EP326 | From India to Australia (and Beyond) with Moto Trailblazer Candida Louis

Overland Journal Podcast Episode #326

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Guest Bio:

Candida Louis, a 28-year-old adventure tourer from Hubli, South India, discovered her passion for motorcycles on early rides with her father. After 12 years of riding, he gifted her a motorcycle, launching a journey driven by a desire for freedom, independence, and world travel. After moving to Bangalore, Louis worked corporate desk jobs at Oracle and Infosys for five years. Commuting daily through heavy traffic, she constantly dreamed of riding around the world. In 2015, a three-month sabbatical riding across North and South India inspired her to resign from her corporate job and pursue a life on the road.

Candida Louis: Instagram | Facebook | YouTube | Website | Grinning Monkeys

Ashley Giordano

Ashley Giordano’s first foray into overland travel involved a 48,800-kilometer journey from Canada to Argentina with her husband, Richard, in their well-loved but antiquated 1990 Toyota Pickup. Currently cruising along the iconic Silk Road in a 2008 Toyota Tundra, her full-time navigator duties are rewarded with bowls of plov and lagman noodles, hikes in the Tian Shan, and countless cups of fragrant Tashkent tea. As senior editor at Overland Journal, you can usually find Ashley buried in a pile of travel books, poring over maps, or writing about the unsung women of overlanding history, including her enduring inspiration, Barbara Toy. @desktoglory_ash

Our No Compromise Clause: We do not accept advertorial content or allow advertising to influence our coverage, and our contributors are guaranteed editorial independence. Overland Collective may earn a small commission from affiliate links included in this article. We appreciate your support.

Transcript

Ashley Giordano (00:01.122)
Hello and welcome to the Overland Journal Podcast. I’m your host, Ashley Derdano, and today I have Candida Lewis here. Yay! Female motorcycle rider, extraordinaire, trailblazer, amazing human. Welcome to the podcast.

Candida (00:11.388)
Let’s leave.

Candida (00:20.414)
Thank you so much for having me. We’ve met so many years ago and I can’t believe I’m talking to you after so so long. It’s amazing. Yeah. Yeah.

Ashley Giordano (00:29.504)
Yes. I think it was at Elverland Expo quite a few years ago. Yeah. So great to see you. And you’re joining from Bali and I’m in my mobile podcast studio in Mongolia. And we’re actually on the same time zone, which happens very rarely to me. So I’m excited to be in real time with you.

Candida (00:49.896)
That’s cool. I actually moved from Bali to the Ghili Islands now, so yeah, I’m I’m on Ghili.

Ashley Giordano (00:57.861)
amazing. Okay. That’s great. Well we’ll chat about what you’re doing in Indonesia.

Candida (00:58.226)
Yeah.

Candida (01:05.244)
So so after I started riding a motorcycle solo and I did that for a couple of years, I was like, How can I make this a profession? So that’s when I started doing motorcycle tours and I’ve led about fifty seven motorcycle tours so far. And yeah, so now we have motorcycle tours that’s that are running in Bali so

Ashley Giordano (01:07.148)
What are you up to?

Candida (01:34.734)
A lot of people from India and around the world are coming for these tours. So so normally I lead them, but not this time because I have an injury. But yeah, my team is leading about six groups here in Bali. And now we just have a break between two groups, which is why I’ve come to Ghile Islands to snorkel and for some scuba diving.

Because on my ride from India to Australia, which was eight years ago, this is where I did my dive course. and I and I also was offered a job here. So I just came back to thank them for everything they did for me like eight years ago.

Ashley Giordano (02:20.046)
that’s so nice. I love that so much. Just come back and say hello. It’s just nice to see friendly faces. that’s so cool. So many motorcyclists and I think overlanders in general have found ways to keep the the dream alive by combining motorcycling or overlanding with tours.

Candida (02:21.347)
Mm.

Candida (02:27.618)
Yeah.

Candida (02:37.312)
Yeah. Yeah

Yeah, and like eight years ago this place and these people just found me on Instagram and they asked me to come over and do a course for completely free. And yeah, like at that time I I was very broke. So like they took me in and they trained me. I did not even know how to swim at that time, so they taught me everything, which is awesome.

And ever since then I’ve been swimming with whale sharks and humpback whales and doing a lot of crazy stuff, which is so cool.

Ashley Giordano (03:19.778)
This adventure and this lifestyle has taken you to so many different places and had incredible experiences. but I wanted to talk to you about before it all began and how you got into this way of life and and your sort of childhood when you first started writing. So take me back to that time in your life. I know that your your father had some impact on that.

