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All You Need to Know about Hitchhiking in Romania

I am talking about hitchhiking in Romania. Let's break the myths for once and forever.

Hitchhiking is as dangerous as crossing roads in India, eating street food in Asia, getting run over by a speeding car, a black crow shitting on your ice-cream you are enjoying sitting on a bench in a park.

The point is in perspective. What is not dangerous in the present world anyway.

In this post, I am talking about hitchhiking in Romania. Let me break all the myths and misconceptions for you…

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Romanian Hospitality: Experiences So Far

Romanian Hospitality: Experiences So Far

In the previous post, I shared my tips on how to budget travel in Romania. To minimize our budget, we rely a big deal on people such as hitchhiking to save commute money, couchsurfing and other accommodation possibilities to save hostel/hotel money. A country’s hospitality proves to be a big factor in helping maintaining travel budget and to shaping our overall travel experience. Read the post…

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How to Budget Travel in Romania

How to Budget Travel in Romania

Do you know that Romania has 7 UNESCO World Heritage sites. Although one of the poorest countries in Europe, it is the richest in gold resources. It has Europe’s largest administrative building and the largest Boulevard. Romanian currency, Leu, is the only plastic currency in the world. You can go anywhere with this money in your pocket and never have to worry about ruining it. It is machine…

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The cafe which We are Taking Over

To travel is to let yourself get completely lost and then find all over again. Seven months ago, when I turned a full-time budget traveler I didn’t have an overall plan, I had no preset destinations in my mind and definitely no clarity about my future.

I traveled from north to south and from east to west. I lived a life I always wanted to: a life full of uncertainties and adventures. I hitchhiked, travelled in general coaches of trains, cycled along the west coast from Kochi to Kanyakumari in the south. I slept on the mountain tops all alone, sometimes in the huts with the babas, with wild animals around. I spent countless nights on the crossroads, in bus stops and in railway stations of this vast land of diversity. I ate the tastiest of foods in the humblest food junctions.

I shared my experiences through my facebook page, wordpress blog and other social media platforms with thousands of people through which I made a lot of friends and supporters. Life was full of fun & happiness but this life had just begun. Little did the solo traveler know that he will meet another solo traveler from Romania – a small country in the Eastern Europe – and the duo will not only travel together but will get lost in each other’s eyes. Catalina and I traveled to seven Indian states from North to South via West. While traveling continuously and talking limitlessly, one fine day, we realized that this country doesn’t have many physical outlet where travelers can gather, sit together, share their stories and experiences, read books, get sponsored, learn about native cultures and much more. As I studied back in college as a trainee – so called – social worker,“where there is a problem there is a solution.” We came up with the idea of opening a travel café in India. We wanted it to be in the lap of nature but not too far from big cities so we chose to do it in her favorite city in India: Rishikesh.

What is this Travel Café:

Our café will not only be a café but an activity and change making center. In today’s time when travel is treated as a mere holiday package of 3nights/4days, we will be promoting travel as a way of life, as a method of learning. It will be a hub for travelers, a platform for people to showcase their talents, a support for young people to explore the native India, a junction for foodies to satiate their taste buds and do believe that it will be a paradise for book lovers. The café will also promote the native culture of India and encourage travelers from all over the world to promote their own cultures.

The Power of Crowd:

We found a café in Rishikesh which was ready to be taken over and for doing that we needed a sum of Rs.3 lakh (almost USD 4410 ). We are two backpackers with very little money in our pockets. All we have is an idea and a will to turn it into a reality. We decided to crowdfund the amount so we started an online campaign in Indiegogo – one of the best crowdfunding platforms in the world. In the first week of the launch we raised almost INR 40,000 from our friends and followers. We are offering a lot of perks and rewards for those who are supporting us including a travel sponsorship within India.

An Appeal:

If you like our idea and the concept, do support us with any little money you can. Help us in making this dream a reality. If you are still not convinced, please spread the word out for others to decide. The campaign will be live till 17th April 2016. We need more and more like-minded people to come forward and support this idea. The café will be taken over by 1st of May and will be converted into a travel café by August end, 2016.

Campaign Link: https://igg.me/at/gonativetravelcafe

Please use this link to get to the campaign and contribute. Thanks!

The post was originally posted at and for Tripoto.com.

