Hitchhiking in India

So long and thanks for all the fish

After exactly one month of starting, our hitchhiking trip comes to an official end today. Official end for #150aday, not our travels. We will be traveling separately for some time before going back to Hyderabad, albeit without the restrictions we had placed as part of #150aday. Our blog posts will continue for some time too.

In case anyone is planning a backpacking or hitchhiking trip in India, let us know and we will try to help in whatever way we can. 

This trip would not have been possible without the help of friends we made. The following list may not be comprehensive, but is an attempt to thank all those who helped us -

Silchar

•  Mr. Suvashish Paul
• Mr. Suman Dey

Guwahati

• Mr. Changakakoti
• Mr. Mirza (Gypsyfeet)
• Mr. Neilo

Nagaland

• Ms. Phejin Konyak

Shillong-

• Mr. Paramvir Singh
• Mr. Subrojyoti
• Mr. Sanjeeb
• Mr. Arindam Sarma

Agartala

• Pastor Aharun

Mizoram

• Mr. Kima (Mumbai)
• Ms. Mazami
• Ms. Ruth 
• Mr. Ngaihtea

Guwahati

• Mr. Krish Chanda
• Mr. Reetam Chanda
• Mr. Altaf Mazid

Bomdila

• Mr. Riyazul (an enterprising entrepreneur from Tezpur)
• Himalaya (aka Bhai), Anil, Tapas, Rahul

We have been helped by many a truck drivers in many different ways, we do not however know all their names - a big thanks to the truck driver community.

Of course, we would not have been able to even start our journey without help from our sponsors and endorsers.

So the big question - what were our final average expenses per day? Here is the final average amount per day per person (including food, travel, accommodation and miscellaneous items like permits, etc) -

                                     Rs. 221.64

Which makes our daily average Rs. 443.2813. 50% Above our target expense, but still not an easy task. 

Here’s a breakup of category wise expenses.

P.S - Unlike the dolphins in the novel whose title this post borrows, we are not saying goodbye forever.

Ajay and Inder

Expenses

Total expenses till today (starting May 5th) - Rs. 4995

Expenses per day - Rs. 416.25

Target expense per day - Rs. 300

Communicating while we are on our trip

Found out from our friends and contacts in the NE that only BSNL post paid cellphone connections work best all over the NE. Other operators do work in Assam, but either not reliable or are not present in other states at all!

That adds another item to our large list of to-do tasks! Get a BSNL post paid SIM card from Hyderabad before starting (we can’t get one in Guwahati because we won’t have a proof of residence there).

— Ajay

Picture courtesy - StephenMitchell’s photostream

The Challenges Ahead

Now that the initial excitement of the deciding to go on a trip is over, I sat down with a list of Challenges that are waiting for us in the North East.

Here they are in no particular order:

• Very little information is available regarding hitchhiking in India and practically none regarding North East India.
• I (Inder) am recently back from Europe and hence very low on immunity to Indian conditions.
• All my travels in last couple of years were in Europe, where I was, thanks to my pay-cheque, did more than backpacking and staying at budget hotels. Shifting from that mindset to the one where I have to spend a night in a free shelter (if I’m lucky enough to get one) is quite a shift.
• We both are first time hitchhikers. Hence, can’t really forsee the problems we might face.

But, I feel these are the reasons, why I am a bit more excited to do this trip. Everybody likes to see a live match rather than a replay, since nobody knows the result.

- Inder