The family road trip, for most people, is a day or two of driving to visit far-flung relatives. The Baid family, however, have taken family road trips to an entirely new level. In 2015, the Anand Baid, his wife Punita and their two children loaded up the car and left their hometown of Bangalore, India to drive all the way to the Eiffel Tower in Paris.
I repeat: they drove. With no cell phone, no spare tires, and no jerrycan (spare fuel container). And it was the trip of a lifetime.
This epic family road trip took then through 11 countries in 111 days, with a total driving distance of nearly 23,000 kilometers total. In this interview, Anand and I discuss planning, packing for a vegetarian family, and dealing with police looking for a bribe. Known as Team L.I.F.E. ("Little Indian Family of Explorers"), the Baid family had their brushes with disaster — they were in Nepal during 2015's devastating earthquake, and entered Greece just as its economy imploded. And yet despite these hurdles, they had an incredible experience. This is a fascinating but long interview — I've cut it from nearly 2 hours down to about 70 minutes. If you're interested in hearing the full interview, let me know.
