Around half the world in 40 days?

Drupad Mistry, a design consultant, had been living in London, but when he decided to return back to India, he chose a rather adventurous journey.

Ditching the boring old flight, he decided to travel only by public transport and took 12 trains, 35 bus rides, local shuttles, taxis, cycle and bike rides, and even camels to reach India. Sounds quite exciting, doesn't it?

He ended up travelling across 14 countries and 8 time zones, covering a distance of about 21,000km in 40 days. But, he wasn't alone; he brought along two friends – Raul and Vanetia – on this adventurous journey. 

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According to him, this was an incredible opportunity as “it is essential for a designer to travel through different countries and experience the culture for widening his perspective.” He added, “The designer can provide right solutions only when he can understand the people across the world. Sometimes, tiny things from villages can give you great ideas.”

The trio didn't prepare for the trip that much, except for the essential stuff like visas and train tickets, and embarked on their journey on May 25. 

© Deccan Herald

He obviously travelled through a lot of beautiful places, but he admitted that the beauty of Baikal Lake in Siberia remains etched in his mind.

Mistry said, “We met different kinds of people throughout our journey but I liked Tibetans the most.”

With Mistry himself is a sarod player, and his friend Raul being a flautist, these music enthusiasts ended up performing a lot of 'jugalbandis' with local musicians along the trip.

© TOI

While talking to Deccan Herald, he said that along with making new friends in different countries, he also enjoyed eating vegetarian food. He said, “Being a strict vegetarian, my friends would warn me not to make this trip. But interestingly I crossed half of the world and just ate good vegetarian food.”

He also recalled one of the most exciting parts of his journey was when he was travelling from Moscow to Siberia, where he crossed five time zones in just four nights. Most of his journey went smoothly except when he reached the Mongolia-China border, where he was stopped and questioned by Chinese authorities.

Well, that must have been one hell of an adventure!