It’s just day 25 and it hasn’t been an easy drive for Meenakshi and Mookambika. One of the three ladies, Priya Rajpal had to fly home due to an emergency and will rejoin Meenakshi and Mookambika in Russia. Meenakshi is an avid traveller and has travelled to over 50 countries. She took a road trip to Thailand last year and she was the only woman among a group of 15 men.
The excited traveller says, “I have been planning this trip for a year now. I put in a lot of research and made the itinerary. One could get to London in 45 days and in 15 countries but I wanted to see more. Once I got the route and schedule done, I texted all my friends; about 500 of them through WhatsApp and Facebook asking if anyone (women) would be interested in joining this trip. I got about 15 responses, however, the number dwindled when they heard about the budget and the number of days. Priya and Mookambika were all strangers and I didn’t know them from before we started the journey.”
The ladies have been updating us and their followers about the hurdles of their journey.
Of the many issues and challenges faced, the trio had to work on their fitness regime, get the necessary road tour permits from various countries and had to recently face a huge challenge when they were detained at the Thai border. Speaking of the difficult experience, Meenakshi says, “Our car was detained at the Mae Sod ( Thailand border ), we were supposed to acquire a temporary land permit from the Dept of Land Transport. We could do nothing as it was a weekend, but we figured how to go about it. When we heard that the usual time taken to apply for the permit is 30 days, our heart sank. We pulled some strings and did our best to get the permit. Monday and Tuesday were the only working days and from Wednesday that week, Thailand was shut down because they were celebrating their largest festival, Songkran. We were also told that most officials would have taken off for the weekend and we available only after April 17. Grappling in the dark and not able to get a grip on how to go about this, we called everyone on our phone books and contacted friends and family.”
However, looks like the help came by and now the super women team is en route Xiahe to Xining. On their latest drive, Meenakshi says she found it amusing that the locals stared at them and requested for pictures. Describing the experience she says, “It has been hard for us to talk to people in China because of the language barrier. More over people have been wary of us as these parts of China hardly gets any foreign tourists, especially from our country. We get stared at a lot and people want to take photos with us which makes us feel like aliens.”
Interestingly, the ladies have named their car, ‘Dhannu’ which was the popular name of actress Hema Malini’s horse in the 1975 blockbuster ‘Sholay’.
Meenakshi and Mookambika shared some really enviable pictures from their latest location. Take a look:
