Everything Has a Start: The Story of How Devil on Wheels Became Discover With Dheeraj

Everything has a start. This one started in November 2008, on a solo drive with no itinerary, no travel blog, and no plan beyond getting behind the wheel and heading toward the Himalayas. That drive eventually became Devil on Wheels, and years later, Discover With Dheeraj. This is the story of how that happened, in my own words, not a marketing version of it.

I am Dheeraj Sharma, and I have been writing about Himalayan travel since 2009. If you have landed here wondering why a travel blog about Ladakh and Spiti has a post about a “devil,” or why some old links still say devilonwheels.com, this article should answer both. Hence, let me take you back to where it actually began.

Quick Answer: Discover With Dheeraj began as Devil on Wheels, a solo Himalaya road trip I took in November 2008 during a difficult phase of my life. I started writing about it as a blog in 2009. Over roughly 14.5 years, Devil on Wheels grew into a community of self-drive travelers, with annual DoW Mega Meets and a responsible travel initiative called DwD Causes. In 2023, I rebranded the blog to Discover With Dheeraj. Today it covers 185+ Ladakh posts, 100+ Spiti posts, and Himalayan regions from Uttarakhand to Kinnaur, and I have personally answered 100,000+ traveler questions along the way.

Quick Facts About This Story

November 2008: Where the Devil Was Born

Quick Answer: The journey began in November 2008 when I decided to drive toward the Himalayas alone, without a fixed itinerary, during one of the hardest phases of my life. I had already traveled through most of the popular tourist circuits of North India, but never on my own terms. That solo drive is the actual origin point of everything this blog has become.

I will not dress this up. By November 2008, I was down, out, and honestly close to giving up on a lot of things. I had already seen most of the popular tourist places across North India by then, but always as part of someone else’s plan, someone else’s itinerary, never on my own terms. One day I decided that if nothing else was working, I would at least get in the car and drive toward the mountains. Not because I had a grand plan for self-discovery. Mostly because I needed to move, and the Himalayas were the only direction that felt right.

Here is exactly how I described that decision back when I first wrote about it, in the same slightly dramatic, third-person voice I used in the earliest days of the blog:

“Himalayas always had a history of being associated to peace and calmness, so devil decided to have a treatment called ‘Nirvana @ Himalayas.’ He went to find the answer to the questions which haunts him every moment, top of the list being ‘Me or Devil??’ The answer still remains elusive, but devil is getting closer to the same. By breaking the shackles of all so organized and planned trips, devil decided to head for the unknown adventures on his own wheels and find answers which have eluded him so long.”

That is not polished writing. I know that now, looking back at it from 2026. But it is honest, and it is exactly how a solo drive with no map turned into the thing you are reading right now. In case you are wondering, the answer to “Me or Devil” never really arrived as a clean conclusion. What arrived instead was a habit of driving to the Himalayas whenever life needed resetting, and eventually, a blog to write it all down.

Why “Devil on Wheels”? The Name Nobody Forgot

Quick Answer: I named the blog Devil on Wheels in 2009 because that is literally how I referred to myself during that first solo drive, half self-deprecating, half a nod to the reckless streak it took to actually go. The name stuck for over a decade and became well known in the Indian self-drive community, but it also confused people who assumed a blog with “devil” in the name was doing something other than helping travelers.

Dheeraj Sharma

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People asked me about the name constantly. “Why Devil, when what you’re doing is closer to angel-like work?” was a question I heard so many times over the years that I eventually had to write about it separately. In case you are new here, the honest answer is simpler than people expect. During that first drive, I felt reckless, a little self-destructive, and completely unbothered by what a “sensible” traveler was supposed to do. Devil on Wheels captured that mood exactly. It was never meant to be edgy marketing. It was just what I called myself in my own head while driving.

The name carried the blog for 14.5 years. It built genuine recognition within India’s self-drive and Royal Enfield touring community, back when very few Indian travel blogs were writing detailed, honest, mistake-included accounts of driving to Ladakh and Spiti. My friend, if you found this blog through an old devilonwheels.com link, that history is exactly why. The domain, the YouTube channel, the Instagram handle, all of it carried the “devil” name for well over a decade before anything changed.

From One Solo Drive to a Full-Blown Travel Community

Quick Answer: Devil on Wheels did not stay a solo trip journal for long. Within a few years, it grew into annual group expeditions called DoW Mega Meets, covering Ladakh, Zanskar, Spiti, and Uttarakhand, along with a responsible travel initiative called DwD Causes, where travelers carry stationery for village schools, medicines, and woolens on their trips. That shift, from a personal outlet to a community, is the part of this story I am proudest of.

Once I started writing down what I was learning on the road, other people wanted to come along. What started as one guy driving alone with his own questions turned into the DoW Mega Meets, annual group expeditions where fellow self-drive enthusiasts would travel together through Ladakh, Zanskar, Spiti, and later Uttarakhand. These were not curated tour packages. They were exactly what the earliest solo trips had been, unpolished, sometimes chaotic, genuinely about the journey and not just the destination.

Somewhere in those years, the community also grew a conscience. Every DoW Mega Meet started carrying stationery for schools in remote villages, medicines for local dispensaries, and woolens for people living at altitude where winters are brutal. We call this initiative DwD Causes, and it is not a marketing line tacked onto trip reports. It is how the community has actually traveled for years now. If you want the fuller version of what responsible travel means on this blog, I have written it out in detail in 15 tips on responsible travel in the Himalayas.

Keep in mind, none of this was planned out in advance back in 2008 or even 2009. It grew organically, one trip report and one comment section conversation at a time, because readers kept asking the same honest question travelers always ask: “I want to do this too, how do I actually plan it?”

