Namastey,

This is us, Deepak Chauhan aka DK (a self-taught photographer) & Bhishma Choudhary (a startup guy who quit his job for traveling), who have traveled 30,000km in around 300 days across India on Royal Enfield Bullet and are still running.

Deepak Bhishma

Here is a short poem which I wrote during this journey and describes the reason why we love to travel (Bhishma this is the secret 🙂 ).

I wish I could fly, Over the ocean Into the sky

Touch the star, Sleep on cloud all night

Wake up with sun’s first light, Take a bath in waterfall so high

Spread my wings, Blow away with the wind

Across the horizons, Into the wild

Make my home far away on lonely roads, Where river sing on mountains tunes

I wish I could fly, Over the ocean Into the sky

Why am I writing this post?

I wanted to keep my journey and photographs to myself. I thought one day I will put these photos on my wall, but now I have a couple of reasons that made me write this blog and share my photos

Last month, I met my brother during this trip, who said: “Don’t do it for others but do spread the love”. So I thought I would write down my story for one & all. Our funds are exhausting now. So, if you think after reading this blog that we should keep doing what we love to do. Please support our journey and motivate us for writing and sharing more stories & photos. My email id is dkchauhan2k7@gmail.com. In case you want to contribute financially, I can share the bank account details over email or WhatsApp (9412074349)

How this road trip started?

Around a year ago, on 16th December 2014, I received a call from my friend Bhishma asking me to join him for a long road trip on his new Royal Enfield Bullet. I suggested him a Pan India road trip but he was ready for South India only. I thought, after South India, I will move alone to cover remaining parts of India. So without giving a second thought I booked my flight and came to Mumbai. But there was one problem, Bhishma didn’t know how to ride a motorcycle. Even I was not sure how it will turn out, but on 27th December we were on road moving towards Goa as we thought it would be a nice idea to start our trip with the new year in Goa. And Mumbai-Goa highway was the first road where Bhishma tried this motorcycle.

Map of places we covered

Where did we get money for this trip till now?

I had been working full-time during the journey for a multinational software company as a software testing engineer (I have quit my job now as I want to only travel for next few years) and my friend Bhishma had saved some money (he too is free now) while working for a startup (BOX8 in Mumbai, do check out their food if you are in Mumbai, they serve delicious food ).

We used to ride from morning 5am/6am to 11am. Then I would start working on my laptop from wherever we might have reached till 5pm while my friend being a Bookoholic used to read books during this time. I have worked from temples, gardens, beaches, mountain tops, highways and even for few days from Leh.

The preparation we made?

Beat your ass with a wooden bat 6 times a day and each time for 10 minutes. To get that iron bum. Jokes apart, we didn’t make any route plans or preparations before leaving Mumbai. From safety perspective, we had one helmet each (that too was bought after our first accident. Before that, we used to have the only one which I would wear on backseat when Bhishma was learning). We used to ride in flip-flops, jeans, and t-shirt. (We were not trying to be a superman but actually didn’t have money to buy the safety gears).

But we had some rules for this trip

We will keep on moving whatever happened. If someone wants to quit, other will keep on moving as long as he wants. If we have a fight during this trip, we will resolve it by evening and with next sunrise, we will be back on the road. We will never drink and drive, even if we are the only one on road.

Budget per day?

When we were on 1 bike, our budget was 1000rs per day for two persons including food, night stay & petrol. After having two bikes it increased to around 1500rs per day. And when I was traveling alone, I tried to keep everything under 1000rs per day even if I have to skip night meals.

About 200 photos which I have used in this blog

I love taking photographs and although I have Nikon d5100 DSLR with 18-55 kit lens, I prefer to take photos from the phone (Lumia1020). I have thousands of photographs taken from DSLR and phone, but here I am sharing some selected photos taken from my phone. Lumia 1020 takes 2 photos, a 5MP and a 38MP photo. I have edited only 5MP photos for this blog which I guess most people with smartphones have. So here is my journey through 200 Mobile photos

Journey

The journey started from Mumbai to Goa. We didn’t choose the NH & instead went for SH which passes through small villages has scenic views and is mostly empty. On this road, for the first time in my life, I had seen a sunrise which I used to see only in photographs, a new world waking up as sun rays trying to penetrate through the fog. That day we decided we will not take NH unless we have less time to reach a destination or NH is the only route.

