Dilpreet Singh Bindra

The Roadie Singh

These are arduous journeys one can never forget; adrenaline-pumped, adventure expeditions, chasing horizons on endless roads, braving extreme temperatures says Farzana Contractor. Dilpreet is lucky to have Sanjay and Tushar of Adventures Overland who help him achieve his crazy dreams

To be a free spirit, to follow your heart's calling, to work for your daily bread and butter, yet not be bound by it, to pursue your dreams, not allow mundane life to shackle you down, to laugh, to live, be happy, to be you; what can be better than that?

And guess what? Dilpreet Singh Bindra is doing all of the above and more. He is living life king size, close to nature, as only a large-hearted, happy-go-lucky Sardar can!  
Dilpreet discovered a long time ago, that his road to happiness was quite literally on the road. In journeying to new destinations, connecting with new people en route, making new friends, fulfilling his singular passion for driving.

It started rather unusually for Dilpreet, the concept of road journeys, that is. The year was 2008. The blackest of days, 26/11 had just taken place in Bombay. Like everybody in India, Dilpreet was also shattered. He was working for The Taj Mahal Palace, Bombay, but happened to be in Delhi when the horrendous terror attacks took place. He lost friends, colleagues, people he loved and worked with, at the Taj, the hotel which took the brunt of the mind-numbing attack. He cursed himself he says for not being around in Taj's hour of need.

Weeks after, still disturbed, unable to come to terms with the loss of precious lives and not being able to overcome the tragedy of the siege on his beloved Taj, Dilpreet kept racking his brain. He wanted to do something. Something, anything for India, for Taj, something to make people aware of the magnitude of what had happened and to make sure it never happens again. He wanted to drive home a message of love and peace. Which is when the idea hit him. He would drive. Drive the full length of India, connecting the dots on the map, drive to each place which had a Taj hotel in it. Except that there was a hitch. His mother was distraught, she did not want him to do that mammoth drive. Her husband, Dilpreet's dad had died in a terrible road accident and she could not bear the idea of her only son being on the road on such a journey...

But Dilpreet convinced his mother, assured her he would be safe and went ahead and drove 265 man hours, 13150 km in 33 days to 60 Taj hotels situated in 42 cities.  He drove through all terrains; the deserts of Rajasthan, jungles of Madhya Pradesh, through villages of UP and Bihar, on national highways and little dirt roads, navigating gorges and ghats, both on the western and eastern coasts. Dilpreet weathered, the heat and dust, humidity and rain and what's more, he did all of this SOLO, all alone. He has guts and he attained the due glory.

"The experience was life-changing," says Dilpreet. My purpose of the journey to foster peace and harmony had been met. I saw how people can connect." His first-hand interactions made him aware that everyone wants peace. Brotherhood is a strong tool. He came away from the experience, wiser, more knowledgeable and more settled in mind. He had achieved what he had set out to do. India Peace Drive gave him a new purpose. After he returned he had an emotional meeting with all his colleagues, seniors and juniors and he expressed to them how India salutes the spirit of Bombay, The Taj Mahal Palace and all its staff. After this momentous journey, Dilpreet became a "Roadie". His love for driving, nature, adventure, people and yes, food, all prompted him to undertake a road journey every year. He started driving all across India, including Lahaul and Spiti as well as going on the Himalayan Rally.

Then in 2016 he undertook his first international driving expedition. Delhi-Bangkok-Delhi, 6000 km. In a four-SUV-convoy, it was a 12-day-trip, going through Myanmar, which had only just opened its borders to foreign traffic. "Very exciting, my first road trip out of India really opened my eyes to immense possibilities. More than anything I enjoyed  meeting people, eating great food, and the sense of adventure."

It was while he was idly driving through Thailand's rice fields that a thought occurred to him and he found himself telling his co-passengers, rather casually, "Why don't we plan to drive to London and back?" The idea met with approval and shouts of cheer and soon, believe it or not, the thought became a reality and in yet another convoy of 13 Land Cruisers they were on the road to London! This was in the summer of 2017.