Candida (03:46.525)
Yes, I grew up in a small town in Hubly call in India in South India called Hubli. And over there women weren’t allowed to ride motorcycles, but my dad rode a motorcycle and I remember ever since I was a baby, he would always put me in front of him on the tank. And because it’s a small place at that time

there weren’t any rules. So like I would always sit in front and like hold on to the handlebar. And I really loved the feeling of being on a motorcycle and the wind in my face. It’s and just like growing up sitting on my dad’s motorcycle. And the day that I could like put my feet w when I was tall enough, I started riding a motorcycle and my friends in college,

a lot of them encouraged me to ride motorcycle even though I did not have one, they would always give me their motorcycles to ride. And when I was in college we had only four four hours of university in in the morning. So we would always go out exploring waterfalls and beaches and finding all these hidden spots on the motorcycle and I absolutely loved it.

But then life took over and I got like a finance job in the big city in Bangalore. And I moved there and luckily my first manager at Oracle, he was a biker too, and he had like 10 motorcycles. So every weekend we would all go riding and he would let me borrow one of his motorcycles and we would go on crazy adventures and I absolutely loved it.

I did that for four years and I even loved my finance job. But then I moved to a different company where they never allowed me to ride motorcycles. They would always stop me from riding motorcycles and never give me leaves from work and stuff. And that got me really like mentally. like I I started hating doing my finance job and

Candida (06:03.488)
Because I was really stuck in the office all the time. And every time I’d look out of the window, I would always see that I wanna be out there, not in the office. So then I don’t know how, but I got invited for a TV show in India where they wanted me to do like a a three month ride across India with ten other bikers for a TV show. And

I said yes to it and within four days I left from my job. I took like a three month sabbatical and I left. And I was so excited about this TV show, but then unfortunately it got over in ten days is because everyone on the show couldn’t get along and it was really, really tough, right? It was called Extreme Ride. So yeah

Everybody couldn’t get along and it was very tough for the others. So at the end of ten days from ten riders we were down to only four riders. So then they had to cancel the T V show. And then I called my mother and I was like, This is a once in a lifetime opportunity. I’m never ever gonna get like three months of leave in my life ever again. I have to use this.

And then I was like, I’m gonna fly back home and take my own motorcycle and ride across India and do the same sort of trip by myself. And my mother’s like, Are you crazy? India’s not safe for women to ride, you won’t be able to do this and all of that. But I was like, if I was able to ride for ten days in such a remote part of India doing all these hard things, and even on the show

I was alone most of the time and there was nobody to help. So I told her if I could do all this for the last ten days by myself, I can do ride through India and I’ll start off with South India because South India is considered more safer. So I immediately flew back to Bangalore, picked up my motorcycle and I started riding. And yeah, I just continu continued riding for like

Candida (08:27.3)
three months. It was the best time of my life, those three months riding solo. Nobody knew what I was doing. Only on the last day when I was sitting on one of the beach beaches in India for sunset was when a guy just randomly walked up to me and asked me, What are you doing here all by yourself? And I just told him that I just the road for three months across India.

And he he said, Can I take a picture of you? And I was like, Okay. And the next day was big news in in all the newspapers in India. He was a journalist and only then did people know that I was doing this big ride across India. And even my manager called me up and he was like, You’re doing this ride all alone all alone now, you gotta come back to work. So so I did go back.

to work. and the first day was great after this three months of riding because everybody were like super excited to see me. They were had a lot of questions about my trip and they were so proud of me. but the very next day when I had to go back to work, I fell really, really sick and I was I couldn’t even get out of the bed.

So I called my manager and I told him that I can’t come to work today. I’m extremely sick. And he’s like, if you don’t come to work today, you’re losing your job because you weren’t here for the last three months and you can’t like not come to work again. So I asked a couple of friends to like come home and get me and take me to work and that’s what I did. And like I struggled to get up, dressed up, went to work.

I just reached work and my manager was like, my god, you’re really sick. I think you should go home. And I was like, my god, I have to deal with all of this again. I can’t do this anymore. And I like burst out crying. And I and I immediately called my mother again, and I was like, I can’t do this anymore. You gotta trust me. I’m you just give me one year of time.

