India

29 April 2013Swamiji blessing sanDRina and our journey around India that begins tomorrow :)We had a Satyanarayan Puja at my parents’ home in Chennai and I got the Pujari to invoke the gods’ blessings for sanDRina. After the aarti, this burning coconut was smashed on the ground and I rolled sanDRina over some lemons for…

First day of the journey and the ride was smooth. I met up with a few riders from the Madras Bulls Motorcycle Club and we rode down the East Coast Road to Mahabalipuram. After being sent off by the Bulls, I enjoyed the twisting road along the coast till Pondicherry. The Indian Summer is in…

1 May 2013Today was a special day for me. I rode up the Ghat Road to Kodai, a place up on a mountain where I spent 10 years growing up in boarding school. I’ve traveled up and down this ghat road numerous times but this was the first time I had ridden it for myself…

7 May 2013Here’s a helmet camera video from my ride into Calicut (Kozhikode) yesterday. The driving is crazy on Kerala’s busy roads but makes for fun riding if you can match the local pace 😉 Not for the faint of heart!Click here for more Videos

8 May 2013A friendly stop by the Karnataka Police Force just outside Mangalore. I overtook their police van and a few minutes later, they were flashing their lights and waving me over. I thought, ‘OK, here we go, first police stop in India…’ but no worries, they were just curious and friendly and wanted to…

8 May 2013I had a masala dosa in Udipi for breakfast this morning and it was super delicious with the potato filling, sambar and coconut chutney. They say the masala dosa originates from Udipi and this dosa did its ancestors proud 😉

9 May 2013Oh, yeah! I’ve arrived in Goa 🙂 Beautiful ride on small roads through old villages shrouded by coconut trees with the breeze from the ocean. Rode to Anjuna and found a small guest house right on the beach. The caretaker, Agnes, was telling me stories from before Goa got independence from the Portuguese.…

10 May 2013Here’s an interview I did for http://WheelsUnplugged.com by Navroze Contractor, who’s an award-winning cinematographer and photographer and now writes for automotive magazines. The interview details how I got into motorcycles, how I got fleeced by Egyptian customs and why travel on two wheels ;)http://www.wheelsunplugged.com/features/jay-kannaiyan-epic-ride-home/1548

10 May 2013A sleepy cat amongst the fruits in Chapora, probably eying some breakfast from the fish market across the road…I went for a nice walk in the morning with Sagar, an old teacher from Kodai School who’s also staying with my classmate, Arjun’s parents in nearby Vagator. We walked to the fishing pier and…

11 May 2013Sublime ride out of Goa into southern Maharashtra. Good roads, lite traffic and nice curves on the hilly NH-17. All the signs are in Hindi now; a sign that I’m in North India. Left the highway and got back to the coast near Ratnagiri and staying with the family that runs GaneshAgroTourism.com. It’s…

13 May 2013I got to Bombay last night and nursed sanDRina with a leaking carburetor to Arunoday Singh’s place in Juhu. He’s an old Kodai School friend and after studying acting in the US and the UK, he’s started his career as a Bollywood actor. sanDRina’s carburetor started acting up in the last few days.…

16 May 2013My route across Central India. From Bombay I had an easy ride to Nashik on the 4-lane expressway that was 6 and 8 lanes at times. The climb up and over the ghats made for good riding and with sanDRina’s carburetor tuned perfectly now, it was a joy to twist the throttle. Next…

17 May 2013It was a hot day’s ride from Nashik to Indore with my on-board thermometer registering 47 C (117 F)! I sought some shelter from the sweltering sun under these shady trees and Shashank Parwar, here, emerged from his fields to take a look at this strange bike and its rider. When I saw…

18 May 2013My gear for really hot riding: boonie hat and TechNiche Cooling Vest 😉 It’s a nylon quilted vest that holds half a liter of water and when I’m moving, air flows through my Kevlar mesh jacket and evaporates the water on my core and cools it down. At 47 C (117 F) and…

19 May 2013The beautiful stone carvings at the Mahadev Temple at Khajuraho. The temples are famous for their erotic depictions but more than that, the stone craftsmanship is amazing. I spent some time just staring at the details that have been carved to capture mood and smiles and pleasure. The security guard became my guide…

21 May 2013Woke up this morning in Agra and went for a walk along the Yamuna and there just happened to be this glowing white marble mausoleum… it’s the Taj Mahal!! Yay, finally seeing this magnificent monument. After seeing so many grand monuments around the world, I saved the best for last 😀 So proud…

23 May 2013 Escaped the heat of the plains and rode up the foothills of the Himalayas to the beautifully-set Naini Lake. It’s good to be at altitude once again and 2,000 m (6,560 ft) and above is where I feel most at home 😉 I was riding around town, which is busy with summer…