While exploring Goa and nearby places

I still remember the feeling we had on reaching Goa after riding through forests & small villages and taking 3 ferries to cross rivers. It felt like an achievement when we had just covered 500km. So it was time to celebrate with beer and friends.

One thing which you don’t want to miss in Goa is the beautiful sunset. Goa was also the first place of our trip (& my life) where we camped.

From Goa, we started moving towards Hampi via Dandeli, Badami, Aihole, Pathadkal. We had heard these names in our history books but seeing those temples took us back in time. I wish history was taught by travel and not by books

kaali river dandeli on highway to badami state highway to dandeli suggsted by local on Our way to hampi state highway to dandeli suggsted by local

Then we reached Hampi, the place we fell in love with. I have never seen a sunrise and sunset so beautiful like I did in Hampi. Here I will share one photo from DSLR.

Hampi is one of the most beautiful places I have seen in India. Infinite stretches of rock boulders everywhere, a blue sky with no pollution & a beautifully peaceful atmosphere. It felt like we were in heaven.

rocks hemple of hampi sunset at peddy fields of hampi

And one evening, this guy took my office seat. In Hampi, the mobile network is not so great, so I used to climb this small rock mountain daily for my office work (i came to know later that this is also one of the many sunset points there). Life is painful sometimes but it only adds to memories.

Here is one picture as a warning message from my side. Like selfie obsessed people, I am obsessed with my shadow pictures.

After spending few days in Hampi, living like hippies and exploring all the possible places in Hampi, we started moving towards Kerala via Chikkamagaluru, Ooty, Coorg and whatever came in our way through the beautiful western ghats. By this time we had realized that we were not wandering to follow google maps’ ‘best route’ or ‘suggested route’. So we used to search for routes which were less preferred route shown by google map to reach our next destination.

baba budhangiri

coorg ooty

We had almost no experience of trekking or camping but it started with goa and we camped wherever we liked. Sometimes on mountains, sometimes on the beach and sometimes even in the jungle.

And this is how we peaced out after burning wheels on road.

From coorg we started moving towards Kerala and I started realizing why they call it god’s own country. I had heard many stories, but what I saw was beyond words or photos.

Kerala is known for tea gardens & backwaters but the beaches here are amazing too. It felt like god comes every evening on the beaches of Kerala to paint the sky. I thought I had seen amazing sunsets and sunrises, but the colorfully painted skies here amazed day after day.

After camping at highest peak of Tamil Nadu (Ooty) and Karnataka (Mulayangiri) how could have we left the Kerala. So we camped again on the highest peak (Top station, not the highest peak but pretty high nevertheless). But this time we didn’t realize we will be above clouds .

Another amazing thing about this Kerala is how entire state is established. Its a continuous urban area with no empty patches on road anywhere. It felt that our destination without ever having left our starting city / place.

camping in kerala

top station , munnar kovalam beach kerala

From Kerala we started moving towards the Southern tip of India (Kanyakumari).

Sometimes not following google map can put you in troubles like this.

We reached Kanyakumari, the place where Vivekananda got enlightenment, the place where 3 oceans meets and the place where Gandhi ji wished his ashes to be brought to.

Next stop was Rameshwaram. According to religious scriptures Rameswaram is the Southern most tip of India & also one of the 4 dhaam. We just couldn’t miss it.

Kanyakumari – rameshwaram highway

They say its not destination but journey which is important. I think we can confirm this saying. We never had a plan and we never reached our destination on time. So we found ourself enjoying the journey more than destinations.

The interiors of rameswaram’s famous temple and longest bridge in India .

inside rameshwaram temple sunrise on rameshwaram beach

pamban bridge rameshwaram

Even the flood ruined place (dhanus kodi) has many stories to tell, One just need to observe.

on our way to dhanuskodi ruin town of dhanus kodi

From Rameshwaram we went towards Bangalore via Maduai, Thanjavur, Kumbakonam , Pudducherry, Mahabalipurar, Chennai, Vellore.

While going back to Mumbai from Bangalore we met an accident or should I say the trophy for Bhishma. When you are learning to ride, you should not be afraid to fall. Just hope your accident to be a safe one. And we were lucky to have a small one near Gokarna after which we bought one more helmet.

peace time near river

We returned to Mumbai after completing 8300 km across south India. And at this time bhishma had changed his plan and wanted to cover everything till kashmir. So took a few days rest and we started moving towards west

juhu beach mumbai juhu beach mumbai

Here is a short video of our first 8300km in south India.

After Covering most of the South India we headed towards the west part of India to cover Gujarat and Rajasthan. These two states are the most colorful ones I have seen yet. We were really impressed by the beauty and colorful architecture of South but the West had something different in store for us.

Gujarat amazes you with its modernity & development. But the best we liked about the state is daily ritual of people coming out from home for post dinner gola, soda, ice cream, paan & what not.

vadodara gir forest area

One should always go for Gujarati thaali when in Gujarat, so we tried the famous Sasu ma ki rasoi in Surat.

By this time our story was so interesting that we were able to enter palaces by sharing it with the management.

When in Gujarat, tracing gandhi’s ji footprint was must for us. So we visited his home and his ashram.

on our way to porbandar meanwhile doing office work i captures something

By this time, having visited so many temples and religious places, we were more religious than ever. Then came our visit to the 2nd Dhaam – ‘Dev Dwaraka’.

dev dwaraka dwaraka ghaat

We were in Gujarat during the summers but were amazed to see the morning of Saurastra. It was cold with a very low visibility due to fog.

When on a road trip for so long, you start playing with your food. Here I would like to introduce you to Mr Dk dabeli and Mr. Bhishma dabeli

and my obsession with shadows was getting higher

Somewhere on highway at stepwells

And finally we landed in Rann of kutch, where you will see nature manifest itself in a uniquely beautiful form.

on way to rann of kutch rann of kutch

We didn’t find a place to camp , but found unknown hosts who not only gave us place to stay but provided with food. We shared stories with this old man who used to cross border to meet his relatives in Pakistan taking directions from stars.

After completing around 3,500 km across Gujarat we then headed towards Rajasthan. Forced by our habits, we followed the route not shown by google, but this time is was dangerous than we had imagined. We entered into aravali ranges at around 3 pm and spent some time wandering and looking for a tree which has around 50,000 horses kept by local tribal people (known as bakhar baba).

Initially we were surprised to see villagers running away from our cameras but we slowly realized that this route was not favorable for outsiders. And it was getting dark. But we survived & kept on moving towards Udaipur.

Stayed at zostel (who also sponsored our stay at Vadodara & Jodhpur). I have say (regardless of their support) that they are the best hostels for back packers in India. Our rajasthan tour started with udaipur and I feel it was the best place to start your road trip in rajasthan.

udaipur lake 1 udaipur lake

We were again lost on highway trying to search for places in rajasthan and found more than we expected.

chitthorgadh fort somewhere on highway near a dam chittorgadh fort sunset

There were some places which a lot of people suggested not to visit, but we went anyway. One such place was chittorgadh fort.

When on a bike, a garage should be in list of places to work from. So i worked from this guy’s garage while our bike underwent its services.

We had not used appropriate safety gears during our trip, so a visit to the famous bullet temple was must for us.

We were always amazed by the colors and culture of rajasthan. A land full of forts and palaces.

First thing which strike my mind when I think about about rajasthan is Thar. So no one can even think of skipping the Jaiselmer. As we were there during summer, we were able to roam around only in morning from 5am till 10am after which it was unbearable to go out.

Sleeping in the peaceful desert under a sky full of stars away from city was one thing which we liked most. Since the sand was really hot we didn’t camp & used the buggies as our beds.

sand dunes safari bhishma sleeping

The haunted village of Kuldhara looks beautiful in morning.