Candida (10:47.513)
And let me do something with motorcycles. And if I can’t do something with motorcycles, I’ll always come back to my finance job. Like you’ve just gotta trust me. And then my mother was like, We’ve put in all of our money and we’ve saved everything and we’ve like you worked so hard to get this awesome job and you’re giving it all away to ride motorcycles. Like

That’s unheard of in India, especially when you have the only child as well. Because like everybody in India are taught to become like engineers, doctors. like really good jobs, right? so me leaving everything from motorcycling, my mother wasn’t too happy, but she said, Okay, fine, I’ll give you a year’s time to figure things out. So I was like super happy.

Went to my manager, put down my papers and then I I served like a two month notice period and then I continued writing again for the next four months and it was the best time of my life. just being by myself taught me like how capable I am of handling different situations, how

The freedom and the independence that the motorcycle gave me at that time was like nothing like I could have imagined. and yeah, I just continued doing that for for the next four months. So in total I was on my own for about seven months and I and I rode across India like thirty-two thousand kilometers and covered twenty-five states of India and I was the first woman in India to do that.

Ashley Giordano (12:42.999)
Yay. Groundbreaking. Tell me more about the hurdles that women face and faced in India like at that time. because this was a big deal for you to go out and do this. because there were you were talking earlier too about how you weren’t allowed to go or people were like saying it’s dangerous or you weren’t having these opportunities to ride your bike. So yeah, what were the hurdles that face?

women riding motorcycles and why was it unusual at that time?

Candida (13:16.711)
Yeah, in two thousand fifteen it was just the beginning of social media and it like a lot like growing up in the small town we always had to be back home by five in the evening, never be out after dark. we weren’t allowed to talk to boys in general. We only had to be in a girls group. So it was very restrictive.

And everybody like growing up in a small town, you have like a certain radius and nobody goes outside of that circle. Ev everything just happens within this. So the only things that you see are bad things on the news and nobody shows you the good side of it. Which is why like parents especially are very scared to ch send their children outside. And

Which is why there weren’t any women riding motorcycles at that time. A lot of women were riding scooters and scooties, like the small mopeds, but not really anybody riding motorcycles. And when I started riding motorcycles, like a lot of boys would like whistle at me and call me names and stuff like that. But I just like I did not care about it. I just loved riding motorcycles, sir.

yeah, but a lot has changed over the years and now there’s so many more women riding motorcycles in India. a lot of husbands and brothers are so supportive to the women riders and they’re encouraging more women to ride motorcycles, which is amazing because I did not have that at that time. But I see a lot has changed there.

Ashley Giordano (15:12.537)
Do you think that’s because of social media and also seeing more women riding? It’s become more normal or more accepted.

Candida (15:21.654)
Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Because when I was riding in two thousand fifteen, I would get a lot of messages and mails from parents, from from men saying that we we love what you’re doing. we keep showing your videos to our daughters and our wives to encourage them to ride motorcycles. And there were also messages from some people saying

that you are very bad influence and we don’t want our daughters to watch your videos because they are gonna become super independent and travel the world. So there was always like two sides to it always. But I’m just happy I continued doing it for the last twelve years now and it has helped so many girls out there to go out and explore the world.

Ashley Giordano (16:16.909)
I love how it seems like from when I’ve been chatting with some other female motorcyclists that that time period is significant not only in India, but in other areas of the world as well. with people like yourself from Pakistan, from Southeast Asia, you know, like Jovena and other riders. there’s so many that

It seems like a movement, not just in India, but in in the broader scale of parts of the world for increasing mobility, travel and adventure and freedom for women.

Candida (17:00.592)
Yeah, absolutely. That was the best time for us to be on social media and to keep posting every day. Like I started my Facebook page only to inform my family members of my whereabouts and to send them pictures because at that time like we did not have like internet that was free and we had to pay for every MB use.

So I didn’t want to individually send pictures to all my relatives and family. So I created an Instagram page and I told them this is where I’m gonna post everywhere and this is how you follow me. And at the end of that India trip, I grew to ten thousand followers because they were not just my family but a whole lot of other people following the journey as well. So it just happened

naturally and randomly. Like I did not go out there to be an influencer. I thought I’m influencer wasn’t even a word, you know. Yeah. We would write the whole day and click one picture and write about the whole day. And that was perfect. We had no stories, no reels, nothing like that. It was just one picture and he write about it. It was the best time.

Because it gave you so much of time to actually see the world, talk to people, ride and be in the moment. You know, now with all these things happening on social media, you’re like constantly focusing on content creation and w what people like and keeping up with the trends, which is crazy.

Ashley Giordano (18:48.237)
What kinds of trends are you seeing right now?