Before I start you off on that journey, the route they took, the food they ate, the people they met, the sights they saw, let me tell you about Drive Singh. The cute and adorable little Mr Drive Singh. Drive Singh is Dilpreet Singh's tour de force, his all-time companion. Sometimes he sits on the seat next to him but mostly he sits on the dashboard. At other times he even sits on the bonnet of the vehicle, shooting the breeze. Drive Singh is all of 8 inches, made of rubber and by now, world famous. Or at least known to everyone on routes that Dilpreet's tyres have made their mark. Which is Australia, Russia, Jordan and of course Thailand and London. "Yes, Drive Singh is my mascot. He keeps me company. Most of the times I drive alone and he is right there beside me! He helps me connect the dots." Drive Singh has also been instrumental in gathering people together. Everywhere they go, everyone wants to shoot pictures with him. They hug him, kiss him, and pass him around. He brings cheer and joy and many smiles to many faces. A simple but powerful idea. The little things in life that are so meaningful.

"Meaningful, momentous, that's how we should make our lives," says Dilpreet. "I tell people, who wonder how I do it, that anyone can do it. You just have to want to do it. You have to feel inspired enough. Don't be afraid, take the plunge, things will just fall in place. If you delay or decide you will do it once you retire, no, doesn't work. You have to find a work-life balance now,  like I do," says Dilpreet, who is a very senior hotelier, and has under his operational charge some 40-odd properties of the 100 that Marriott runs in India and the neighbouring countries. And Dilpreet Singh is Director of Operations, North India, Nepal and Bhutan.

So the message is clear, follow your passion, do it now, before it is too late. See the qualitative difference it makes to your life. Like it did Dilpreet's. "These past five years have given me so much knowledge. It has helped me even in my professional life. I feel so positive about everything. I don't walk when I am working, I bounce!" Dilpreet is grateful to his bosses at Marriott who have supported his endeavours by allowing him long leave periods.

So before I get to the London sojourn, let me tell you about two other expeditions that Dilpreet and his team went on. One to Russia and the other to Jordan. Last year in January, Dilpreet and gang went to Russia. That is Russia in winter! It was a convoy of seven vehicles. "That was one awesome adventure. Not easy to drive the Patriot SUV when it is snowing, but that was the fun!" says adventure junkie Dilpreet. It was a 10-day trip and they started their drive from Moscow which is where they flew in from India where this line up of Patriots were waiting for them. They drove right away to Sergiev Posad which is a 100 km, covering the distance in 9 hours. "Sergiev Posad is also known as the Russian Vatican. It's a small town with just a 100 thousand people with a beautiful Christian monastery."

The second day's drive was 250 km to Rybinsk which they covered in 12 hours. And the destination after that was Valday, 569 km away. "Our lunch halt in Vesyegonsk was at a splendid location; by a frozen river, in the middle of nowhere," says Dilpreet, adding, "Believe me, it was mesmerising. After that we drove on forest roads, past quaint villages and frozen lakes. They were like movie scenes. It was so exciting driving in that snowy condition. Everywhere you look, it was just beautiful. The only problem was you either drive or shoot pictures! Even a quick click is not possible. If your hands are off the steering wheel even for a second, the car just drifts!"

Day five had them driving another 250 km to Novgorod, one of the most ancient cities of Russia and the next day, day six, which happened to be January 26, our Republic Day, they reached their final destination, St Petersburg. Exalted, the roadies jumped atop the Sherps, (the amazing amphibious vehicle which can navigate through any surface; snow, sand, water, thick grassland, even at a 70 degree angle) which they had just finished test driving and which was now parked on a frozen lake and they held out our national flag and sang our national anthem. Isn't that wonderful!

Concludes Dilpreet, "Driving through Russia was unique. There were tough long days of non-stop driving but we got to test our SUVs on all kinds of surfaces, driving through the interiors of the country, passing ethnic villages, seeing the frozen Volga at the first stroke of sunrise, surreal!"

If Russia in winter was mind-blowing think of what Dilpreet did at the end of the same year. He and his team landed up in Jordan for yet another expedition. Two ends of a spectrum, from snow to sand!

