One man decided to turn an unusual idea into reality when he steered his e-rickshaw off the familiar city streets and took it on an extraordinary road trip to the Spiti valley. He recording his journey and the clips soon went viral gathering millions of views as curious netizens tuned in to follow the thrilling adventure with many taking notes along the way.
Sumit Kumar Prajapati, an e-rickshaw driver from Uttar Pradesh’s Muzaffarnagar, recently became an idol for hundreds of travel enthusiasts. In his regular way of life, he found something thrilling and turned it into a challenge worth taking on. The idea to take his e-rickshaw high in the rugged terrains of Spiti came after his friends planned a road trip by car to the valley.
Since he didn't own a car, he decided to ditch the existing plan and thought of doing something out of the box. Having settled far away from the mountain city of Himachal, he hitched a ride with his friends in the car following the initial plan and got off in Manali. His e-rickshaw was delivered to Manali and then on August 18, he started his journey on his three-wheeler.
The journey saw a lot of snippets from his meals at local dhabas to treacherous climbs in the valley. One of the biggest challenges Sumit reportedly had to face was charging his vehicle. He had to make a lot of stops to recharge while for emergencies he carried a generator with him as well.
Starting the trip alone, he picked up passengers along the way and helped them reach their destinations, following a suggestion from a random person he met on the road. And just recently, on September 17, he completed the journey and brought his e-rickshaw back home, as seen in a video shared by the vlogger.
It is particularly difficult to climb up the rugged mountains of Spiti in an electronic vehicle because at 12,000ft as the air pressure drops, the components of the vehicle start to malfunction slowly. Spiti has long uphill stretches and rough, uneven roads. An e-rickshaw’s small motor and limited torque can struggle to climb up the highlands. Loose gravel, potholes, rocks and water crossings also make it a challenging task for an e-rickshaw to drive through the terrains.
As Sumit's videos went viral, people started to pour in their appreciation in the comments. One user wrote, "If have the spirit you can do anything, also go bare feet." Another curious user asked, "What about permit?", to which Sumit commented that he had already taken everything beforehand.
A third user expressed their POV and wrote, "I have extreme motion sickness, uski wajah se main kabhi aise hilly areas me travel nai kar pati to aisa auto mere liye bahut accha option hai . Kaash aise auto service open ho jae jis se main bhi travel kar paun."
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