May 062016
 

desi Travel Digest April 2016 Road Trip  Special

Curated by Ashwini Neetan

The April 2016 desi Travel digest is focused on road trips in India and Abroad, and travel blogger and avid road tripper Ashwini Neetan kindly agreed to curate the same. She shares 6 of her favorite travel bloggers that do a lot of road trips.  With the long summer vacation around the corner, I think this is the perfect time to go on the highways and enjoy the fresh air  of mountains or the sea breeze or that long-planned but never happened trip to the wildlife sanctuary.

Over to our editor and curator of the month : Ashwini Neetan:

 

Blogs are something which we all connect to in a greater degree than reading a magazine or a newspaper article. Mainly because of the people involved in those blogs – we strike a chord with them at some point, where we can relate ourselves to them. This is a Prima facie when it comes to the case of following travel blogs too and we are not any different! Bitten by wanderlust, we seek new places to discover and chance upon new roads to accomplish. Especially, our unchartered love for the road has made us stumble upon some of the blogs to which we can connect hands down! Road trips are our niche and it is a no-brainer that you can find the blogs mentioned here are related to journeys on the road. So, here we are with a list of blogs that has inspired us to take our own path and crave our own trail in this pretty place called Earth!

Please note that the blogs mentioned are in random order and not any kind of ranking

  1. Bruised Passports

Bruised Passports savi and vid

Savi and Vid

This was one of the first blogs I stumbled upon while searching for road trips abroad and I’m so glad I did! Savi and Vid are Indian expats living in London but right now, the road is their home. Puzzled?? Yes, they both quit their jobs and are on a Round the World trip! Crazy is the right word that describes them aptly. They just finished a New Zealand road trip and right now are cruising in Myanmar!

A small excerpt from an article in Mumbai Mirror that describe them perfectly in Savi’s own words: “We have driven with zebras in South Africa, carved our way through stalactites and stalagmites in Austria, cavorted with bedouins in the Sahara desert, grilled our dinner using heat from a volcano, befriended soldiers in Israel, and partied in a nuclear bunker in the Czech Republic. Years on the road have taught me one thing: You must be incredibly compatible with your travel companion of choice.”

Website:  http://www.bruisedpassports.com/  

 

 

 

  1. H. V. Kumar:

    HV Kumar Hivayking

    The HiVayKing Club

Well! As I mentioned earlier, blogs are a medium, but it is the people whom we follow. There are some people who are so well-travelled and so well-informed about places but are not in the blogging scene. One such gem is Mr.H.V. Kumar. He is famed as the Human GPS of India or the Hivay King and rightly so. Ask him the condition of any major road in India or the best route to travel to any place in India, he gives you the information even which Google cannot. He is a well-travelled soul, who selflessly helps people with suggestions on many major travel forums and expects nothing in return! The only thing we can give him back, if possible, is the update on the road condition of the places we travel. His achievements are aplenty; to name a few his drive from Bombay to Ladakh in Daewoo Matiz back in 2003, which he still owns till date and his partner in crime after Matiz is the 2005 model Mahindra Scorpio which has clocked a massive 4,70,000 km and still going strong!

Words can’t describe the greatness of Kumar Sir’s generosity. He has helped millions of people for their route itinerary, on the road issues and anything related to travel. We have taken our share of help from him too – on our 6,000 km drive from Bangalore-Rajasthan in 2012 and 10,000 km drive from Bangalore to Ladakh in 2013. He has also helped us many times on the road too with his invaluable suggestions and guided us in times when we were in a soup!

Though he doesn’t run a blog, he’s extremely active on his Facebook page, where he has now started initiatives to help people drive seamlessly with live road assistance across India and his team is his strongest support for this endeavor.

Website : http://www.hivayking.in

Facebook  Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/hvkumar/

 


desi Notes: HivayKing group was also featured earlier in this post about Top 10 Adventure Clubs in India  as a bonus entry to help our road tripper readers.