This one was a comparatively shorter run of eight days but what journeys! They started off in Amman in a 7-car convoy, all Land Cruisers, all black beauties. Chasing spectacular sunsets on desert highways, driving past sand dunes, spending nights in lodges in the cold windswept deserts, watching the moon and the stars in the darkest of nights, stopping by tiny villages, sitting on mountain tops eating the simplest but tastiest of foods; fresh mezze, grilled and roasted meats, salads. All in soulful, rustic ambience. "It took us just two days of being in Jordan to fall in love with it eternally. The sunset over Al-Karak, one of the oldest cities of the world will remain unforgettable. Driving through Kings Highway, which is Jordan's ultimate road which swoops over the Great Rift Valley has landscapes of rolling plains interspersed with views of barren cliffs tumbling down to the Dead Sea, was also quite an experience."

Dilpreet Singh Bindra is a lucky man. He even got to spend his birthday, Nov 28, watching the sunrise over Wadi Rum on their way to Petra, a place which is on everyone's bucket list! "Yes, I must confess, I am lucky. It was the best way to celebrate another year of my life watching that awesome sunrise and then driving around the lost landscape in the red sand desert, making my own road. Plus I was on a digital detox. For those two days, there was no connectivity there; so no phone calls, no internet."

The team ultimately landed up, quite literally in the Dead Sea driving through the 1000 meters below sea level road, the lowest motorable road in the world. "Truly the experience of just staying afloat in the Dead Sea is phenomenal. The salt density just won't allow you to drown! It relaxed us no end," says Dilpreet.

So finally I come to the London sojourn. "Road to London" they termed it. Well, the 55-day journey began in Delhi on April 10, 2017 and culminated at the Westminster embankment in London, on June 2, 2017.  A total of 19,000 km travelling through 18 countries. Each of their passports with all those visas stamped in, looked like thick little diaries! For Dilpreet, life was too exciting, there was too much happening at the same time. He had taken charge as General Manager of Marriott, Chandigarh just a couple of months before his pre-planned road trip. So while the expedition excitement was building up, he was in a new city, in a new job role, getting to know his new staff, meeting new people, even launching a microbrewery. "Priceless moments," says the man, "I was loving it all!"

Asked to spell out the route to London, this is how Dilpreet put it; "It wasn't too far. Straight from Delhi take a left at Myanmar, another left from there and you go straight on to China. A few more lefts and rights and you are in London!" Oh, really! Not so simple though. The route went like this. Delhi, Lucknow, Gorakhpur, Siliguri, (beautiful vistas), Guwahati, (full of trees), Kohima and then to Imphal, the last stop in India, which was six days of driving. From Imphal they crossed onto Myanmar which is a heavily armed border crossing. "We reached Bagan which is mystical, magical. Here we gave cars a rest, hopped on to buses to explore Bagan. Drove toward Mandalay-Yangon expressway through narrow country roads. Picturesque, with stilt houses and green farmlands as far as the eye can see."

12 days on they had covered 5,000 km. Soon they would drive to Laos through Chiang Mai in north Thailand and then into China. "Crossing a border is always full of anxiety, once done it offers a strange sense of achievement. If the border crossing was relatively easier from Thailand into Laos, China was markedly different. Immigrations and customs here are strict, cold, with a no nonsense attitude," says Dilpreet.

First city in China was Jinghong, from where they drove to Kunming, "Pure blissful driving from a rain forest city to a lake city. 609 km of mountains and dense rainforest, brilliant road and tunnel network. You can zoom on these roads even though its hilly terrain. Hats off to the Chinese infrastructure, the way they build roads and bridges, no one else can. It's amazing how they just cut up whatever comes in the way. So they have a series of unlimited tunnels many more than 5 km long, just fantastic. And yes, if it's a valley that comes in the way, they just bridge it, finito!"

