Sharjah-based Keralite bikes from India to Nepal in 78 days

Jamil Khan, Senior Reporter

Nowadays people from different backgrounds around the world are accomplishing unique goals like ‘Around The World In 80 Days’ and receiving praise from different segments of society.

One of the spirited adventurers who has spiralled his passion for travel to new heights is Abdul Hannan Thayyil, a 22-year-old non-resident Indian (NRI) and resident of Sharjah, who travelled from India to Nepal in 78 days, covering around 13,000 kilometres in the process.

Hannan just returned to the UAE after achieving the feat on his ‘small’ motorcycle known as moped.

He started his adventure from Kerala on May 15, 2022 and travelled through Karnataka, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Haryana, Punjab, Kashmir, Ladakh, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Nepal, and West Bengal. He returned to Kerala on August 1, 2022.

Talking to Gulf Today he said, “After completing my postgraduate studies in psychology, I wanted to interact with people from different cultures and backgrounds to broaden my horizon and enhance my learning in my field. In this regard, travelling across India was a unique opportunity as every 100 kilometres you encounter different people with a new language and culture,” he said.

He was born and raised in the UAE and completed his schooling at Indian High School Sharjah. His mother is a teacher while his father is a businessman. After completing Grade 12, he went to Kerala to pursue his degree in psychology. “Definitely I will pursue a career in psychology and for that my plan is to get further education in Europe. Soon I will try for my Schengen Visa for my higher studies and beside my studies I will travel all over the 26 European Union countries to fulfil my dream of travelling around the world,” he said.

During his stay in Kerala to finish his studies, he made all the necessary arrangements to travel across India and interact with people from different backgrounds. “I love to travel and my dream is to travel around the world, for this I took up small jobs during my study and collected money to buy my moped, the TVS XL 100 (also known as Luna) as it is an efficient mode of transport for my trip,” he added.  During the 78-day journey across Nepal and India, he travesed the snow-covered high passes of Ladakh, mighty mountains of the Himalayas, widespread deserts of Rajasthan and more difficult terrain of India without a scratch or any trouble at all.

“I tried my best to travel for cheap, living in a tent with a sleeping bag in deserts, snow-covered Himalayas, beaches, forests, lake sides, mighty mountains, by the highway in fuel stations, bus stops and many more throughout the trip. Travelling cheap has offered me a lot of rich experience that has impacted my life,” he said.

Encountering many new things on his adventure, Hannan said, “As the core of man’s spirit comes from new experiences, I was able to have a lot of rich and meaningful experiences that transformed me internally into a better being and impacted my life in a positive way. I was able to meet people from different cultures and walks of life who played a role in changing my perspectives besides helping me find answers to many questions about life,” he added. He had no idea of what would happen next but survived all the difficulties with the help of kind people. “It helped me completely immerse in the present and gave me a drive to be curious for what may come next, who I am going to meet, where I will end up and what experiences I will have,” he said.

Hannan further pointed that during his travel, he learned about major religions of India by spending nights at places of worship.

“As a psychology degree graduate and student, I got a lot of opportunities to interact with people with diverse traditions throughout India, observe and learn how their behaviour and habits are affected by their lifestyle and environment,” he said, vowing to continue to explore other places around the world.

He has already chalked out his next adventure: covering India’s Northeast, Bhutan and Bangladesh.