The Places I visited as a budget traveler

The Places we visited together before getting stuck happily in Rishikesh

India’s First Travel cafe in Rishikesh: Opening with the power of Crowdfunding To travel is to let yourself get completely lost and then find all over again. Seven months ago, when I turned a full-time budget traveler I didn’t have an overall plan, I had no preset destinations in my mind and definitely no clarity about my future.

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A Cycle Ride from Kochi to Alleapy

When I entered Wayanad from Ooty, I had no idea that I would fall so much in love with God’s own Country that I would even buy a cycle to travel slowly in this state.

This idea sprouted in Wayanad and on 26th January I ended up buying a cycle from Kochi. A friend of mine, Akshay, from Hyderabad, also came down to Kochi to join me. We both bought cycles (without gears ones) from the Broadway…

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What I learnt in 6 Months through My Travel Experiences

I have learnt that there is no perfect way of living. No soul is complete, none is full of void. There is no right time to do something you love. Perfect health,  right moment will never come. You’ll never be completely ready. A bit of courage and a lot of passion is what will make most of things done.

I have learnt that the richness is not in the wealth and the wealth is not in money. I have…

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It was the mid of October; I was standing on the NH1 highway in the outskirts of Delhi expecting a free ride to Punjab. Trucks, sedan, hatchbacks, SUVs, bikes, motorbikes, rickshaws, goods career autos and so many vehicles were running for their own life purposes. No one stopped bothering for me.

A long way to go (somewhere in Punjab)

A few of them slowed down, looked at me from top to bottom and moved on. I guess they were confused as Indians are not used to seeing an Indian citizen traveling and hitching the way I was trying to do. An hour passed and the merciless sun started hitting my head hard. I leaned on a railing and kept waiving from there. No heart melt, no curious brain dared, nothing happened for two and a half hours. I started walking on the NH1 highway towards Punjab. I kept walking and stopped at times to waive at an approaching vehicle; initially slow, after a few minutes I found myself walking at a pace as if I would reach Punjab on foot. I didn’t know what I was thinking but I kept walking. After about 20 minutes, a motorbike rider crossed me in a good speed. A hundred meters ahead, I heard a sudden braking and found that the bike-rider was taking a U-turn and was coming to me on the wrong lane. I was wondering why this guy was breaking traffic rules and coming back. I started looking at the road to see if he had dropped something and was coming to pick it up. While I was playing with my head for reasons, this handsome young guy was standing right in front of me.

The guy who stopped for me: Antriksh Rana

  Hey, bro! Do you want a lift? Are you going somewhere far?

Yes, brother! I’am going to Punjab. You missed your bus?

No, I don’t take buses. I hitchhike.

He smiled, looked amused. Why were you walking? Were you planning to go on foot?

Ha!Ha! No one was stopping so I thought I’ll change my location and try again.

Come, sit on my bike.

I realized he had no luggage, not even a helmet. I doubted if he was traveling more than 300km in a bike without such essentials. Still, I asked him if he was going to Punjab. He laughed and negated with his head and asked me to sit anyway. Confused, I hopped on and began talking to him. He told me that he assumed me to be a full-time traveler and that he always wanted to meet such people. He expressed his enthusiasm from his voice. He asked me if I would like to spend some time with him and talk to him over a cup of coffee and tell him more about me. As it was still a broad daylight and plenty of time to hitchhike, I agreed.

What happened next is a perfect example of the fun and adventure hidden between point A and point B. It reveals that slow travel is far more enriching than fast one and that at times journey is equally-if not more-beautiful than the destination.

He called many of his friends and we spent the whole day talking to each other, roaming from one place to another.

Taken with Lumia Selfie

By midnight, we were three people sitting in a room and no one wanted to sleep. So three of us rode a bike and broke into a professional wrestling ring at 3am and wrestled for an hour. We made our own rules and I was thinking that my ‘Jat’ brother will break my bones as I saw him defeating the other person in the first fight. I was prepared to take the challenge and I ended up winning our self-organized-self-ruled championship. (Click here to see the video)

The other boy who was recording the video was saying, “Hitesh ji travel kar kar ke mar rahe hain”. It was a hilarious event. We were so damn tired after a few rounds of wrestling. I was panting heavily as if I had run a marathon. I realized how cigarettes affect the capacity of our lungs, but I didn’t do anything apart from realizing it ;) . We sat there for some time and decided to go to the bank of Yamuna River which was 7 km away from the ring.

