‘My only motive was to explore life and experience it
without attachment as ‘life is to drive on’,” says Jaywant Chowgule, a Goan
businessman who recently returned to Goa after driving all the way to Lisbon.
The idea of this adventurous undertaking came up after Jaywant survived a heart
attack and felt that he was given a second chance to live. “In 2012, I started
planning my journey through the countries that I had never travelled to. I
concluded that ‘life is to drive on’ because when you are on the road, what you
see in front of you is your present and what you see in the rearview mirror,
you past, which disappears when you see ahead again,” says Jaywant.
After exploring various travel routes, he decided to drive
through Tibet, Xinjiang and reach Kashghar and then travel through central Asia
and Asia Minor to Europe. “This route took me along the fabled Silk Route to
Europe. The end point was still not decided until I realised that I will be
crossing the Caspian Sea which is 28 metres below sea level. I was going to
cross a sea that is below the sea level? So the next criterion for the journey
was to cross as many seas /oceans possible,” says Jaywant.
He further adds, “Lisbon was the perfect end point for this
journey. Imagine Vasco da Gama sailed from Lisbon, his tomb is there, Goa was
under Portuguese, and I stay in Vasco da Gama. Lisbon became my last
destination.”
Jaywant’s motive was to journey through countries that he never
visited before. This included countries like China, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan,
Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan, Turkey, Greece and Portugal. “The experiences that I
had with people, fellow travellers, visiting historical places and museums were
unique. Even the food and wine was excellent. The route was dotted with
Caravansaries, places where traders stayed along the silk route, which were
built to facilitate trade,” he explains.
Jaywant enjoyed the experience of staying with the shepherds
in Kyrgyzstan and was even touched by the priest at Babur’s house in Osh who
gave him an amulet for his safe journey while another in Samarkand, gave him a
painting. “A painter in Bukhara agreed to paint flags on my car, an engineer
who created the miniature city of Amasya took me to the mosque on Ramadan day
and a guide arranged for my safe passage through the border. These experiences
in foreign countries with unknown people shows the simple beauty of the world
which we mess up in the big cities.”
‘Meghdoot’ was his loyal companion throughout the journey.
“Meghdoot turned out to be a reliable partner and did not give much trouble on
route. We had some issues but that was manageable as I had done a crash course
on basic repairs which came in handy.”
His advice for fellow travellers who are enthusiastic to
drive on a similar trip is simple. “I will strongly suggest not dealing with
Indian travel agents on international road travel. You do it yourself and the
borders are open and there are many roads to drive on. When you are in trouble
or get robbed, just find the best place in town and have a great meal and
drink. You don’t have time to brood over what has happened, just move on.” In
the near future, Jaywant plans to travel to other parts of unseen India, and in
2019, make another road trip out of India.
