Meenakshi Sai, 51, looks like any other Indian woman, dressed in a saree and sporting a bindi on her forehead.
Sai was one of a team of eight Indians who drove 20,000 km across five countries from Coimbatore, India to St. Petersburg, RussiaMore Indians are taking road trips these days — both within the country and beyond, solo and in groups — as access to better vehicles and better roads grows in the country.
In the end, she found two women through social media — one from Mumbai, the other from Pollachi — who were interested in joining her.for more than 14,900 miles and coincided with the 70th anniversary of India's independence. The journey took 70 days, taking the three women across 24 countries, including Russia, Poland and Uzbekistan.
"I ate a lot of potatoes and bread in countries like Kyrgyzstan where there was a lot of meat," she said. "It was my first drive in the high Himalayas, and I didn't know how dangerous and narrow and high the roads were, and the havoc that altitude can play on one physically. It was a lesson learnt the hard way," said the journalist and author.Since then, Mehta has taken more than 100 road trips across some 50 countries. One really exciting one was the drive from Munich to Mumbai, which lasted two months and covered eight countries, he said.
Source: Car News Wire (carnewswire.net)