in heavy downpour in the north-east, the humid weather of south, and exploring awesome offbeat places like Unakoti in Tripura. Equally memorable was the experience of riding a motorcycle on the world’s most dangerous road, ‘the Cliff-hanger’ from Killad to Kishtwar in J&K, riding on the highway in the Konkan region, especially loading my bike into and out of the innumerable ferries on this route, some extremely bad and wet roads in the northeast and also the hot and dry roads of the Rann of Kutch.
I experienced the scorching heat of the Thar Desert in the month of April while riding to Jaisalmer, saw nomadic life at close quarters at the Zanskar Valley, and also experienced great joy and happiness in Bhutan, the happiest country in the world.
Not only did I ride during those four months, I also went on hikes towards Tiger’s Nest in Bhutan, the Dzuku Valley in Nagaland, and in Meghalaya. I rode to the Siachen Base Camp and spent some time with our Indian Army, went to the Bomla Pass on the India-China
border in Arunachal Pradesh, beheld the magnificent floating lake (Lock Tak Lake) of Manipur, sat by the sea in Goa and watched the beautiful sunrise in Tawang, Arunachal Pradesh (the place of the rising sun). I touched the southern tip of India in Kanyakumari and the northern tip at Turtuk, a village in Kashmir. I visited Majuli Island, the world’s largest freshwater island. I crossed Srinagar in the dead of night because of the curfew, listened to some mellifluous traditional Rajasthani music at Ambrai Ghat in Udaipur, and partied hard till late in the night in Kohima, Nagaland, which was altogether a different experience.
My favourite daily task during this journey was eating loads of delicious, sumptuous and mouthwatering food at different places in different states. It included everything from chocolates and traditional sweets to seafood thalis, chai, local brews, lassi, different kinds of shakes, lot of coconut water, kebabs, and biryanis.
Food, local culture and local people are the main interesting factors in all my travels. Being an animal-lover, I make millions of friends who communicate with us through love and not words. My breaks are generally spent in feeding, cuddling or playing with them. These precious moments have a special place in my heart.
I also happen to be a very talkative person and have the habit of striking up a conversation wherever I go. Thus my pit-stops are generally spent in making friends, laughing, getting updated on the latest news and chatting with various people.
Being a history-lover I got a chance to visit many amazing old monuments built during different epochs in the country’s history, which are the source of interesting and exciting stories, folktales and chronicles.
I also met an amazing number of motorcyclists at every place; some whom I knew and some others whom I saw for the first time. They all treated me like a brother. I don’t have any siblings, which used to make me somewhat morose, but now I can say I have great friends who are more than friends to me. Similarly, I came across highly helpful, interesting, extremely generous and loving people during this journey.
The funny part of this ride was that throughout those four months there were only a few people who sent me text messages asking me if I was crazy. The majority of my friends and acquaintances, however, called or texted, praising my venture and motivating me by saying, “You are living a dream. Wish we could, too” or “We are proud of you”.
I would say that one of my most precious memories of this journey was celebrating Eid and having my Eid lunch at the langar, the world’s largest kitchen at the Golden Temple in Amritsar, Punjab.
The entire journey was an experience of a lifetime for me. It has brought about many personal changes and given rise to happy feelings and expressions in myself, including changes in my outlook and approach to life as a whole.