Story first published on NDTV by Pranay Parab | Images: Rovingsnails
In October 2013, Boris Kanev and Marta Samalea set their eyes on an ambitious and seemingly impossible target – to reach India without using a plane. Their idea was to experience a real journey between places, and avoid the use of smartphones as much as possible. Overthe next 511 days, the duo walked and hitchhiked across Asia before finally arriving in India via road.
It was not as if they had completely cut themselves off from the world. They did stay connected through an old Nokia phone and told their parents their location. They also used a netbook to keep update their blog at regular intervals. To get directions, they used a map.
We both wanted to reach the subcontinent overland, to take every step, and cross each border, to fill the map with pictures of real places, flavours and faces,” writes Samalea in her blog. “An old map of Asia, invisible routes and more imagination than certainty set the travel plan in motion.”
As per the couple, their biggest challenge was to find a stable net connection. They had to rely on obscure cyber cafes along the way, most of which had some issue or the other. The couple had the worst time of all when they arrived in India, when they had to search a lot to find a cafe in Mizoram only to find out that it had been shut down. The reason? The owner told them that most people had smartphones anyway! as reported to NDTV.COM
Check out their blog at rovingsnails.com to find out more interesting details of their experiences.