Candida (18:52.882)
like it it I’m a bit upset is because for the last four years I’ve been stuck at the same number on social media is because I I am not keeping up with the trends of dancing in front of a motorcycle or like doing all these crazy things. But I’m happy that even though I I’m I have the same number, it’s genuine followers and I still get to work with brands.

Ashley Giordano (19:07.039)
Right.

Candida (19:22.825)
I still get to do the things that I love, so it’s okay.

Ashley Giordano (19:28.331)
I agree. I think there are some trends. I’m like, you know what? I’m good. I I’m good. We’re gonna do our own thing in our own way. And so, yeah, every everything’s different for for different people. but tell me a bit more. you’ve done some other trips since India. Obviously, you’ve done lots of traveling in India, but you’ve been to Europe, you’ve been to the US, you did a ride to Australia.

Candida (19:32.184)
Mm-hmm.

Candida (19:56.83)
Yeah.

Ashley Giordano (19:57.177)
What were some experiences during those trips that are that are memorable or interesting?

Candida (20:05.415)
Yeah, I have to talk to you about the India to Australia ride because that was the biggest ride I’ve done and that all ha happened to me so randomly is because one of my picture from the India trip I had submitted to the Overland Expos Best Photography Cest, which was happening on Facebook.

And I actually won that competition out of fifteen thousand people that applied for it. Which is which is how I got to the US and that’s how I got to meet you and meet all the other incredible people. And while I was there, Alistair Farland’s parents who who used to come often to the Overland Expo had started

Ashley Giordano (20:35.424)
Wow, my gosh.

Candida (20:58.22)
a charity organization called what is it called?

Candida (21:07.134)
I forgot about

Ashley Giordano (21:08.94)
Is it Change Your World? Travel Project? Yeah.

Candida (21:10.713)
Change your world. That’s yeah, okay. Change your world. Yeah, absolutely. So his parents introduced the charity called Change Your World Charity. And at that time I had not heard anything about it. And while I was at Overland Expo, everybody kept talking to me about Alistair Farland, all his amazing work and about the Change Your World Foundation.

And I had no clue about it. But the more I spoke to people, the more I read about him and the more I heard about him, I was like, whoa, we have so many similarities and we were also the same age. So Alistair left on a world trip from Australia and he was going and he was coming to the Overland Expo as well, but then he met with an accident.

and he unfortunately passed away. And for any parent that is like the worst thing that could happen, especially when you’re a w on a world trip and for any parents it’s like the most devastating thing and like every parent would want their son to come back home and he couldn’t do that. So when when I heard about

Change your world foundation and they were gonna select four people from around the world to to do projects that that’s impactful for the youth. And and I I was also very happy that Alistair’s parents wanted to support youth from around the world because if it was an Indian parent, they would have told a hundred other youth

never to touch a motorcycle. But Alistair’s parents were still encouraging other youth to get on motorcycles and to see the world and to not let an incident like this stop them from doing the things they loved. Which which was insane. I had never heard about this. And so when we had to submit our projects for the sa for change of world, there were four of us.

Candida (23:36.217)
from different parts of the world and I submitted a project. like I wanted to ride from India to Australia, that is Bangalore to Sydney, because I wanted to finish the trip for Alistair and go meet his parents. and just do this big ride. Like like at that point in time I had never ever crossed

countries by my motorcycle. I had only ridden in India, so it was a first time for me. But being at Overland Expo, meeting people like Sam Manekom, Ted Simon, Simon and Lisa, all these incredible people who are speakers, they gave me so many tips and they gave me the knowledge and the help to go out there and to do these amazing things. And also they helped me with

how to prepare pe presentations to pitch to brands and companies. So it all worked out. And within the next three months I had got one of the biggest sponsors in India, like a motorcycle company to sponsor the trip. And I had started on this journey to ride from India to Australia. But in my planning stage I thought I could do it in three months.

But when I actually started riding, I realized that this is a once in a lifetime opportunity and I shouldn’t be a be doing it so fast. I should experience everything on the way and help people. So so because of that, it took me eight months to get from India to Australia. But I’m so grateful I did that. Like in Cambodia I helped build a school. In in Laos, I thought it’s

Where I was teaching English. And then when I came to Bali, I got this opportunity to do my dive course. and that’s how I didn’t I learned how to swim and did my scuba driving training. And they also asked me if I wanted to be a master, dive master, but I couldn’t continue that because I had a ear infection. And then

Candida (25:55.864)
Also, when I reached Australia, a skydiving company wrote to me and I got a skydive for free. And and at that moment I do not really understand why all these crazy things are happening to me. But when on the final day of at the Sydney Harbor Bridge and the Opera House, when I met Alice Farland’s parents for the first time and I thanked them for giving

Me this opportunity and this idea to explore the world and to meet them, and I also got to stay in their house and to get to know Alistair more. That’s when I realized that Alistair w used to s used to scuba dive, he used to skydive, and he had big pictures of all of this in his house, and it was crazy. It was literally like I was finishing the ride for him.