  1. YTravelblog:

Caz and Craig Makepeace Y travel blog

Caz and Craig Makepeace – YTravel Blog 

Meet Caz and Craig Makepeace, from Central Coast of Australia who caught the travel bug 16 years ago and call the world a home since then. For them, life is about accumulating memories, not just possessions and now they are creating those precious memories with their two daughters. As I mentioned earlier, at some point, we strike a chord with people who blog for some particular reason and start following them. The same was the case with me and Ytravelblog. They always travel with their two daughters and have globetrotted with them. This was something that inspired me and gave me the courage to travel with a very naughty and a cranky son. So, it is not a surprise if I say I am an ardent follower of their blogs for their road trips across the globe with 2 kids in the kitty!

Website: http://www.ytravelblog.com/

 

  1. The Satori saga

Shilpa Balakrishnan the satori saga

Shilpa Balakrishnan – The Satori Saga

Shilpa Balakrishnan  tells her travel tales in Satori Saga through her affectionate words with an artistic touch. She has a passion for telling stories through watercolors and digital wacom. She is an Indian brought up in Abu Dhabi and has had a brief stint in Bangalore for 2 years, currently in Melbourne exploring Australia’s hinterlands. She is an explorer and takes off on the road often with her husband Vishnu. They have biked across Ladakh, Bhutan and even motorbiked in Bali! Her recent backpacking trip to Maldives is the one I’m drooling on right now! Looking forward to seeing more of Australia through her eyes!

Website : http://the-satori-saga.com/

 

  1. Rear View Mirror

Andrea the rear view mirror

Andrea @ Rear View Mirror

I am so glad that I stumbled upon this blog! Andrea is an Australian who has lived in London, Paris and now settled in Budapest. She travels with her love, Ferbent, who equally shares her passion for traveling. She has travelled extensively over Europe by road to lesser known destinations and has shown us those quaint little places through her blog. Ah! Europe. So much to see, so little lifetime! That’s what I exactly feel while reading her blogs. I can connect more with her mainly because of two reasons – one being the obvious, road trips and the second is the Fiat connection. She is currently travelling all over Europe in her Fiat 500 and here, in India, we are showing amazing places to our humble little Fiat Punto!

Website : http://www.rearviewmirror.tv/

 


desi Notes  : The last but not the least entry for this edition of desi Travel digest is my dear friend and founder of Devil on Wheels community. Initially, I thought of skipping it for this edition as DOW has been featured here in past also. But then on second thoughts since a lot has changed in DOW, with more members and a new DOW app, so I thought let us feature Dheeraj bhai and the grand gang of Devils with love for the road once again. So Although I told Ashwini, DOW has already been featured here, before hitting the publish button I could not resist but add him here.

Below is what Ashwini has to say about Dheeraj Bhai and Devils


Devil on Wheels

Dheeraj Sharma

Dheeraj Sharma: Founder Devil on Wheels

Dheeraj Sharma is the man behind Devil on Wheels. What started as a travel blog has now grown into a full-fledged community of like-minded travellers.  Devil on Wheels is your destination if you are interested in travelling in the Himalayas. Dheeraj Sharma is a Software professional, a passionate traveller and his zest for driving has given us many new places to discover in the Himalayas. We relied upon ‘Devil on Wheels’ which gave us all information we wanted for our wonderful and safe Ladakh drive in 2013.

Website : http://devilonwheels.com/

DOW App:  Android

DOW App : iTunes  

 

ashwini neetan

Ashwini & Neetan

About author and curator 

Ashwini and Neetan are a wanderlust bitten couple who love to crunch miles through their road trips. For them, travelling is not just about seeing a place like a tourist, it is about feeling and experiencing it like a traveller. Experiences are what they vouch for and swear by. On Hopping Miles, they share their itineraries, experiences, know-hows, what to and what not to do, those little secrets and everything else that can save you a fortune! They hop to places unseen and you too are bound to hop with them. Just peep through their shoulders to see and experience the places like they do, though Hopping Miles. So what you waiting for, start hopping!

Website: www.hoppingmiles.com

 

 


Well, dear reader, with this we close our April 2016, desi Travel digest. I do hope that these blogs curated by Ashwini Neetam will inspire  you to hit the road, and if you notice that behind many a  roaming wheel there is a woman ?  So Hopefully this will inspire more women also to go out and hit the road. Enjoy your Road Trips.

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  2 Responses to “desi Travel digest April – Road Trip Special”

Comments (2)
  1. Great list here. I didn’t know of only two of them. Caz & Craig are my favourite too. They have lovely daughters who are equally comfortable with this kind of travel. 🙂

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