How Does It Feel To Travel Alone?

It’s nothing short of incredible!

In June 2017 I was going through a tough phase in my life. I was depressed and for two straight days I could do nothing at work. So one afternoon while I was sulking at office, I decided that I had enough and I decided to take my bike and ride through the Himalayas. And next day at 5:30 in the morning I was off to Lansdowne.

Just like that!

Without any planning or preparation. I just took a saddle bag from a friend, stuffed clothes and other ncessary items and left.

When my folks came to know about this, they were like what is wrong with you? They were worried that I might get washed out in the rain or will be crushed under the landlsides that are so common in the monsoons in the Himalayas.

But nothing of that sort happened. And I had an incredible journey that I will remember for the rest of my life.

So how does it feel? To travel alone without anyone with you?

In one word: Meditative

You are all by yourself. You have no backup. You know very well that if anything goes wrong no one will come to help you. You feel a little unnerved and afraid in the beginning, but then you let go. You don’t give a rat’s ass about anything. You are mentally prepared for anything that might come your way both literally and figuratively. You realise that you are insignificant in the larger scheme of things and you control nothing. Absolutely nothing. And you come out stronger of it.

And that’s when you understand an important aspect of life: That life is not about controlling it, it’s about living it!

You have all the time in the world to think about yourself and contemplate about what mistakes you made. You come out wiser of it.

You solve problems on the go. You appreciate any help you get. You understand the importance of relationships in life.

You don’t worry about calls, messages, facebook etc. Rather you talk to yourself.

You learn so many things in such a short time.

You don’t have to worry about other people’s tantrums about accommodation, food and comfort when you travel alone. Even if you get a maggi in a road side shop you are content and happy.

You meet incredible people who have so many stories to tell.

When someone helps you without expecting anything in return, you realise that the world is not so bad as it is made out to be. That there is so much good in this world. And you feel ashamed about that incident when you could have helped someone but you didn’t.

I started from Delhi and went to Lansdowne. From there I went to Govind Ghat and from there to Ghagaria Village or Govind Dham (Basecamp of Valley of Flowers and Hemkund Sahib). From there I trekked to Hemkund Sahib and Valley of Flowers. Then

I came back to Govind Ghat and from there I went to Badrinath and Mana (India’s last village). From Mana I went to Khirsu and from there I came back to Delhi.

I rode for 1300 Kms in 6 days. Alone.

Here are some pictures from my solo ride. I will write about my travels in detail in some other post.