We rode in one bike at 5 in the morning. The wind was chilled, the sweat in my body turned into cold droplets, I began shivering. The road took another turn and we were on a Kutcha road. The place had a rustic smell. The earth smelled fresh and damp. The trees stood sleeping, their leaves swaying in the tune of wind. Upon reaching at the bank, we parked the bike and took the plunge in water. We played with sand the way children do. We made sand houses, we buried ourselves inside sand, and we waited for sunrise to let the morning sunshine lighten our faces.

Buried yet happy ;)

A Might Man: Sun on his shoulders

  Let the wild free

Had never seen Yamuna so clean

We met a fisherman who offered his boat to us. We rowed his boat to the middle of the river where water level was high and we jumped and swam for hours. Later, we spent the day meeting more of his friends, talking and laughing. At night, again, I was on a highway hitching a truck. My Hitchhiking Experiences with Punjabi Drivers      

This episode touched my heart deeply. I saw a part of Yamuna, within Delhi, that many would not have seen. I saw the place where on one side of the River is Delhi and on the other side is Uttar Pradesh. I saw people smuggling cheap liquor from Delhi to UP for some election, it was like a movie scene (yes, such small things fascinate me).

Had I taken a bus, it would never have happened. I would have missed meeting a vivacious person and so many of his good friends. He was much younger to me, but the energy and attitude with which he lives his life, impressed me. We are good friends since then. I take this platform as an opportunity to thank Antriksh Rana and many of his friends for giving me a memorable time of my life.

For all you travel enthusiasts, all I have to say is that it’s time you should start being slow on traveling and have fun in every step you take from Point A to Point B. If you have, say, ten days at your disposal, do not plan to cover five places. Instead, cover one but do it the way that it becomes an unforgettable experience for you.

With this,

Much Love,

Happy Travels!

A Lot Can Happen between Point A and Point B: An Incident on National Highway 1 It was the mid of October; I was standing on the NH1 highway in the outskirts of Delhi expecting a free ride to Punjab.

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Punjab overwhelmed me with its hospitality. I can’t thank all the people enough who made me feel like the part of a world where goodness still overshadows evil. I have made friends with a few truckers who still call me to know how my journey is going on and when I would visit Punjab again. I learnt a good deal about lives of truckers. I have been deeply touched by Punjab. I can’t thank enough.

Since I need to spend my traveling day in just Rs.300, I cannot afford to pay for my commutes all the times. The options I am left with are traveling in general coaches in Indian trains, walking, and hitchhiking. In these five odd months, I have hitchhiked in almost all the places I have gone to, including Nepal. I have hitched back of a bullock-cart; I have traveled with truckers; I have spent kilometers talking to tractor-drivers while hitching with them; I have hitched a sedan and I have hitched bi-cycles.

Of all the places I have been to, there is one place worth talking about when it comes to hitchhiking: Punjab.

I started from Delhi to Punjab on third week of October, last year. From my friend’s place in Noida, I walked to the nearest metro station and took a metro which terminates at a station (JahgangirPuri metro station). I was still a little away from the Delhi-Punjab highway. I saw a caravan of trucks crawling in the crazy Delhi traffic. I saw a truck with a PB number plate on it so I went close to the slow moving truck and asked the trucker if he was going to Punjab. He said he had just come from Punjab and was going back to the parking lot after unloading the goods he brought in the truck but he offered me a drive up to the national highway 1 from where I could find a ride, easily.

The man who dropped me at NH1

It was 11 at noon, the sun was hot enough to irritate my skin if exposed for prolonged hours, and traffic was moving fast as if everyone was in a hurry. On the service lane, the auto-parts repairing and transport shops were looking dusty and weary by the dust traveling from the vehicle-wheels to their walls and on the mechanics’ faces. There was less movement of the pedestrians as it was not as crowded as the rest of Delhi is. There was lifelessness in the air and dryness of the human energy. I stood on one side of the road wearing jeans, a t-shirt, a bandana on my head and a backpack to make the guess easy that the person is a traveler, perhaps looking for a free ride. My thumb was stretched out on the road and my eyes were looking at the approaching vehicles with much optimism.

An unknown bike-rider stopped after two and half hours and he took me to his place. I did not go to Punjab that day. The next night, I was on the same place again.