Another temple which surprised us was Karni mata mandir (rat temple), where one can see thousands of rats everywhere. Someone told us not to step onto those rats otherwise people inside temple will kill us.

When you have so much heat you loose your mind. So we decided to cover 400km from Jaiselmer to Bikaner in afternoon when temperature outside was 45 degree Celsius. Taking stop every 25km, throwing water on our bullet and our faces, we even got stuck in a sandstorm. But needless to say the ride was beautiful.

On our route we went to pushkar, ajmer, bundi and finally ended up in jaipur

bundi fort bundi fort

And a place which I can never forget. The first time I stepped outside my home to a new city

Sunrise from pushkar is also one of the most memorable ones

Sunrise at pushkar

After completing our 16,000 kilometer we were like this

Here is our video of rajasthan and gujarat

After completing rajasthan it was time to raid the Himalayas. We were not sure if we would be able to do it on a single bike. Also, Bhishma had learned to ride perfectly. So I bought one more 2nd hand bike from a friend in Delhi. And we started moving towards Uttarakhand.

I met many babas during this uttrakhand trip, came to know different stories from them . Some of them became baba because of past criminal records but there were few who have reached the extreme level of spirituality.

Then I met a traveler baba on a tea shop in Tunganath. I didn’t have a place to sleep there, so I slept in the same tea shop with baba and tea shop owner.

Baba told me his travel story and about his life. He used to work in Mumbai as a security guard & one day left everything and started traveling. He never asked for money or food from anyone but took whatever bhiksha people gave. He just kept on walking across the Himalayas. He said he could walk 25km with one cup of tea. He used to smoke a lot of weed but that doesn’t affect him a bit. He asked me to accompany him to chandrashilaa for sunrise. I was happy to go with him as he had many stories to tell . I started 15 before him , the time he took to smoke weed and he was at chandshilla top 15 minutes before me. He just kept of walking without any break and that too taking shortcuts which were very very steep.

I once asked a baba, why a Hindu must see 4 dhaam in his life. He told me, no one has ever said to see those 4 dhaams. Its called 4 dhaam yatra (travel), which means one should travel to 4 dhaam once in his life. Since these are located on east, west, south and north corners of India, one gets to travel through the lenght & breadth of India.

There was small village also known for being the last Indian village. Sometimes getting to know the local make you wonder what people in cities are running for. Here are people living happily in small homes weaving.

I was not well so I took a break of 3 weeks after visiting Badrinath, while my friend Bhishma searched almost every corner of Uttarakhand.

Mana village uttrakhand Towards the highest shiva temple in world(tunganath peak )

After getting well we started moving towards the bigger Himalayas and everyone’s dream road trip of leh. From delhi we decided to take 2nd route towards leh passing through shimla, pooh, nako, kaza and spiti valley.

After shimla , the beauty of nature was beyond words. Sunset and sunrise makes you feel like sun is burning those mountains

The road was one of the most dangerous road but needless to mention the most beautiful too . This is the road which teaches you how to believe in yourself. A small mistake on this road will send you to oblivion. As the BRO boards say ‘Dont be a Gama, in the land of lama’.

Remotly located beautiful village chitkul Nako

But the mysterious nature will make you pause and let you ask questions from yourself. Seriously, how is this possible? One such place is Dhankar. A monastery located on sand mountains. It never rains here place because if it does then everything will wash away.

The road to leh is also known for many stupas. One can find the stupas and Buddhist flag on most random places but its beautiful nevertheless.

stupa on lake near dankar on our way to kumsum pass

The beautiful nature amazes you in a way that you wont realize how time and distance are passing. You start believing in yourself when at night you recall what you saw crossing those dangerous roads.

Sunset view over sand mountains near kaza Near kaza , spiti valley

Things which are made for these mountains: road roller and royal enfield bullet

When in the land of Lamas, we prefrred staying in monasteries to understand their culture better and got lucky to see their once in a year prayer

Lama worshiping during annual prayer lamas doing Annual prayer near key monastery

Although we know lamas don’t indulge much but when they do, they go for a picnic in heaven.