24 May 2013Sunrise at Rudraprayag where the Mandakini River joins up with the Alaknanda and together they flow down to form the Ganga after merging with the other three headstreams of this most sacred river in India. The rivers originate from glaciers further upstream and are still thick with their sediments.It’s good to be riding…

25 May 2013Milestone! sanDRina and I have covered a 100,000 kms since this journey began in Chicago 3 years and almost 3 months ago. For my Indian friends, that’s 1 lakh kms and for my American and Brit friends, that’s 62,150 miles. sanDRina doesn’t have an odometer, so you’re just going to have to trust…

27 May 2013I’ve graduated from the foothills and am riding in the Himalayas proper 🙂 From Rohru, I found a small route over a ridge down to Rampur on the Hindustan Tibet Highway and rode into Kinnaur Valley. I saw my first snow peaks! Along the Sutlej River, I met some bikers who were coming…

28 May 2013Snow peaks! Clear view of Kinner Kailash at 6,500 m (21,320 ft) from Sangla. The mountain is sacred to both Hindus and Buddhists from the Kinnaur Valley. It’s not Mount Kailash, across the border in Tibet, where Lord Shiva is said to reside but the Kinner is still special as it’s considered the…

30 May 2013A woman in Sangla who wanted her photo taken when she saw me walking around with my SLR. She must have a lot of interesting stories to tell…I love the confidence and ease that mountain people exude. It probably comes from living in a challenging environment, surrounded by natural beauty and learning to…

31 May 2013A house in Old Manali, looking grand with its colored walls and wooden balconies.I’ve stocked up on supplies for the highlight route of my trip, the Manali-Leh Highway. From here, I’ll be climbing into the upper reaches of the Himalayas and riding on some of the highest roads in the world. GoPro and…

1 June 2013Did I mention I love snow? :DCrossing Rohtang Pass at 3,990 m (13,090 ft), the first high pass on the road to Leh. On the other side the views were epic as sanDRina chugged her way through cold, wet mud. Made it to the dhabas at Darcha at 3,350 m (10,990 ft) and…

5 June 2013sanDRina and I near the Tangala Pass at 5,350 m (17,548 ft). We did it! We rode the Manali-Leh Highway and journeyed through the high Himalayas. It was an epic four days of climbing up and down high passes, brushing up against endless snow banks, chugging through mud and marveling at the beauty…

6 June 2013Riding the Grand Himalayan Mountains. That little black dot is me riding sanDRina in the dry, colorful, high-altitude deserts of Ladakh, on the way to Pang, the first little dhaba junction in Jammu & Kashmir. Wah, what a ride! So much to appreciate about the greater forces in motion around us. Those slopes…

7 June 2013sanDRina playing in the snow at Baralach Pass. She’s done me good these last three years and more; my vehicle for this journey and my home on the road. As we crossed the last pass today, Zoji La, which connects Ladakh to Kashmir, I thanked her for carrying me from the US to…

9 June 2013At the gates of the 4th Battalion of the Madras Regiment in Udhampur, the Northern Command of the Indian Army. From Srinagar, I had a busy ride south, working sanDRina through lots of traffic on mountainous roads. The presence of the Indian Army was felt all through Jammu & Kashmir and more so…

10 June 2013The last night of the trip and what better way to spend it than being with new biker friends. Thanks to JoJo Khurana and the Road Survivors Bullet Club of Chandigarh for hosting me tonight :)I exited the Himalayan foothills today and felt the heat and humidity of the plains. Only 250 kms…

11 June 2013That’s India Gate and this is the end of the trip!! Jammin thru the Global South was a motorcycle journey that began in Chicago on March 5, 2010 and ended in New Delhi on June 11, 2013. Wow… hasn’t sunk in yet :)I had an easy ride from Chandigarh into New Delhi and…

6 July 2013 On July 6th, 300 bikers from Delhi came out for a celebratory ride in my honor. Wow, I feel the love and felt so honored and welcomed! Thank you, guys! Ride announcement by Joshua John, the organizer of Delhi Bikers Breakfast Run. He works hard at bringing all the different clubs together.…

28 January 2014 This sums up Ted Simon’s view of Harleys. On the Helmet Stories ‘Ride with the Legends’ from Bombay to Goa for India Bike Week, Harley-Davidson, being a major sponsor of the event, wanted Sir Ted to ride this new Sporster Super Low. He took one spin on it, jumped off and said,…

4 March 2014 At the Delhi Bikers Fest on my birthday, standing here with Sundeep Gajjar, the founder of xBhp, a huge Indian motorcycling forum and now magazine, and Arun Thareja, founder of the Group of Delhi Superbikers. Both of these guys, along with many others at the fest, have put in a tremendous effort…