Dilpreet is as much a serious foodie as he is a good driver. Starting to talk about food, he says, "The food flavours started to change from the point we entered Xichang, into the Sichuan Province. Food in China was thoroughly varied and very enjoyable. One of the reasons to do this journey was to explore cuisines enroute. Something I was really looking forward to. And we had some serious foodies amongst us, a lot of them vegetarians. Food experiences on such trips are priceless. Local regional food is something we would have never seen or known if we were not driving to the interiors. Like in Kazakhstan, the only food we got was horse meat. In Myanmar everyone eats totally organic vegetables. In China, flavours and spices are distinctly different in every province. In Russia, we fished in frozen lakes in minus 20 degrees and ate absolutely fresh fish! And everywhere we went we got into discussions with people through food. Truly food is the universal language." Incidentally all the food that Dilpreet and his team ate throughout the Road to London trip was recreated on his return, for a food festival at Marriott Chandigarh, where he was the General Manager at the time. Chandigarh had never experienced something like that before. Something Dilpreet is rather happy about.

But back on the road to Chengdu now. Thrilling place, informs Dilpreet. It was rest-day so they hopped on to buses and became tourists for a day. "You can't come to Chengdu and not go and hobnob with their darling pandas, which is to be found only in this part, so that's what we did. Drive Singh wanted a toy panda so I even got him one. But Chengdu has lots more; traditional tea houses with tea ceremonies, street food, flea markets, heritage walks. The place to be is Jinli Ancient Street. Food, music, beer, tea, you got it all."

The drive through China was naturally the longest, large as it is, including driving on the historical Silk Road. They had a glimpse of the Great Wall of China, as well. "In Dunhuang in the Gobi Desert, we gave our cars the much needed rest and went exploring the town on bicycles. China can really surprise you with its simple beauty. We got an opportunity to visit Mogao Grottoes, the UNESCO world heritage site, which is one of the great artistic and religious wonders of the world."

"Driving into Akesu at night, to get to Kashgar was rather a nightmare. We were stopped at three police check posts. But I guess we would obviously have aroused curiosity, if not suspicion. 13 foreign cars driving at midnight into a border town is not an everyday affair, I guess- lot of questions, passport checks, document checks, car checks, finally we reached our hotel at 1 am! But Kashgar is one amazing place. It was time to get lost in the 2000-year-old city right on the Silk Road, Kashgar."  

From here they crossed the border into Kyrgyzstan, which by all accounts seems like a beautiful landscape with stunning sunsets. Uzbekistan, country number seven and then on to Tashkent and Samarkand, 2700 years old! These would just be names to most of us, leaping out of geography books, but Dilpreet and his team were actually experiencing these exotic, mystical and most alluring regions. The crossing into Kazakhstan, country number eight on Day 37 reminded the convoy that borders are not just lines on the map, they are much more. The inordinate delay here was only made up by the rugged, wilderness that the country offered. They think they saw the best sunset in Kazakhstan!

After chasing barren land and distant horizons they entered Russia into Aktobe and then went to Samara where in old-world ambience and some super cafes they relished great food. Then to Penza from where they drove into Moscow braving traffic, which after driving through free roads, they must have truly loathed. Rezekne in Latvia was next on route then on to Lithuania. Its capital city Vilnius offered the travellers much happiness! Music, dancing, beer, by the river.

Warsaw was next, where saddening history came alive. They saw the effect of WWII on the city. Prague followed 700 km from here and it was now Day 50. "Felt like ages that we were away from home," says Dilpreet. Europe with its cobbled stone roads and beautiful old buildings rushed by as they drove 900 km to Belgium. "Yes, that was a long drive. Typically it goes like this. After a long drive we reach our hotel/motel/B&B or whatever, we crash, sleep it out. Next morning, get ready, a quick breakfast, baggage down, car check, radio check, convoy rolling!" Hectic to say the least. Day 53 sounds crazy... lovely. It was breakfast in Czechoslovakia, lunch in Belgium, tea in Netherlands and dinner in Germany!

Dilpreet sounds ecstatic narrating the joy of driving on the German autobahns. "Wow!!! No speed limits!!!" From Belgium it was straight into France where it was time for the convoy to roll across the last cross border of their expedition, perhaps the easiest,  they merely sat on the deck of the ferry crossing, Calais to Dover, yup on the English Channel. "Ab Dilli dur nahiu00b4 or "London-Ho!' Just 150 km away.

At 2.00 pm on June 2, 2017, driving their own Indian cars, the convoy rolled across, joyously on Westminster Bridge. Mission accomplished. Jai Ho!