Motorcycling India (Part 1)

Hi! I am the Footloose Nomad, and I want to share some of my tales from the road with you all! This is my first tale. It is more like a photo journey, or a photo – log of my travel.

In 2013, I quit my corporate job to do something that I’ve always wanted: Ride around my country on a motorcycle. In June of the same year, I started my solo motorcycle journey across India. A journey of 8000 plus kilometers. While the number may sound big, I feel that I have barely scratched the surface of what else could be explored in this vast country. There is so much more!

In the summer of 2013, I felt that I was getting a little lost. I knew what I wanted to do, but I felt that I was waiting, delaying, and eventually, just dreaming. I  decided that I should go now, or never go. I loved riding motorcycles anyway, and this was what I figured I did do. The whole adventure took a month, and I saw many incredible places, met some incredible people, and faced challenges and difficulties that made me more confident and a little more footloose. I didn’t have any sponsors apart from a motorcycle showroom owned by a friend who helped me with the service and maintenance of the motorcycle.

I feel that this trip has defined who, and what I am today. Hopefully, the ride never ends, and I am inspired to do better things for the future. Maybe I can travel, not just for travel’s sake, but to pursue something that I believe is my calling, while helping someone, or some cause. That’s the plan.

Calling solitude as footloose, and redefining hardships as adventure, I hope you enjoy the visual images as much as I enjoyed seeing them with my own eyes. Cheers!

1. On the shores of the lake Pangong Tso, one of the final accessible parts of the Ladakh region before the Chinese occupied region of Aksai Chin. The view, almost 3800km since I left home. How did I get here?

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2. I left Bangalore with a seriously loaded bike

3. I stayed with some friends on the first night in Hyderabad. This was a lovely family.

4. It was time for some off-roading on the highways.

5. Getting lost in the mornings was a given. Sometimes, the wrong roads led to the right places.

6. The roads would often be long and straight…

7. Eventually, the capital, Delhi, beckoned…

8. Not the most filling breakfast for another long day on the road. The cold coffee was an added bonus.

9. Getting ready to hit the road. The ride would take me through a part of the ancient Grand Trunk Road.

10. Crossing Kurukshetra, the land of the Mahabharata.

11. A hot dusty ride later, I arrive at the India-Pakistan border.

12. The sun sets over Wagah Border, Amritsar.

13. The Golden Temple at Amritsar, the holiest of the holy places for the Sikhs.

14. Massive crowds at the entrance made me a spectator.

15. Entering Kashmir. Lost one of my gloves today and had to use the spare ones.

16. Non-existent national highways meant I had to take the fun route. The curves were fast and much welcome.

17. Stopped at Samba for breakfast after missing a collision with a camel. Rode between its legs and beneath its belly to save my ass from crashing.

18. At 6,640 ft, Patnitop had a chill in the air. The roads were fast and twisty.

19. Fast roads and fabulous views…

20. … such as the river Chenab winding its way across the valley…

21. … and sometimes, closer to the road.

22. Jawahar Tunnel en route to Srinagar. A traffic jam had us stuck for nearly 30 minutes. Not for the claustrophobic!

Part 2 can be found here

Check Suhas’s personal website here.