City Pulse

April 8, 2015, was probably an unremarkable day in the lives of many Bengalureans, but not for the Baids. This family of four, comprising animation mentor Anand Baid, his wife, Project Manager, Punita Baid and their two kids, Yash and Dhriti Baid, on April 8 embarked on one of the most important trips of their lives. They undertook a long and arduous trip from Bengaluru to Paris that lasted 111 days and covered 12 countries! The trip was covered on their one and a half-year-old Fiat Linea.

The idea came to Anand when he was on another road trip. “We were travelling in our car from Rajasthan to Bengaluru in 2013, and I jokingly told my kids that this trip was a warm up to the world tour that we will undertake in 2020. The idea stuck. After getting back, I did some research and found out that many people have undertaken such cross-country road trips. I started putting my thoughts together, and also read a lot of travelogues," says the 37-year-old.

Anand wanted to experience the landscapes and interact with people from other cultures in person. That yearning provided the fuel to undertake such a journey. 

Before starting his research for the journey, Anand had to get his family’s stamp of approval. “Initially my wife said yes only because she thought it was an impossible and impractical idea,” Anand chuckles. 

 “She knew had she said no I would have nagged her really bad,” he adds. Little did she know, Anand was dead serious.  “Even my mom did not believe in my plan till a month before our departure. She saw me running around for Visas, and that's when it occurred to her that I was serious,” he says.

“My wife saw the benefit of this trip and the immense exposure our kids will get. In her I have found a wonderful travel partner, and we have done our fair share of travelling. This time around we wanted to push the envelope and see where it takes us,” he says.

The open road and a car:

And push the envelope they did. This adventurous family left Bengaluru on April 8 and travelled through Nepal, China, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Iran, Turkey, Greece, Italy, Switzerland (Alps), Spain to reach Paris. 

The journey wasn’t an easy one and had its share of speed breakers. “When you set out, you are in a state of excitement, but when you suddenly hit a wall, you tend to contemplate. We did have our share of hiccups, getting caught at the Nepal-China border following the earthquake was the biggest stumbling block, but we didn’t doubt our plan at all,” Anand says.

The Baid family had a tough time on the Nepal-China Border. The epicenter of the devastating Nepal earthquake that took the lives of many was located just 200 kilometres away. “We were stuck at the border which had a high presence of the Chinese army. The earthquake forced us to halt at the border and we had to sleep in our car for five nights, and this pushed our schedule back by 15 days. The incident left us both mentally and physically exhausted,” reminisces Anand.

However, in spite of this setback, the family soldiered on. They were soon greeted by the beautiful and majestic mountains of Tibet, followed by Turkey.  “We did have a tough time entering Turkey. They have stringent policies at the border, and we were forced to unload everything from our car, which was a big task. They also wanted to inspect our car, which we felt was uncalled for. However the beauty of the place, and the warmth of the people completely negated the experience we had at the border,” he adds. 

Anand also adds that it is impossible to choose the best moment of the trip. “There are many, and it is hard to pick one.  The fact that we got 111 days of unadulterated family time was the highlight for all of us,” he says.  

Considering that the family was travelling with young kids, both Anand and Punita took precautions to ensure that the journey was both happy and safe. “Punita took care of everything. She made sure we had adequate medicines, which, fortunately, we didn’t have to use even once. We were sure that finding vegetarian food in many places would be an extremely difficult task, and so Punita also carried cooking equipment,” he adds.

Ample research was undertaken:

Thorough research was going to be the backbone of such a trip, and Anand made sure he did his homework well.  “Before embarking on the journey, I spent 220 days doing research. We had to understand the routes that we were going to take, kilometers we will be covering, and getting visa documents in order. It was an uphill task,” he says.  Anand will soon release a video that articulates the amount spend on the trip and the sponsors who were a part of the trip.

The family also made sure to get approval from their children’s principal. “The kids have 60 days of vacation. When we calculated we found out that in 60 days we would have only reached Iran. So we spoke to the principal of their school, Dean’s Academy, Shanti Menon.  She was very understanding and agreed to extend their vacation by two more months as she felt the kids would benefit immensely from such an elaborate journey,” he points out. 

Anand points out that the family will definitely undertake similar trips in the future. “However currently we have to catch up on pending assignments and work on improving our savings,” says Anand who quit his job prior to undertaking the journey. 

To know more about their Journey log onto their Facebook page.