The monk on a bike: Chennai based adventurer travels 5 continents, 30 countries

While the city has witnessed several talks and conferences by businessmen or politicians, renowned biker and adventurer Jay Kanniayan will be hosting a different kind of conference on February 9.

He is urging the country to travel, to ignore whatever it is that’s weighing them down — and just “take off”.

Because he has done it himself — Jay left a cushy corporate job in Chicago and set off on an epic 1,03,200 km journey spanning three years, three months on a Suzuki DR 650, which he lovingly calls ‘sanDRina’.

Thumbs up: Jay has also visited the Victoria Falls in Africa

That trip took him across 33 countries and five continents. “The connectivity between countries and cultures has gotten so much easier now. I think we should stop worrying about issues like visas and passports and just get away from the madness and ride,” he says.

Born and raised in Chennai, Jay moved to the United States to pursue his graduation in mechanical engineering, after which he secured a job as a program developer. The urge to ride out for short trips always fascinated him even then.

He says, “I would go on trips for two-three weeks at a stretch. I realised that I didn’t miss the comforts of home or the Internet. The peace I felt while I was on the road was enticing and became something I couldn’t ignore.”

Heads up: Jay captures videos his rides with a helmet-mounted camera, as seen here while riding through Uganda

During these trips he covered vast tracts of North America, including Alaska, Canada and even travelled till Mexico. In March 2010, he gave in, sold all his possessions and set off on his bike.

“I guess my employers and friends knew this decision was a long time coming. The difficult part was convincing my parents who were aghast and felt I was throwing away the big American dream. But, I went ahead,” Jay says.

After hashing out a rough route plan, even identifying rainfall patterns and his journey via South America to India, Jay set off.

“I ended up using 48 pages across three passports. I rode through some very remote parts of the planet, such as the Amazon rainforest, the vast emptiness of Patagonia, the deserts of Sahara, and the epic Himalayas of Ladakh,” he says.

looking out: At Cape Agulhas near Cape Town in South Africa

One of the biggest challenges he faced on the trip was planning his night-stay each day, he says: “I would start looking out for cheap motels. I had also signed up with couchsurfing.org which gave me the option of staying with a local host in each of the places I travelled. This made things comfortable.”

And on the last day of his stay at a host’s home, he would cook the family some authentic Indian dishes — as a token way of gratitude.

The journey also disproved several misconceptions and stereotypes he had heard. Jay shares, “When people talk about Columbia, they blindly associate it with drug cartels. Contrary to popular belief, that was a thing of the past and it is quite a stunning and beautiful place. Also, the kind of perception people have about the Sudanese is totally incorrect. They are a very lovely and kind people.”

He found help in the most unexpected of places as well. “When I was in Africa, I met a fellow traveller from Spain who handed over a set of local sim cards with numbers of local contacts that he had acquired from all the places I was about to travel. One comes across kindness in the most unexpected of places,” says Jay with a smile.

Diner: Jay, second from left, was also invited to dinner by local farmers in Bolivia when he visited the country

Last year, he travelled to Myanmar, from Delhi to Lao. “It took me 10 days to reach there. I spent 20 days and was treated very nicely again by the locals there.”

He ventured on to this stretch when the road to Myanmar was still being laid. “But it was an exciting journey,” he says.

Today, with an intention to share the joy of adventure with other motorcycling enthusiasts, Jay runs guided motorcycle tours that provide curated trips off the beaten path to some of the most exciting locations.

“The world is out there. I don’t think I can ever go back to a behind-the-desk job again,” he says.