My first solo ride: Delhi to Jaipur on a rented Xpulse

It was supposed to be Kasol.

A friend and I had it planned. Then, at the very last moment, he pulled out. It was monsoon, and someone in his family said the weather wasn’t on our side. My mother said the same thing: don’t go to the mountains right now, it isn’t safe.

Honestly? They weren’t wrong. The hills in the monsoon are a bad idea. But I was sure about one thing. I had to go somewhere.

So I rented a Hero Xpulse and pointed it at Jaipur. Alone.

The setup, such as it was

I didn’t really know how to ride long distances. I had zero knowledge about riding gear.

The rented bike came with a helmet, and it was bad. Smelly bad. So I skipped it and took a full-face scooter helmet from my father’s cupboard. It was clean, and that was the main qualification.

I did know I had to be careful, so I’d ordered knee guards and elbow guards before the trip. The rucksack went on the back seat. There were no bungee cords, so I tied it on with rope. At 4 am I tied that bag down and headed for the Delhi–Jaipur highway.

My packing list has grown a lot since. That morning, it was a rucksack and some rope.

The road

Delhi to Jaipur is around 250 to 260 km, and it was my first time riding that far, alone.

And it was an amazing feeling. I was riding all alone. Every motorcycle has its own feel, and the Xpulse was my first proper taste of one on a highway. I took breaks and kept going. My photos have me at a stop at 7:40 am, the rope still holding, and in Jaipur before lunch.

Some habits started on this ride and never left. Leave early. Check the bike before you start. Carry what you might need, because you don’t want to take chances. Find the sunrise, find the sunset, and find the best chai in town. I’m a chai paglu, and Jaipur owed me a good one.

Why I stayed in a hostel

My rule: hostels in cities, homestays in remote places.

In a remote place, a homestay means living with locals. You learn the food, the stories and the local knowledge you can’t find on Google. In a city, a hostel means meeting people. Jaipur proved the second half of that within a few hours.

There was a photographer and creator from Udaipur, in town to get his drone fixed. There were two colleagues from Pune. None of us knew each other. Then he asked me something random, I said something back, and we talked until 4 am.

At that point, the only sensible thing was to go out for a super kadak chai, which I still hadn’t found. We ended up with biryani as well. We slept around 5.

Tapri, alone

I was up early anyway. While everyone slept, I took the bike to Tapri, a café with a souvenir shop, a little museum and a beautiful outdoor space to sit and eat. By the time I got back, the others were just getting ready.

Jaipur, together

The plan was to see the city together. So we did: the galis and streets of the old city, Amer Fort, Jal Mahal, Hawa Mahal and the market in front of it, a bit of shopping. At Amer, we got a beautiful sunset.

Later I dropped the two from Pune at the railway station, about 5 km from the hostel. Back at the hostel I got talking to an artist and actor who couldn’t believe I’d ridden from Delhi. At the time, that kind of ride was rare. People just weren’t used to someone doing those distances on a bike.

What the first solo ride taught me

I met a lot of people on that first solo trip, and that’s when I started loving it.

I’m not against riding with friends. Group rides have their own joy. But solo has its own flavour. It isn’t always in your favour, and you’ll have bad days and bad moments. What you get in return is people: other travellers, people from completely different backgrounds, and locals who have never left their town.

Later, I was in Pune for work, at an event near Phoenix Mall. I messaged one of the friends from that hostel night, and we caught up. That’s how it goes. You meet people on the road, and some of them stay.

It’s why I still travel slowly, in hostels in the cities and homestays everywhere else. And it all started with a rented Xpulse, my dad’s scooter helmet, and a rucksack tied on with rope.