From Devil to Discovery: Why the Blog Became Discover With Dheeraj

Quick Answer: After 14.5+ years as Devil on Wheels, I rebranded the blog to Discover With Dheeraj. The main reason was simple: people kept asking why a blog doing helpful, community-focused work was named after a “devil,” and I wanted the name to reflect what the work actually is, my own personal name behind information I stand by, rather than a persona from a 2008 road trip.

The rebrand did not happen overnight, and honestly, it took me a while to commit to it. Devil on Wheels was not just a blog name by then, it was 14.5+ years of history, an established YouTube channel, a community that recognized the name instantly. But the same question I mentioned earlier, “why Devil, when the work is closer to angel-like,” kept coming up, and eventually I agreed with it. I explained the full reasoning in a dedicated post when I made the switch, which you can read at From Devil to Discovery: Introducing “Discover With Dheeraj” if you want the complete announcement.

Discover With Dheeraj is not a different mission wearing a new name. It is the same commitment I made on that November 2008 drive: help people travel to the Himalayas smartly, safely, and responsibly, and be honest about what I know and do not know. The devil is retired as a brand name, but the DEVIL, the part of me that still needs the mountains to reset, is very much still around. That line from the original post has held up better than almost anything else I wrote back then.

What This Journey Has Become

Quick Answer: A solo, unplanned drive in November 2008 has become a Himalayan travel resource spanning 185+ Ladakh posts, 100+ Spiti posts, and detailed coverage of Uttarakhand, Manali-Kullu, Kinnaur, Lahaul, Shimla, and Pangi-Sach. I have personally answered more than 100,000 traveler questions over the last decade, and the site is still built the same way it started, from actual road trips, not desk research.

Seventeen years is a long time to keep doing anything, but the Himalayas have a way of pulling you back. What began as one man’s solo drive to figure out “Me or Devil” has grown into a resource that Indian travelers actually use to plan real trips. If you are heading to Ladakh, there are now 185+ posts covering everything from route planning to permits, and if Spiti Valley is on your list, there are 100+ posts on when to go, what to expect, and how to plan it. Uttarakhand, Manali-Kullu, Kinnaur, Lahaul, and even under-covered pockets like Pangi-Sach Valley all have their own dedicated coverage now, built the same way the very first Devil on Wheels post was: from the road, not from a desk.

I still track things like the Manali Leh Highway status season after season, the same obsessive habit that started when I needed to know myself whether a road was open before I could drive on it. In case you are new to this blog and wondering whether all this practicality replaced the personal voice from 2008, it did not. It just grew a lot more useful along the way.

The Devil Is Still In Here Somewhere

I want to end this the way I ended the very first version of this post, because it is still the truest thing I can say about all of this. The question “Me or Devil” never got a clean answer, and honestly, I have stopped expecting one. What I know now, from the other side of 15+ years of driving to the mountains, running a community, and answering more traveler questions than I can count, is that the devil was never really a problem to be solved. It was the part of me that refused to sit still in a difficult phase of life and instead pointed a car toward the Himalayas.

Dheeraj Sharma

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Discover With Dheeraj carries that same restlessness, just channeled into something more useful to more people than it was in November 2008. If you are reading this while planning your own first solo trip, or your own reset, I will say what I wish someone had told me back then. You do not need the perfect plan. You need to actually get in the car and go, and figure the rest out on the road, the way this entire blog did.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Devil on Wheels the same as Discover With Dheeraj?

Yes. Devil on Wheels was the original name of this blog, started in 2009 after my first solo drive to the Himalayas in November 2008. After 14.5+ years under that name, I rebranded to Discover With Dheeraj. Same founder, same team, same mission of helping Indian travelers plan safe and responsible Himalayan trips, just under a name that better reflects the work today.

When did Dheeraj start traveling to the Himalayas?

My first solo, unplanned drive toward the Himalayas was in November 2008. I started writing about the experience publicly in 2009, which is when Devil on Wheels was born as a blog. I have been traveling and writing about the Himalayas continuously since then, which puts me at 15+ years of experience as of 2026.

Why was the blog originally called Devil on Wheels?

I called myself “devil” during that first solo drive in 2008 because that is how reckless and unbothered by convention I felt at the time. It was never meant as edgy branding. The name stuck for years, but I eventually rebranded it because readers repeatedly questioned why work that was genuinely helpful and community-focused carried a name like “devil.”

What is the DwD community and how can I be part of it?

The DwD community grew out of the DoW Mega Meets, annual group trips to Ladakh, Zanskar, Spiti, and Uttarakhand that started a few years after the blog itself. It also includes DwD Causes, our responsible travel initiative where travelers carry stationery, medicines, and woolens for remote Himalayan communities. Feel free to follow along through the blog, comment on posts, or reach out through the YouTube channel to connect with fellow travelers.

Does Dheeraj still personally write and update the blog?

Yes. Every road status update, budget breakdown, and destination guide on this blog is grounded in either my own trips or verified information from the DwD community and official sources. I have answered 100,000+ traveler questions over the last decade, largely through blog comments, and I still update posts like the Manali Leh Highway status every season.

How is Discover With Dheeraj different from other Himalaya travel blogs?

The biggest difference is that this blog started from a genuine personal need, not a content strategy. Every practical detail, whether it is a bus fare, a petrol pump location, or a road status, comes from actual travel experience or verified community reports, not repackaged information. In case you have read other Himalaya blogs and found conflicting details, that hands-on approach is usually why our numbers hold up better.

That is the full story of how everything here started, my friend. If you have your own “November 2008” moment, a trip that changed something in you, I would genuinely love to hear about it in the comments. And if you know someone who needs to read this today, feel free to share it with them. 🙂 …