Driving a VW Polo GTI at 14,000 feet: My 7,000 km road trip experience

Although my BMW 330i would have been a more comfortable option, the GTI had never been to the Himalayas.

BHPian anandpadhye recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

Tawang has been on my mind for years. Sheer distance from Pune meant this would need at least 2 weeks off. And still, that won't be enough to cover all of Arunachal. Of course, I am talking about driving all the way, which is obvious here in the forum (though not so obvious in real life). Flight does make sense for a faraway place like Arunachal as it would save a considerable amount of time and enable you to use all your days to roam around within Arunachal, but then like all sensible things (and people) in the world, flights are boring. And sensible and boring things often lead to more sensible and boring things - like being ferried in an Innova thereby sucking all the remaining happiness out of you. There aren't many good powerful fun to drive cars available as self-drive rentals in our country, even less so in places like Asam and Arunachal.

Anyways, I am digressing. I wanted to drive the GTI to Arunachal, period :-)

Sometime in June, I got the notification for the Tawang Marathon (happening on 1st October) from one of my runner friends and almost instantly I said this is it. I am going. 3 months is a decent time frame to plan the time off and the drive. It was surely not enough time to prepare for the actual marathon given my current fitness level, the steep inclines of the route and the altitude of 9000+ ft which means less oxygen. But then you never know how things will be next year...Given the situation at work and home, how much I would be able to train for the marathon was a question but I was determined to finish the run, even if it would mean I was the last runner to finish, "no DNF" I made a promise to myself.

I also started pushing my mom to come along, I wanted to spend the 2 weeks with her and also wanted her to see Tawang and Arunachal. Given her age, I selected some simple yet effective strength training exercises for her, focusing on her lower back and legs so that she could endure the long drive and hours of sitting in the car. Also deep breathing and Pranayam. She did this religiously. We also got a toilet chair that can be simply put on an Indian toilet, in case she would need it.

During this time, MotoGP Bharat was announced and bookings opened. Due to my recent "return to motorcycling" after a gap of a decade or so, these things started coming into my feed and I decided to go and watch this race, so it added a detour to BIC.

Regarding the car - the 330i would have been comfortable but looking at road conditions in Arunachal in Sept/October (narrow patches, high probability of landslides), GTI seemed like a better choice. Also, GTI had never been to the Himalayas so far as she always lost out to her bigger sibling, so it was going to be GTI this time.

Check out BHPian anandpadhye's road trip experience for more insights and information.