A NEW BEGINNING

There is a first time for everything, seeing my kids enjoying their first experience of living outdoors will be a moment to cherish forever. And the Mercedes-Benz Marco Polo made that possible!

- BERTRAND D'SOUZA

Give me an open road, and you’ll find me somewhere on it! You can attribute that quote to me, and that is what my bumper sticker would read! If there is one thing I need more than the air I breathe, it is the opportunity to get out on the road from time to time, heading to God knows where. Ladakh is a favored haunt, so is Rajasthan, Gujarat, Uttarakhand, Kerala, Goa, Karnataka, and the North East India. I just need a set of wheels and off I go. My go-to spots are the ones that have less habitation, thus fewer people around and nothing to mar the landscapes. So a tent, sleeping bags and camping equipment are de-rigueur for the road trip. My kids had unfortunately not been a part of this side of my life, yet. My teenager is quite averse to the whole outdoorsy life, too many bugs, too pampered, and over doting parents (make that me) who just wouldn’t put him through the rough stuff! My daughter, on the other hand, was too young so far to accompany me on some of these experiences.

So you can imagine my unbridled pleasure when Mercedes-Benz India, announced plans to introduce the Marco Polo in India. The Marco Polo is Mumbai’s one-room kitchen, on wheels! A tiny apartment you can take anywhere with you. It is in short, a camper van built in the way only Mercedes-Benz knows how. So it’s a bit luxurious, a little swanky, but then luxury out in the wild where you don’t have to rough it sleeping on the ground, isn’t that something anybody would crave for? Took me no more than a few minutes to convince my son to accompany me on this road trip. My daughter, on the other hand, it felt like we just opened up a gate for her to run free, god bless her soul!