I also got to meet his best friend and his c close friends along the way through Australia. So it was really awesome. They were all following the journey and they were all telling me how thankful they are for that I’m doing this for them. So it was very, very cool that it it worked out and I’m so glad that I took eight months to do the journey because after I did that ride nobody has

ever been able to r do that same route again because the war started in Myanmar, the borders have been closed ever since. This small ferry that I took from Malaysia to Indonesia has been closed now forever. So it was the best thing that I could do at that time and I’m so so grateful that I was able to ride from India to Australia through ten countries. Yeah.

Ashley Giordano (27:51.373)
Wow. What did it feel like to arrive in Australia?

Candida (27:57.618)
Yeah, like like it was a dream moment. Like like growing up I would always see the opera house and Sydney H harbour bridge and all the photos, but and there would be a lot of Indians that actually flew there and took those pictures, but being there on an Indian motorcycle with an Indian number placed felt like I have finally aca accomplished something.

And there were almost sixty people waiting for me and all clapping when I arrived. So there was a a very good feeling, yeah. It was awesome.

Ashley Giordano (28:37.105)
Plus the significance of the trip that you did for on behalf of or in the spirit of Alistair as well to be arriving. I’m sure that was quite powerful.

Candida (28:49.617)
Yeah. Yeah. I was just so super grateful to have made it there like alive and in one piece. Because along the way there were a couple of challenges. Like in Thailand I kind of broke my wrist and but I still continue riding like that. In Indonesia I missed one of the smaller tsunamis by one day where the day before where I was camping.

Ashley Giordano (28:51.599)
Yeah.

Candida (29:17.835)
the tsunami hit and about a thousand people died. So there were a lot of crazy misses and I was like really happy just to be alive and to finish the trip, you know.

Ashley Giordano (29:31.569)
There’s this overland magic that I have experienced from time to time where you’re like, Ooh, this one thing, or you meet one person and they tell you some information or something happens or you just ha all these serendipitous little things seem to happen to set you on this path that helps you. And this has happened to us and it sounds like you as well. It’s like the overland magic.

of serendipity.

Candida (30:00.991)
Yeah, it happens all the time. And sometimes if you you’ll be riding for like five days and you see no one on the road, but then when you actually have a breakdown and you really need help, someone will be there in five minutes to help you. Out of nowhere. Yeah.

Ashley Giordano (30:18.768)
Yes. That overland magic. wow. wow. Very cool. Well, congratulations on that. I know you’ve done other rides since then. Tell me a little bit about you went to Europe as well, right? I think. Yeah.

Candida (30:41.749)
Yeah. Yeah, so soon after the Australia ride I wanted to continue this ride around the world, but I had to come back home and like figure things out how to get the funding, how to where to start working. And as soon as I came back to India I thought maybe I should work as a as a manager at one of a motorcycle companies so I can make some money. But then I realized

That’s a stupid idea because if I do that I’m gonna be stuck in the off the office again and the same desk job. And and then a lot of inquiries started coming on Instagram and Facebook saying you’ve done all these wonderful trips and we would like to see India and why don’t you take us on on a tour of India? And I was like, that’s not a bad idea.

And I can also own in dollars. So that’s when I actually started doing the tours. and I started leading foreigners in India. Like I I would take them to South India, to Rajasthan, to Ladakh, and they absolutely loved it. And then and then the f very first group that I led through Rajasthan, they loved the tour so much. And this group of people

would go to different countries every year. So the next year they were going to South Africa and they were like, why don’t you lead this tour for us in South Africa? And I’m like, I’ve never been to South Africa. How can I even lead the tour? They were like, Don’t worry, you go ten days in advance and you prepare the route when we’ll arrive and and you lead us. And I thought they were mad.

