One Man Rides to the Edge of India: A Motorcycle Journey to Arunachal Pradesh, India’s Eastern Frontier

by Ketan Joshi

The plan is simple.

Ride a motorcycle to the very edge of India — to Arunachal Pradesh, where the country runs out of road and bumps into China and Myanmar… where the sun clocks in before the rest of us… and where the Himalayas collapse into rainforest with absolutely no regard for comfort.

The plan is fire.

The saddlebags get so excited that they actually catch fire.

Because Arunachal Pradesh is not just another region.

It is India in italics.

The place where India meets Asia. A land so wild and remote that the British didn’t even bother naming it — they simply called it “the hills.”

Home to more than a hundred tribes, each with its own language, dress and fiercely independent identity.

A wild mosaic of cultures and landscapes:

Buddhist monasteries clinging to cliffs.

Animist shrines deep in forests.

Ancient Hindu temples and brand-new Baptist churches.

Rice fields that double as rock-concert venues.

Ghost peppers so spicy they should require a legal waiver.

There are high Himalayan valleys where Indian and Chinese soldiers fought in 1962 — and still glare at each other across the mountains today.

There are forgotten World War II battlefields of the China-Burma-India theatre, once among the greatest battles of the war.

There are rivers so wide they look like inland seas.

There are axe-wielding gods attempting to manage anger issues.

There are kingdoms that lasted six centuries… and vanished almost overnight.

Into this surreal landscape rides one man on a Royal Enfield.

Well…

Two men this time.

What follows is a ride through mud, mountains and magnificent absurdity:

Flat tyres.

Burning baggage.

Roads with homicidal ambitions.

Wildlife with romantic agendas.

Borders that feel less like lines and more like arguments.

Funny, irreverent and occasionally singed,

One Man Rides to the Edge of India is a motorcycle adventure into one of the wildest corners of the world.

161 pages, Kindle Edition

Published March 5, 2026

About the author

Ketan Joshi is the author of the ‘Three Men on Motorcycles’ series - a humorous travel-adventure series about him and his friends - the ‘Amigos’- riding their Royal Enfield motorcycles across far-flung parts of India - Ladakh, Spiti, Coorg, Kishtawar, Killar, Saurashtra, Rajasthan, etc.

Before he got into motorcycle touring, he was a backpacker and trekker- having travelled all across India and nearby countries with his Lonely Planet. He writes about his early backpacking travels in a different series - ‘One man goes backpacking’.

Ketan is an MBA from the Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies, Mumbai and worked as a Sales and Marketing professional for over 20 years, before jumping ship to become a full time traveller and writer.

Apart from travel books, Ketan has written 2 books of detective fiction featuring the eponymous detective ‘Dipy Singh’ , one book of short stories - ‘Bombay Thrillers’ - and one textbook on Marketing.

Ketan’s writing has been praised for being humorous, easy to read, yet extremely informative and practical - and having a very unique Indian style.


Ketan lives and works in Mumbai, India.

Reviews

[Inga Aksamit · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ketan Joshi's snappy, self-deprecating style makes this an easy read, but don't be deceived — sprinkled throughout is a serious grasp of the region's layered history, confirmed by the literary references he drops with casual authority. I lived in both East and West Pakistan before the civil war and thought I understood the rough geography of the subcontinent. I was wrong. The revelation that a wedge of land sitting above what is now Bangladesh belongs to India sent me straight to the maps, where I stayed, tracing every kilometer of his route. I'm drawn to edges — Mile 0, the furthest reach of a country — and Arunachal Pradesh is exactly that kind of place. I didn't want this book to end.