Wherever you go, wherever you point your camera, you will always have something beautiful to add onto your memories wall

Lost in mountains towars kibber, asia’s highest altitude village

Kids are always cute but young lamas are the cutest kids.

For Pin valley, people suggested us not to visit it as it’s not worth it. We went to check by ourself and all I can say is go everywhere on the himalayas, they are always beautiful.

There is a time when you just keep staring at the mountains, not sure if you are high due to less oxygen or hallucinating visuals.

Sunset over mountains Sunset over mountains

On the road to Leh, one thing which always gives you confidence to ride more is when some unknown biker crossing you signs a thumbs up. I don’t know if its a best of luck or well done. But it definitely boosts up your confidence. A silent gesture which says keep moving my friend.

This confidence will take you to highest passes easily but when you look back your soul will say: Seriously?

This road not only brings you closer to nature but also lets you understand humans better, that is, if you take time out and stop by the people who are living in these areas.

I really wish to thank the guy who made panorama possible. Sometimes you wish to capture everything in your photo.

We remember Kargil and Kashmir only for violence. But one needs to visit these places to know better.

Near lamayuru View of beautiful Kargil town

Although i have shared this route through my phone photographs, this place actually needs you to take out your DSLR to capture the surprise of nature waiting for you.

Here is my short photo collage which I created using most of my dslr pics and some phone pics as well with background music as Buddhist prayer

After reaching Srinagar, it started raining, so we didn’t take many stops in between. Just before reaching Jammu my bike broke down (silencer came out of engine 😀 ). Also, Bhishma decided to go for work again to build OMO Electric cycles and Manual Cycles which was his childhood dream as it has been 6 months since we were traveling on bullet. So I was left alone with my enfield. Found a good mechanic in jammu and I was on road again within 2 days.

Then I started moving towards east via Punjab, Delhi again, UP, MP, Bihar, Jharkhand.

I entered Punjab via pathankot and went to Kapurthala. I had no idea what to visit as bhishma used to plan our travel, so I went directly to Amritsar to visit the famous golden temple gurdwara first.

That point of time I decided to take a round trip of punjab and later move towards kolkata. But somewhere on highway I was stopped by police for checking. After showing everything in my luggage and telling my story, one of the policemen suggested me to visit all historical gurdwaras. I liked the idea and on his suggestion started covering Tran taran gurudwara, Faridkot sahib, muksar and kept on searching for gurdwaras.

mukstar gurudwara muktsar gurudwara

I had heard about free accommodation in gurudwaras, so i tried it in golden temple but since i was alone on a weekend and some terrorist activity had happened there, I didn’t get accommodation. But later, I got accommodation in other historical gurudwaras. Sometimes you get good accommodation while other times you need to manage in as minimum as possible. But one thing is sure, if you are in need, a sardar will always help you

I initially visited gurudwars just like normal temples but later i started getting involved in seva activities like cleaning carpets, washing plates and serving food. And that brought in my heart, a great respect for all sikh people around the world.

I enjoyed listing to gurubani although i don’t understood it. And if there was a pond in the Gurudwara, I would just listen to gurubani from beginning till end sitting close to pond.

Although I was alone roaming on highway but every time i saw a sardar, I felt like I am not alone. This unknown sardar will help me anytime. So I kelp moving ahead.

I was amazed to see the love of sardars for their farms. I was even suggested by few sardars in gurudwaras to stop my bike trip and buy a farm. No doubt, this is the greenest state I have visited so far. I felt like not riding an Enfield but sailing in a green ocean.

and while roaming around in punjab I also realized the meter wire of my bike is like a lifeline I always kept looking into. So i removed the meter wire and threw it away. So no more looking into the meter and checking how fast i am riding and how much distance is left. I just used to keep approximate count of distance I traveled as I needed to service my bike after 3000km

One must visit as many gurudwaras as possible in his life because these sardar have so much to teach to this world, one just needs to observe.

bhatinda gurudwara

Moving from bhatinda, patiala and many more gurudwara i finally reached ananad pur sahib. Where actually I came to know about the reason of all historical gurudwars when i visited anandpur sahib museum.

