Travelling on a motorcycle maybe commonplace in India. But doing the same as a couple and covering more than one lakh kilometres is not. Arun Kumar Moolya or Anny Arun as he is known on social media and his spouse Bhagyalakshmi M, mostly referred to as Banu, have experienced the best moments of their married life on a motorcycle. The young couple from Bantwal, Mangaluru is now planning on riding across the world on a two-wheeler.
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Arun has been going on tours on his motorcycle from around 2011, having started his rides with a humble Bajaj Pulsar 150. His vlog of the tour of Rajasthan, which he undertook with a few other lads, all of whom had regular bikes, in 2011-12 made him a person to follow online and there was no looking back.
Having gotten married in 2018, by which time he had a KTM Duke 200, Arun, who is a fan of author KP Poornachandra Tejaswi's works on nature, started to take Banu with him on his rides. "We would usually go to the Western Ghats. I love riding in the rain and so most of our rides were during monsoons. We have travelled together for over one lakh kilometres on different motorcycles," said Arun.
"After getting married, the first place we went to was Munnar," chipped in Banu, who works in the IT industry, like her husband. "I really enjoy being a pillion passenger. But my parents are still scared about us travelling on a motorcycle despite us both using proper riding gear," she added.
Interestingly, the avid travellers, who now have a KTM 390 Adventure to take them anywhere and everywhere, are not ones for proper planning. "We mostly never plan and sort things out on the fly. There is a reason we do this. We do not want to do point-to-point runs. We like to be on our own and explore while on the way," explained Arun.
Since the 36-year-old techie likes to take routes less travelled, Banu, who is 27 years old, says they pack light. "The saddle bag fitted to our bike is only half full these days," she claimed.
When asked about the memorable rides they've been on so far, Arun and Banu immediately mentioned their 2021 ride to Sikkim from Bengaluru via Bhubaneshwar (sticking to coastal highways) in four days, covering 600 to 700 kilometres a day! The couple has also been on a 16-day motorcycling trip to Arunachal Pradesh, hitting sites such as Mechuka and Kibithu (considered the easternmost village in India) among other places.
"We also went on a 10-day ride to Maharashtra recently and it was one of the best. Maharashtra is very beautiful during monsoons," said Arun, who had met with misfortune during his trip to Uttarakhand a year ago. "Two of his fingers got fractured after a shooting rock fell on his hand while returning from Gangotri. We stopped the ride and shipped the bike back home," Banu filled in.
Finally, the couple got excited when asked about their biggest dream. "We are planning to do the world ride. We want to travel overseas on a bike and explore foreign lands," explained Arun, while Banu said, "We would decide on a date and simply set off. It is a dream to do it (the world tour) and we want to do it before we get too old for that."
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