But then I was so grateful for the opportunity and I flew there. and I did this trip with them and it was amazing. And now it’s been twelve years now. We ride every single year together. But that was just the start of it and I realized that I could lead Indian people to foreign trips. And that’s basically how my company began. For almost twelve years it was called India on a motorcycle, but I just

Candida (33:06.381)
changed it and now it’s called grinning monkeys. So we do tours in seven different countries right now and I have a business partner which is super cool. but yeah so that was basically it. I I started earning money out of my my passion and then and then but then COVID hit and then I was like

no. Travel. but I used the the time at COVID to spend time with my parents because for almost eight years I did not see them for very long. I was continuously traveling, try to build the business, which is why for seven months I stayed with my parents and it was an amazing time just to be with them.

And then once the borders opened I started travelling again. And then because of COVID and because I had lost so many years of like international travel, three years ago I decided to do a a a Europe trip and the idea that I pitch pitched to brands in India was doing s twenty five countries in six months.

and I was super happy to be starting off the ride at the ABR Festival, which is like one of UK’s biggest festival, and I was invited there as a speaker. So I was like, why not start at the festival, do the wh entire ride and head back? But being a s a a single Indian woman, it’s so difficult to get visas. So

Even though I wrote like multiple letters to the embassy and stuff, they only gave me a three month visa. So now I had to do the six month ride in three months. And it was the most hectic ride of my life because it was twenty-five countries, about twenty thousand kilometers in three months. And basically it was like four.

Candida (35:22.66)
four days in each country. I know that all the countries are together and stuff like that. But me being me, I love to explore, I love to like talk to people. I love to do all the activities available. So every day I was riding from around six AM in the morning till ten PM in the night so I could fit everything. I would go hiking, swimming, doing everything possible just to like

cherish the time that I had over there. So yeah, I completed twenty five countries in three months and that was another big trip that I’ve done in my life. Yeah.

Ashley Giordano (36:08.027)
And then you needed a vacation.

Candida (36:09.772)
Yeah.

Ashley Giordano (36:11.699)
Yeah, Europe’s tricky like that. That’s not very much time, and I think, yeah. It’s difficult because there’s so much to see there, as you know. So it’s not very long, but yeah. I want to talk more about India with you. And I’ve never been, so I’m wondering what are your tips and advice on coming to India as an overland traveler?

Candida (36:23.087)
Yeah.

Ashley Giordano (36:41.649)
And I know that’s very general question, but I will get into the details.

Candida (36:44.042)
My first question is when are you coming to India? ‘Cause you have to come here. ‘Cause India is definitely like a continent, it’s not like a country. We have everything from snow capped mountains to the desert to the like awesome beaches to like we have everything. The wildlife is amazing, like

Things that you see on the road in India is insane. The elephants, if you’re lucky, you see tigers, leopards.

So many things, you know, every day in India is like a new experience. And every few hundred kilometers that you ride, everything’s different. You know, the language changes, the way people dress change, the food is different, the way people c like everything is so different, which is why I say that India is more like a continent. And

Even though I’ve ridden through it like so many times, like I think now I’ve done at least fifteen or sixteen times of the entire country. But still it’s never enough because there’s so much to see, so much to do, so many places to go to. The waterfalls are incredible. Like like everything has changed though from the last twelve years. Everything has become more touristy.

There’s a lot more hotels. It’s become a lot more safer because of the internet. But yeah, there’s a lot of change.

Ashley Giordano (38:28.551)
Wow. So what time of year would you suggest? Because the north obviously, high elevation, mountainous, other areas are gonna be hot.

Candida (38:36.508)
Yeah, so the moun the mountain areas are usually opened between May to October because the rest of the time there’s crazy snow, like at least twenty or thirty feet of snow, so the passes are closed. So that’s when you would want to do the north. And South India, you can do

Like almost throughout the year, but only avoid the rainy season because sometimes the rainy season can be really rough. in some parts of South India it rains the entire day. But most of the time we have like sunny weather good for riding and it’s perfect. Like a few people struggle with the heat and the humidity. But like that’s why I would suggest riding in South India.

Between the months of October to Feb. Yeah.

Ashley Giordano (39:34.227)
Great. And what kind of resources should visitors use for route finding, camping, or is it more is it sort of more suitable to choose like a guest house or a hotel? And I’m thinking motorcycle, but also four by four overland vehicle.

Candida (39:54.423)
Yeah, so I overlander does work in India but I would suggest not camping in India because it’s not very safe. Because there’s so many people everywhere you go and people are always curious about who is in the tent or who is in this vehicle so they will come and check on you and you wouldn’t want to do that. And you will find a stay in India, like a very decent stay for

ten dollars or like thirty dollars which is very reasonable. So I think that’s a better option to get a hotel to stay or if you’re in your truck it’s absolutely safe, but I wouldn’t suggest people to camp.

