Read the story of Bangalore to Paris - A road trip of Lifetime

“Road trip” is not just an ordinary word. It's an experience or should I say an emotional experience, well who knows it better than The Baid family who made a road trip from Bangalore to Paris, and yes you read it correctly. Team L.I.F.E (Little Indian family of explorers), Anand Baid, Founder and CEO of Native Puppets, along with his wife Punita, son Yash, daughter Dhriti, and the most important member, their car Fiat Linea went on to their journey of a lifetime.

The Origin Behind This Crazy Road Trip

No doubt the family loves traveling and had traveled on the roads of India and the US. So on one of their family trips to Rajasthan from Bangalore in their Fiat Linea, Anand jokingly told his kids that it’s a warm-up to their world tour. It might be a joke when he said but later he couldn’t really get this Idea out of his head. And Voila! Now we all know that the joke became history.

Preplanning (which includes family approval)

Such trips do not happen overnight. It requires a lot of planning as well as patience. So Anand did his fair share of research to make sure that it is possible to travel Overland. Firstly consent of all the family members. Then kids school approval. Contacting different embassies for Visas, deciding on the route, getting the vehicle ready, choice of destinations. An endless list of tasks to complete before the exciting journey, which also became a part of their daily conversations.

Get Set Go

Finally, after much wait and anticipation, team L.I.F.E in their Fiat Linea was all set to begin their historical trip. On the 8th of April 2015, they left from Banglore to Paris. They traveled to 11 countries and 50+ cities. Starting from India (Banglore) their journey moved through to Nepal, Tibet, China, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Turkey, Iran, Greece, Italy, and France.

Traveling such insanely long distances was truly an opportunity for them to witness nature and its beauty at its best. Not to forget about the warmth and kindness they received from a different culture and their people which made their journey worthwhile.

Crazy times

Journeys are a mix of both good and bad moments. Team L.I.F.E also had to experience such times. While driving through Nepal, they survived the most disastrous earthquake which happened on 25th April 2015. They got stuck there because of damaged roads and had to sleep in their car for 5 nights. Another incident was at the Turkey border where they had to remove all their luggage and wait for 3 hours at the border crossing. They also had to deal with the economic crisis which happened at that time in Greece. They overcame everything and moved ahead with happy faces as there was nothing that could stop this Fantastic Four.

Challenges

Every day was a new learning and a new challenge. Especially in foreign countries, it does get difficult, but as a usual team, L.I.F.E was prepared to fight all the challenges with a smile on their face. The family follows vegetarianism so food was the prime challenge, for such occasions, they stocked themselves with homemade savories and carried a portable gas stove with some utensils. So when in doubt they would cook their happy meal. Language being the second challenge, but even that was sorted with different signs or gestures. And now they have mastered the art of dumb charades.

Highlights of the trip

No doubt that the entire trip was the highlight, and will always stay fresh in their heart, still some moments were so stunning that it definitely deserves the spotlight.
Driving through the Himalayan mountain range in Tibet at 17000 feet.
Climbing the Sand Dunes high as mountains in Western China.
Experiencing the sudden change in temperature throughout the journey from -6 to 42 degrees.
Exposure to the rich and traditional culture of Uzbekistan.
In Turkmenistan, a visit to the largest burning crater called Darwaza, which has been burning for more than 40 years.
The Caspian sea in Iran the world’s largest land-locked body.
Landscapes of Turkey formed with volcanic and wind erosion are Unique on their own
The architectural marvels of Rome are centuries old like the Leaning Tower of Pisa, Vatican City, Colosseum.
Driving on the worlds highest bridge in France - Millau Viaduct
The ultimate highlight was in reaching Paris and visiting the Palace of Versailles and the Eiffel Tower where the epic adventure-journey came to an end.

A famous saying “All good things come to end”. They ended their historical journey on 28th July 2015 and received a grand welcome at the Banglore airport by Family and friends.

Their journey lasted for 111 Days, covering about 23000 km. It truly was an emotional moment for the entire family as they reached their final destination. The daily hustle and adventure became a part of their lives. Getting back to the mundane routine sounded challenging to them. But they feel lucky to have witnessed the beauty of mother nature, the architectural marvels of man-kind, both modern and centuries-old that are of great historical importance.

Do check out their page for some more stunning pictures of their journey.
www.OverlandStories.com or facebook.com/OverlandStories

Author - Nupur Choudhury

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