After anandpur sahib, i decided to end my punjab tour and started moving towards Up via chandigadh, delhi.

Some people say yamuna express highway is the most beautiful and one should have a road trip here in his life. So i took this highway for my journey to mathura and agra. This is the only highway in India where I was asked for toll tax. The closest ATM was around 60km away. So I asked for some money from truck driver but 100 rs was big and he said no. Luckily i found a guy on motorcycle who gave me 110 rs toll tax money and later after listening my story he didn’t ask for return.

After visiting mathura i went straight towards the most beautiful and one of the 7 wonders of world “The taj mahal”.

Sunset at Taj Mahal Sunrise at Taj Mahal

Spent beautiful time in agra and again thanks Zostel for hosting me. I left this beautiful place. Maybe one day I will come with my life partner and that day I will be able to feel the love story which every little stone of taj mahal was trying to tell me

Next place was jhaasi, where the great queen fighter came from. Later i found she was born in varanasi and came here after her marriage. After jhansi, my next stop was gwalior where i went straight to the gurudwara “datta bandhi chhod” inside the fort which, I guess, is the best place to enjoy beautiful city view.

gwalior fort datiya fort

On highway I came in contact with people who do real dangerous jobs so we can have electricity at home. We have a habit of complaining, never realizing how many small drops were added into our bucket so we can have sufficient things to survive.

Then Khajuraho. Now, most people know these only for erotic sculptures but one should move his focus and look how beautiful they have been made. Each statue of these temple is trying to tell its own story but most people prefer to see what these temples were actually never meant for.

Temples of khajuraho Inside of khajuraho temple

From khajuraho I went towards varanasi via chittrakoot and allahbad. Being born in haridwar , I get nostalgic when i visit ghats. They are almost same everywhere and remind me of my home

Ghats of Chittrakoot Sangam allahabad

and after visiting sangam in allahbad I finally arrived this beautiful city ” Banaras”.

This city has a magnet which attracts every human soul. I have visited this place many times but always wait for my next trip to this place. A special thanks to roobaroo walk for introducing me to so many unknown stories of Banares.

assi ghaat banaras assi ghaat banaras

One of the most difficult task during this journey was to make indian wrestlers laugh for photographs. You ask them for more smile and they will challenge you in the ring

Now that spirituality had already reached its maximum, I decided to visit the old city of ayodhya. This is one city which is still untouched. The temples, houses and dharmashals around here were so old one could feel the presence of god in this city.

Here, a sadhu baba on ghats suggested me to visit few places in Bihar.

Bihar is always consider as a place for hard working people. While chatting with a tea shop owner, he said “biharis are most hard working people in India who love to do job instead of complaining, if you stop people from bihaar going out, India cant survive. People say small shop owner , rikshawala , auto driver are mostly from bihaar. Imagine if these people had not gone out of bihar. Will an engineer graduating from mumbai or delhi be willing to do these jobs. To run a society, everyone can’t sit in office . “.

When talking about bihar everyone says about its jungle raj, but i didn’t find anything here. It might be so 20 years ago but that little past has ruined the image of a great bihar which had existed for ages. And yet we know bihar as the land of buffaloes

If one goes back in time and try to realize the history of bihaar, one can never neglect bihaar like we do these days. Gautam budh was born in bihar(lumbini, nepal now) traveled across bihar , got enlightenment in bihaar and even took his last breath in bihaar(khushinagar, now in UP). The last guru of sikh religion, guru govind singh was born in bihar near ghaats of ganaga. Patna or old patlipurta, was the capital of Magadh, one of the greatest kingdoms the world has ever seen. Nalanda university, the ancient university where people from across world used to come for studies was here. And there are many other stories of bihaar which one needs to listen to before accepting the recent image of bihaar

Place where budha took his last breath (khusinagar , utter pradesh) bodh gaya , Bihaar

One which confuse me a lot is the trust of people on god. One such story about black budha of old nalanda university – As per the young priest , people don’t visit doctor when their children are born unhealthy. They prefer to come to budha and pour ghee and curd on his body and their children get well in no time

After having a good impression of bihar, i started moving towards jharkhand. If you can see forests getting closer, it means you are entering Jharkhand. I went directly to my friend’s place in hazaribagh passing jhumri taliya .