Ashley Giordano (40:41.467)
Gotcha. Right on. another question I have is about like planning your route and where how do you know what should what should you go do sort of should you do north first and then sett like I don’t know. What would what would you do?

Candida (41:03.166)
If you’re if you’re like a adventurous soul and if you wanna get away from the people, then you do the north first because there’s very few people up north and and especially when it’s colder months like September, October, there’s very few tourists. So it’s perfect to do the Himalayas at that time. but then if you come to South India the people are much more friendly or there’s a lot more

food options, and but there’s a lot of traffic. that’s the only thing about South South India. But like it always depends on what you prefer. But I would say if you go up to the Himalayas first and then get an idea of how the traffic works, how people work and then make your way down. I think it’s better.

But yeah, I haven’t done a lot of riding through the central part of India because there’s still a few like Nax Light areas and even in the northeast. But it’s a lot safer now because of social media and stuff. But I wouldn’t suggest camping in certain states like Bihar and Jharkhand, which which is what I tell most of the overlanders, but some of them do not listen and they do it anyways. But yeah.

I would say no camping.

Ashley Giordano (42:33.822)
What are the threats or concerns in those areas for camping? Or is it just the number of people that are inquiry like coming over to chat with you?

Candida (42:44.378)
Yeah, yeah, there’s just way too many people and like if you’re just one person or two person, you’re still like you’re still vulnerable because there’s like ten or twenty or thirty men. So you never know what’s gonna happen. So it’s just best to avoid being in that situation. And like even when I was travelling

every time I would stop in those areas to buy a bottle of water or something, they would always be like twenty or thirty men surrounding me. But it was always just out of curiosity. they wanted to know what a woman is doing all alone by herself here on a motorcycle. They would never like try to harm me or anything. They just wanted and the problem with them is because they don’t know the language

They would just stare at you and like just think stuff in their head but never really talk to you because they’re really scared. but then once you talk to them and tell them what you’re doing, they’re so happy and they invite you to their homes to have lunch or or or for a tea. So stuff like that. So not everybody you meet on the road

is there to harm you. But then sometimes because of a few people the whole country gets a bad name. But yeah, but I would also say that every time that a media person or or a reporter came to interview me, the first question that they would ask me is, did something bad happen to you? And if I would say no, they would they would say, Okay, the interview is not even happening. You know?

Ashley Giordano (44:10.419)
Yeah.

Ashley Giordano (44:16.595)
Yes.

Candida (44:37.644)
I and even recently when I met with an accident in in the northeast, a monkey ran into my motorcycle and I couldn’t do anything about it. It threw me off the motorcycle and I f hit my knee and I injured it real bad. there was there were twenty-five media people at the hospital in less than half an hour.

Because someone had informed them that a woman biker has met with an accident and she died and I think that was the biggest news ever. And I just came out of the hospital after an X ray and I flipped out. And I was like, I’ve been riding for twelve years now and you never wanted to cover the story. You never wanna

Talk to me when I’m healthy and happy and exploring your side of the world. You want news when something has happened to me so that you can make a big headline saying how a woman ride doesn’t know how to ride a motorcycle and she met with an accident. You know, that’s how crazy the world is right now. They only want all these spicy topics and they never wanna cover the good parts of the story.

Yeah, that’s one thing that I don’t know.

Ashley Giordano (45:58.696)
Yeah. And what a not cool when you’re in a situation where you’re vulnerable and in pain and coming out of the hospital. You know, like whatever. Come on. By the way, how is your recovery going? sending you all the best for a rapid heal. I know it’s been a process. maybe you can share with us.

Candida (46:12.623)
Mm-hmm.

Ashley Giordano (46:25.853)
If that’s okay, how that’s been going and obviously you can’t ride and I’m sure that’s been s very tough for you.

Candida (46:34.368)
Yeah, after twelve years of being on a motorcycle and riding like eleven months every year, this is the longest time I’ve been off my motorcycle. It’s because I tore my ACL, MCL, PCL, and both my meniscus. So one of my knees was completely gone and the doctor said I I I would won’t be able to get on a motorcycle for at least a year.

And I would take at least seven or eight months to start walking. And I think that was one of the toughest things for me because being on the move all the time and and changing places every three days, being in one place was the hardest thing that I could ever do. But I’m glad I had like supportive parents who looked after me for the first three months.

