u/DevelopmentIcy9053

My plan was to travel by scooter in Uttarakhand. Initial idea was to rent a scooter, but then found out that you can send scooter by Indian Railways. So, I booked the scooter to Rishikesh and flew to Dehradun. From Dehradun airport, rented a taxi to drop me to Rishikesh railway station. And then, the journey begins.

1. Rishikesh - Devprayag - Rudraprayag - Sonprayag - Kedarnath

This took about a week with 2 days stay in Rudraprayag, 2 days in Rishikesh, 1 day in Sonprayag, 1 day in Kedarnath and 1 day in Devprayag. Did trek to Kedarnath (up and down) by foot.

2. Ukhimath - Chopta - Gopeshwar - Badrinath

About 7 days here too. I did injure my leg while getting down from Kedarnath. So, I took 2 days to heal myself as I had to do Tunganath trek. Stayed 1 day in Chopta, 1 day in Gopeshwar and 3 days in Badrinath.

3. Nandprayag - Karnprayag - Dwaraka

About 3 days in this and completed the panch Prayag.

4. Binsar - Nainital - Jim Corbett - Haridwar - Dehradun

Spent about 10 days in this with 2 days in Binsar (lovely hut inside the forest area), 2 days in Nainital, 2 days in Jim Corbett, 2 days in Haridwar and 2 days in Dehradun.

Sent the scooter back to my place (Bhubaneswar) and flew back from Dehradun to Bhubaneswar next day.

The trip was a mix of devotion / spirituality with nature / bird watching. Duration was about 27-28 days and pace was slow (less than 100 kilometres per day).

My expenses were about 1500 per night in hotel stay and about 500 rupees for food. I do hold Sterling membership and utilised some of my nights in Rishikesh, Rudraprayag, Haridwar, Nainital, Jim Corbett and Dehradun. Total expenses for the month was less than 90k including flight cost.

Though I tried to be slow, I think I couldn’t spend enough time in some of the good places including Chopta, Nainital, Binsar and Rishikesh.

Will plan for slower travel, possibly for 2-3 months and will include Gangotri and Jamunotri in the trip. Please post your comments for my future trip.

I cycled across 3 countries Thailand-Cambodia-Vietnam crossing the land border between them. My original plan was to cycle from Bangkok to Siem Reap and I was skeptical whether I have enough stamina to do it.

I wasn’t prepared-physically or mentally, but had the urge to try. Flew to Bangkok and reached Pattaya on a bus. Bought a Trek cycle and saw whether I can cycle in Pattaya with the traffic. After 3 days in Pattaya, got enough courage to cycle to Rayong. Stayed for a couple of days in Rayong to see how my body is responding. Felt ok and traveled to Chanthaburi. Stayed for a couple of days in Chanthaburi to see how my body is responding. I was feeling more confident now and planned to cross over to Cambodia through Ban Pakkad border crossing. Both Thai and Cambodia authorities gave me a hard time by seeing my Indian passport. Took almost 2 hours to convince them that my travel by cycle is legit and I am not into any scams. It took Cambodian border police sometime, but they gave me the visa finally. Went and stayed in Krong Pailin.

Next day, traveled to Battambang and stayed there for 3 days to recover. Took a ferry from Battambang to Siem Reap. That was supposed to be the end of my travel as I didn’t plan anything further.

But, I was enjoying, probably a bit too much. Thought of cycling to Phnom Penh. However, I didn’t know the cycling route and there was no online help material. Here starts the real thrill. Trusting Google map, moved on the highways along Mekong river and saw plenty of village life. Some of the roads were atrocious and some days found it difficult to get vegetarian food (I am vegetarian by choice). But, ploughed and ploughed to reach Phnom Penh.

I had quit my job a month before starting this journey. Suddenly, I felt no rush to look for another job and just continue this vagabond life. So, added a target to travel to Saigon through Mekong Delta.

I am a nature enthusiast and Vietnam offers some very good national park. One was on the way from Phnom Penh to Saigon. Did stay for a few days there. Went to Saigon and updated the target to Da Nang. Idea was to cycle on the coast, but cover Da Lat when it comes.

Da Lat is a great hill station with a number of good waterfalls. Stayed in Da Lat for a few days to recover. Then, cycled to Nha Trang and followed the coastline.

It was now December and I had no idea that it is rainy season for central VIETNAM. Some days I got drenched completely while cycling and was not feeling good about it. But, continued to Hoi An and Da Nang.

It had been 50 days and I couldn’t travel further as the areas north to Da Nang was flooded. Flew from Da Nang to Bangkok and Bangkok to Chiang Mai. Stayed there for a couple of weeks before travelling back to India.

Looking back, it was an epic journey. I saw some interesting places, but that wasn’t what was most exciting. For me, it was just the mundane things like rice fields, roosters crowing in the morning, river flowing slowly, water lilies in the pond that made this memorable.

It has been almost 2 years now (traveled from November 2024-January 2025) and Vietnam is calling me. I have to do the Hanoi to Da Nang.