I left my bike at hazaribagh and took a break of around a month. My friend asked me for help in shooting a short movie (i have too many dreams to be completed in one life :)). Meanwhile I again got a call from my friend bhishma .

Once you are bitten by travel bug , you can’t breath in big city or any city with any job. Bhishma asked me to join again and so I went to mumbai after finishing my movie and we started from mumbai again on one bike.

Igatpuri to nashik highway Together again towards east

We decided to go to nasik first but found a place called trimbak and since we always prefer not to follow our initial plan, so we decided to visit this place .

Trimbak is also home to Trimbakeshwar temple, which is a jyotirlinga.

Roam around a little more to explore this place and we fell in love with this place

on trek to bhramgiri sunset point near trimbk

On reaching Naasik, we found it to be a big citiy with clean roads, minimum traffic & beautiful ghats.

The reason I wanted to visit nasik more was because of my love for wines. So we visited sula wine yard, had a tour of wine factory and came to know about the story of the guy behind this great enterprise.

sula wine yard sula wine yard high at sula wine yard

From nasik we went to anjanta and Elora caves , which is again one of the most beautiful places of historical importance. If one waits for the perfect light to fall on these statues , he can feel the statues coming to life

Main temple of ellora caves Artwork inside ellora caves

And since by this time Maharashtra has developed a new image in our mind , so we decided to explore near by places too.

Sunset near aurangabad

From aurngabad we decided to cover the remaing places of south India and started moving towards Nanded. During my trip , the baba i met at ayodhya had told me about this place. He had suggested me to visit this place . I was not sure how different it will be from other gurudwaras but I was more than happy with this place. The best part which I will remember was the light and sound show. We were just spellbound and didn’t blink for 30 minute during that show where history of sikh religion is projected through light on water fountains with sound.

From Nanded we left for hyderabad

We didn’t explore much around Hyderabad but kept on eating the whole time because they say you cant be hungry in hyderabad at anytime (great food available almost 24 hours). So we ate 4 times a day and during evening we used to visit golconda fort, pick a place on the top and wait for sunset

Golkonda fort hyderabad Inside Golkonda fort

From Hyderabad we started moving towards Vijayawada & decided to enjoy our Diwali on highway. We had no idea that it will be better than enjoying at home or any other city. The road crossing villages where people lit their houses using small oil lamps instead of lights. When crossing a city we enjoyed the firecracker show with a lovely view.

kid who sold us the mask used on truck back side which we have on our bike now. although its same thing

Finally we reached Vijayawada at 11 pm on Diwali night. I had heard this place name but didn’t know it will be such a beautiful place. Also this was the only place where I could enjoy sunrise without trekking a mountain.

sunrise at vijaywada

This place also got us addicted to irani chai. Now even if we don’t get irani chai, we prefer to drink any tea almost 10 times a day.

From vijaywada we started moving further east and came to Rajahmundary. This is a city which is very less known in south India but have so much to show, one just need to find out. I have been to ganga aarti at my hometown haridwar, banaras many time but this aarti was really great. I never expected it to be such a place. Later we found, this is also cultural capital of andhra pradesh.

As I told you , when i see ghats , i get nostalgic. So I just kept roaming around ghats and collecting more memories

3 musketeers at rajahmundary post sunset sunset at rajahmundary

From rajahmunday we left for vizag on one the most beautiful highway we have came across. Paddy fields stretching till infnity with their colors changing from light yellow to green to dark green.

Finally we reached vizag. Since tamil nadu was flooded so neighboring city vizag got affected too. We stayed in vizag for few days to get weather cleared. We liked this city and felt that it is the best city to live in india. One can enjoy ocean and mountains. Such a big city and yes so cleaned and no traffic.