And then my boyfriend who was riding through Africa he flew down to India and then he started looking after me and just helping me walk again and helping me go to the gym and to get back on my feet. And luckily now it’s less than six months and I’m here in Bali and on the Ghili Islands and I’m going swimming every day, going to the gym every day and and

I’m just so so happy to be on the move again. I just started riding a quad bike. I’ve started riding a scooter. So I don’t think it’s gonna take much time for me to get back on the motorcycle.

Ashley Giordano (48:16.371)
I’m so glad to hear that. Do you have any sort of words of advice or wisdom to somebody else who has experienced maybe they’re in the early stages of an injury? And I think keeping that mental space is probably tricky, but you’ve probably learned a lot from the experience.

Candida (48:39.086)
Yeah, the first couple of months are the toughest because you feel like giving up. You feel like why is this happening to you? Like I would constantly question myself, saying that why did this happen to me? Because it wasn’t my mistake. What did I did do wrong? Why ha do I have to go through so much pain? but then I think sometimes things like this happen in your life.

To make other things in your life better. You know, you just gotta trust the process. for twelve years of my life I was riding all alone, solo travels. it was very difficult for me to find love, to start a family, stuff like that. But I I think because of slowing down I was able to na I am now able to be in a proper relationship.

with somebody that does the same things as me who is so supportive. and yeah, in the beginning I did not understand why all this is happening, but now I do. And sometimes you don’t understand the bigger picture, but then when you just go with the flow and you try to be strong and you know that this phase is gonna pass, things will get better. Yeah. The

Pain is insane. I know that. I would cry every single day but it definitely gets better.

Ashley Giordano (50:20.713)
I’m so glad to see you moving forward and out of that pain and into the next thing. So yay. We’re I’m glad.

Yay, she’s clapping too.

So speaking of moving forward, what is next for you? I see you have some tours coming up.

Candida (50:42.386)
Yeah. Yeah, I’m so excited for my Mongolia trip ’cause for the last fifteen years my dream destination was Mongolia and Japan. And next year we’re gonna be launching Japan tours, which is why soon after Bali I’m going to Japan to design a new itinerary and then in September we have my first Mongolia ride and I’m super excited for that. And

in November and December we also have South India tours where a lot of people from the US and the UK are flying down. and I will show them the best parts of South India that I love. And then me and Mark are also planning to ride in South America in the end of the year and make our way to North America. So hopefully next year I’ll be there at

the Overland Expo and I get to see you. And hopefully we can come to all the three overlanding overland expos that happen through the country. That’d be awesome.

Ashley Giordano (51:53.893)
Amazing plans. my gosh. Yay. That sounds so incredible.

Candida (51:55.724)
Yeah. This is looking for sponsors, I hope that goes true.

Ashley Giordano (52:03.112)
Yeah, yes. that’s wonderful. Before we wrap up for people coming to India, what are some phrases that we should learn to say hello or

Candida (52:19.104)
It’s just Namaste and then Daniavad that’s like thank you. But like I said, every state has a different language. So it’s better when you land in India, you ask the local people for four or five different words so you understand their local language and not know just one language. But everybody in India knows English, so you wouldn’t have a problem with that.

Ashley Giordano (52:49.95)
I bet you have a big book of words after coming to India for each region with the different greetings and everything. Wow. Very cool.

Candida (52:55.241)
Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. And I would love for you to come and stay at my place when you’re in South India. I have a farmhouse called the Boulder House and there are like five doggies and cats and you could also park your truck there and and camp for a few days and it’s awesome. We sometimes even have elephants coming. So you would love it.

Ashley Giordano (53:23.49)
wow. thank you. That sounds so great. And I’ll start to learn my different words for different regions before I show up. Thank you, Candida. my gosh, it’s been so great to see you. So great to chat. I am stoked for all of the things that you have going on moving forward. I can’t wait to see you in person. And where can the Overland Journal podcast listeners find you online?

Candida (53:24.924)
Yeah.

Candida (53:53.728)
on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube I’m known as Candida Lewis and my motorcycle tour company is called grinning monkeys dot com.

Ashley Giordano (54:06.112)
Fantastic. Great stuff. Thank you for joining me virtually via Indonesia and Mongolia. It’s been great. And yeah, I can’t wait to chat with you again.

Candida (54:07.448)
Yeah.

Candida (54:20.134)
Yeah, same here. Thank you so much for having me on the podcast and I can’t wait to see you soon.

Ashley Giordano (54:27.646)
Yay. And a shout out, big shout out to the Overland Journal podcast listeners for tuning into today’s episode. I hope you enjoyed it and we’ll catch you next time.