Pune:  Two men from Bangalore have embarked on an adventurous bike tour of South and Southeast Asia to spread awareness on the lack of quality education for deprived children. 

Srinidhi Raghavendra (32) and Kishore Patwardhan (34) are in Maharashtra's Jalgaon town after having made it to Pune Monday.

They left Bangalore Dec 3, and their five-month journey will end in the same city May 1 next year, by when the pair would have gone around Pakistan, Bhutan, Nepal, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Thailand and Sri Lanka.

In all, the young men expect to cover 62 cities, covering over 25,000 km, armed only with pencil and notebook, cameras packed up in panniers and backpacks. Basic camping gear will supplement their housing needs in countryside.

"We would like to create awareness that millions do odd jobs to eke out a living due to abysmal poverty and lack of education," Raghavendra, a journalist with the Bangalore-based magazine Education World, told sources.

From India the two men will enter Pakistan via Lahore, return to India, travel to Nepal, then to Bhutan, Bangladesh, Myanmar and Thailand before sailing to Sri Lanka and returning to India.

Among the cities they will pass through are Bhopal, Ahmedabad, Udaipur, Ajmer, Jaipur, Agra, New Delhi, Lahore, Rawalpindi, Jammu, Shimla, Lucknow and Kathmandu.

"Providing quality education right from the beginning is the only way to rescue children from a vicious poverty-illiteracy-poverty cycle," Raghavendra said.

 "We have already met children in four schools. Some NGOs adopted slums and villages and talked to more than 250 villagers, especially women, to take a vow to send their children to schools.

"We interacted with over 125 college boys and girls in Pune and impressed them that travelling to various parts of the country and meeting people in villages was one of the most educating experiences," he said.

According to the UN, South Asia is the world's most densely populated (305 per sq km, seven times the world average), impoverished ($350 per capita income, over 25.5 percent people live below poverty line) and illiterate (53.3 percent literacy) region.

"South Asia hosts the largest illiterate population (850 million). We want to spread this message among the common people, especially in small towns where awareness of this reality is very less," said Patwardhan, a realty entrepreneur.

"We are riding motorcycles because they give a great sense of adventure and freedom. Most importantly, it helps break barriers between people and induce friendship," he added.

"It is also the cheapest means of transport and offers the facility to stop anywhere, travel over rough terrains and be part of the landscape," added Raghavendra, who has gone cycling across the country covering 4,502 km.

The self-styled "Borderless Bikers" are also keen to promote tourism.

"Though India has vast tracts of lush green forests, long beaches, snow-capped mountains, rivers, yoga and spirituality centres, we attract only two to three million international tourists annually," Raghavendra said.

The trip, costing about Rs.1.1 million, is partly sponsored by corporates, NGOs and motorcycle clubs.

The pair bagged a national record in long-distance, non-stop scooter ride from Bangalore to Mumbai in 2000, covering a distance of 1,053 km in 15 hours and 20 minutes.

They also took the Delhi-Leh-Delhi route in July-August 2002, covering 3,500 km and over 10 high-altitude passes.