View of vizag from kailashgiri park vizag Night view of vizag city from kailasagiri park vizag Street food at Beach road Vizag

And the best thing is junno(sweet dish from andha). It made me nostalgic again as it tasted similar to kheesh (my grandmother used to make kheesh from first milk of cow who just gave birth).

From vigaz we started moving towards odisha via aaraku valley. I only knew araku for the million year old caves where you can find structures similar to humans, made out of years of deposit of minerals. But aaraku was again just more than that. The sunset we enjoyed on our way can’t be express in words nor expressed in pictures . I just have one picture before sunset when we took a break when this magnetic church attracted our soul.

From aaruku we entered into odisha and again this road was one which we kept on enjoying until we reached bhrampur, odisha. The best thing I like on this highway apart from beautiful scenic view was home made umbrella of shepherds.

Life on highway

and as usual journey is always beautiful

sunset on highway to Odisha life on highway People on highway to odisha

Odisha, not sure about the reason why, is considered as a poor state. It felt like everywhere farmers are very hard working, didn’t find a dry field anywhere. Also the big cities like bhubhaneshwar are really well maintained. I felt like people are still following the old image of this state like they do for bihaar.

We started visiting temples in bhubhneshwar and fell in love with the architecture. Later we found out this city has 700 such temples and that’s the reason this is also called as temple city of india.

and when you reach east cost, don’t miss the rising sun even if you are not going out and sitting on your room windows

We missed a colorful festival in bhubhneshwar by one day which was to happen at bindu sagar.

My next target in odisha was to see the legends of first light falling on sun temple gate. So I visited this temple and waited from morning 5 o clock when it was complete dark and it turn out to be true.

And I was lucky enough to experience konark dance festival

Traditional dance at konark festival Dance at Konark festival

and the international sand art festival . Where artists put life into structure made of sand

One more place which I visited was cuttack . A small town where netaji subha chand bose was born . This small town used to be capital of Odisha but can’t expand as it is surrounded by river from all sides.

And finally, I visited jaganath puri temple of konark, the 4th Dhaam, finally completing all 4 dhaam on bullet in a year. From puri I started moving towards my last destination of odisha: Chandipur beach where nature will surprise you again. The Ocean recedes 1-4km everyday. If you don’t know swimming and still want to go inside ocean miles away from mainland, this is the place.

chandipur beach odisha Rare chandipur beach of odisha

From chandipur, I started moving towards my college covering Jamshedpur , Ranchi and reached ISM Dhanbad. As they say “My alma mater”. Place where I met my partner in crime for this road trip.When I started this trip I thought this place will be the end of trip, but now i feel its just starting.

Now After submitting my laptop and officially without a job from December 21th 2015, we are planning to cover northeast, Bhutan and south-east Asia on our bike.

After leaving my job I left for Bhutan and northeast India. Read the journey on my latest post about 150 days in northeast India On a Motorcycle without Job

And here is one more bullet poem, in case you want to know what will I do after above-planned trips

The Bullet poem

I am a wanderer searching for my soul

Roaring on highways with my bullet all alone

Never knew my destination, Don’t know my location

Lost on highways to explore the unexplored civilization

Photographs are my worship, Music is my religion

I don’t pray to god, I just believe in being human

Talk to the clouds, Follow the birds

I wish they guide me to a place I can call homes

Moon is my friend who comes at night

He tells me story about the stars in sky

I sleep before I could count all-stars

Dream about the next destination which is miles far

I am a wanderer searching for my soul

Roaring on highways with my motorcycle all alone

Links to get regular updates about our trips

Facebook page link

https://www.facebook.com/lonelyindia

Instagram link

https://instagram.com/lonelyindia

http://instagram.com/mybulletpoints

PS: Bhishma is creating a new website for travel information and experience we had. I will update the link as soon as website is ready

PSS: My email id is dkchauhan2k7@gmail.com , in case you want to contribute to my future journey. I can share the bank account details over mail or whatsapp (9412074349)

Read here my journey 150 days in northeast India On a Motorcycle without Job