Tourism in the State is revving up to the sound of motor bikes and a thrilling taste of adventure. Buddhi Singh Chand is leading a group of intrepid bikers across Kerala. The group comprising 14 French – nine women and five men - is in its final lap and will zip off to Goa this afternoon. The members, all from the exotic island of New Caledonia, between Australia and New Zealand, are in the age group 40-50, the oldest being 65.
Buddhi’s tryst with the bike began young. At 31 and from Manali Buddhi has turned his passion into a successful business.
He has travelled on bike around India three times, doing 35,000 kilometres, his love for adventure and wanderlust increasing with every trip.
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Today his operation Motorcycle Expeditions, which began in 2005, has 46 bikes and a team of 15 that oversee bikers’ hotel accommodation, transport of bikes, travel and garage operations.
Last year Buddhi came to Kerala on a recee and explored the landscape and the adventure possibilities the State affords, returning more than satisfied. “Kerala has vast choices - beaches, hills, houseboat, massage, spices gardens; whatever we talk about India is found here. The food is really great. It is a State that will never disappoint you with hotel accommodation,” he says.
For the trip and the group, whom Buddhi calls ‘lovers of India’, he had to do huge preparations. “Each trip involves a lot of work,” he says explaining that they have to take care of the clientele and tie-up ends like accommodationand provide a strong back-up team in case of breakdown. “Riding is exhaustive.”
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The group does a minimum of 150 km a day and he leads the group. The nine women, says Buddhi are all professional and they ride behind him, hanging close. The group, after finishing the Tamil Nadu route entered Kerala via Munnar and were so enchanted by the tea plantations that they extended their stay and took a rest day.
In Alappuzha, the backwater cruise on houseboats too has left them smitten. Buddhi says that the houseboat trip was so amazing that it will lure bikers to Kerala to experience the terrain and the backwaters.
The one thing negative about the ride that they encountered here was during the ride down the hairpin bends. They found drivers overtaking on the curves and this led to two mishaps. “It is so risky; two riders had a fall,” says Buddhi adding that except for that he found the roads motorable.
Some of the other expeditions conducted by him have been tougher and meaner. He has taken groups through the mountains of Ladakh and Uttarakhand, Kathmandu to Lhasa and to the base of Mount Everest. In October he will be riding with a group to Bhutan.
This time the riders are on Machismo 500cc Bullet bikes, which he says is a reliable old, much-loved machine.
As the group wind up their adventure, Buddhi says that plans are already afoot for a repeat next year, same route, same venues, an encore.