The Baid family from Bengaluru set off on a 111-days road trip on 2015-04-08 from Bengaluru to France through 11 countries and 50 cities in a Fiat Linea car.
In short, they lived a dream!
Team L.I.F.E. (Little Indian Family of Explorers) consisted of this family of five based in Whitefield in Bangalore - their two-year-old Fiat Linea T- Jet car is lovingly included. Anand Baid, 38, an animator/educator at Native Puppets with Punita Baid, 36, his wife and their kids Yash, 12, and Dhriti, aged 8. During the planning stage, the first question they inevitably got asked was if they can really reach France by road? Like, going completely on land?
They drove 14,154 miles by taking a picturesque route through Nepal, China, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Iran, Turkey, Greece, Italy, Switzerland (The Alps), Spain and finally France!
According to Anand it all started as a joke, when they were retuning from a 5,000 kilometre journey they had earlier undertaken through Maharasthtra, Gujarat, Rajasthan, and Madhya Pradesh. He just told the kids while nearing Hampi that the Indian journey was all part of a plan to go on a world tour in 2020. The thought of putting themselves and the kids through such a learning experience was exciting.
When Anand proposed the idea, Punita didn’t take it seriously. Nevertheless, she decided to say yes, though it didn’t sound like something do-able in the beginning.
Anand started reading up travelogues, contacting people who had driven similarly over vast stretches of land across countries. What they were planning to do was nothing compared to what others did. Many Indians have made such journeys, but they were probably one of the first families to do so. Their mission was to show people that people their age can do it, and do it on a budget. Anand quit his seven-year-old job as animator at Dreamworks Animation. Over a period of eight months, and an exchange of over 2,500 emails across travel sites and tour agencies, Anand figured things out.
Once Punita realised that the idea was shaping up seriously, her concerns grew — first that they were taking the kids, and second that they were vegetarian! One night she woke up and just worried aloud that what they would do about getting milk for the kids to drink! They then sorted out their food concerns. Food comprised of a major part of their luggage; clothes, they decided could be bought along the way. They planned that Punita will be driving through 30 per cent of the route.
Fiat Chrysler Automobiles India came on board as one of the main partners on their journey. Generous family and friends pitched in sponsoring various aspects of the journey. The plan was to look up online two weeks before they landed in a place to book their stay. They had taklken a camping tent along. They stayed back longer in places they liked more. A live crater in Turkmenistan is what they were all looking forward to seeing, as well as the journey from Greece to Italy where they and their car would be shipped across sea.
Dhriti was the linguist who learnt crucial phrases in the languages of the countries they drove through from the internet. She learnt to ask ‘Excuse me, do you know English? Can you help us please?’ Punita simply enjoyed the nature all along the drive. She also packed the board games they needed to play along the way. Yash, the football aficionado, dreamt looking at Spain. Yash was also the gadget-and-map guy for the tour. He was the official tent pitcher! He never forgot to take his all-essential football along, because they can also play in the car on their long journeys, he insists. The children who study in Deens Academy were given special permission to take of from school by their very supportive principal.
Highlights of the drive:
- Driving past the Himalayan mountain range in Tibet at 17,000 feet
- Climbing sand-dunes in Western China
- Witnessing temperatures from minus 6 to 42 degrees
- Sudden snow falls and swimming in the second largest lake in the world, in Kyrgyzstan
- Visiting the world’s largest burning crater, Darvaza,Turkmenistan
- Swimming in the world’s largest land-locked water body, Caspian Sea in Iran
- Seeing the unique landscapes of Turkey
- Experiencing the Italy’s beautiful architecture of Leaning Tower of Pisa, Vatican City and the Colosseum
- The Journey Ended at Paris by Visiting the Palace of Versailles and the Eiffel Tower.
The family opted to get back to India through flight. Their Car Shipped back home one month later, with the fifth member of family (the car) the Baid Family reunited once again.
What really were their expectations from this journey? The family is a believer of transcending and not arriving at a destination. They saw different landscapes, met local people. They heard their story and invited the Baids to stay with them. Language is a barrier, which makes it more exciting. Everything happened live in front of the kids and that’s the adventure. From the beginning I was clear that this would not be a trip to tick things off on a checklist. They never wanted to have an agenda. They had left to see what we like and enjoy it. Now that the journey has ended, Anand hopes they will have a full-fledged film based on this trip, which they hope a TV channel will pick up else, there’s always YouTube!
The family’s journey can be tracked on www.overlandstories.com. The Baids can be reached on overlandstories@gmail.com