There were a number of trucks pulled over in a row. Upon asking, I got to know that the police is checking for papers and even though they have papers, the police always finds a reason to impose fine on them. Hence, they were waiting for the police to leave. I kept walking and saw that the group of policemen was checking papers of a truck. I don’t know why but they did look like they were the kings of the night. I passed the check point and found that a couple of trucks were parked near a tea stall. I was pretty sure that since they had crossed the hurdle of paper examining, they were refreshing before heading for a night-long ride to Punjab.

Near Ambala Vegetable Market: NH1

It took me nearly begging to get a ride from one trucker. Later, while riding with him, he said that people in Delhi were not good and he wasn’t sure if I wasn’t a thug. He said had I been in Punjab he would have stopped his truck without asking. He was so true about that!

“We are Punjabis. We have a big heart bhaiya ji. It’s just that we are a little cautious in and around Delhi. From the administration to the police, everyone here is corrupt”, said he.

He drove the truck to Ambala vegetable market. We chatted the whole night. He told me about his village, about his wife, about how studious his kids were. He even invited me to his house.

Ambala: It was 4 in the morning. I slept in his truck until the dawn. When I woke up, he got me tea and bread. Upon seeing sunlight, I decided to move. I had to reach Barnala which was still 170km away. We exchanged our contact numbers and I moved on. I walked up to the highway. Within five minutes, a tractor stopped. He offered me a ride up to Rajpura Road. He told me that his brothers and he are farmers and they all live together, happily. Wishing me luck, he dropped me and headed home.

The happy farmer’s tractor

I was on the NH1 again. It was merely 6 in the morning. I was standing right where a flyover ends. Trucks were passing by in high speeds and I realized I was standing at a wrong place to hitchhike as my position was where the truckers would be accelerating their speeds. I should have stood near a speed-breaker or near a petrol pump, I thought. Before I could make up my mind to change my location, while still keeping my thumb stretched out, a truck crossed me in a good speed. Surprisingly, he stopped but more than a 100mtr ahead of me. I was not sure if he stopped for me but I ran towards him as fast as I could. Much to my surprise, he did stop for me but that was not it; by the time I reached the truck, he had already taken his bottle and glasses out and was pouring a drink for himself and his cleaning man. I smiled and wondered if I should hop on to a drunkard’s truck; it was, after all, 6 in the morning. I hopped on anyway. I realized he was pretty drunk but he was funny as well. He drove me up to Ludhiana. The whole journey was hilarious. He was around 35yr old and the cleaning man was a 76yr old veteran ex-trucker. The driver, when sober, would tell me that the old man was a godfather to him as he taught him everything about trucks and driving. But when high on alcohol, he would swear on him saying,

“This motherfucker is a useless old chap, he just feeds on my earnings; he is a parasite”.

The trucker bought me breakfast. He would go back to the truck for a drink after consuming each Paratha and come back to have another one. He told me that he can leave his wife but not alcohol. I was literally laughing throughout this journey. He was driving his truck the way youngsters ride their motorcycles. At the speed of 80, he was able to make pegs for himself. Later, he offered me a drive up to Barnala. He had to go to Ludhiana but he was insisting me that I should let him drive 80km extra just to drop me to my destination. I got off at Ludhiana anyway and took a bus to Barnala. He didn’t seem very happy that I didn’t let him drive to Barnala. WTF!

The epic truckers. The drunken drive

I met a friend of mine in Barnala and we decided to go all the way back to Chandigarh to spend some time with his friends who were attaining new heights in the Punjabi music scene. It was a pleasure to meet them and I made good friends with them. But how did we reach Chandigarh! Well, it involved a hitchhike on a truck, on a tractor, on a bullock-cart and on an all new Maruti Ciaz! Hitchhiking had never been as easy as in Punjab.

He was driving to Gurgaon to attend Skrillex’s concert. A cool guy.  

While coming back from Chandigarh, we hitched a lot of tractors. The moment someone saw us, they were ready to stop. At a time, when I raised my thumb, a truck and a tractor both stopped for me, simultaneously. I was overwhelmed by this gesture. Punjabis are the best of people I have ever met.

Back of a tractor ;)

Front of another :P

While coming back to Delhi, Punjab was going through a huge social unrest due to desecration of the holy book by some hatemonger group. All the roads were blocked and a lot of people and police were injured, few of them even died. In such atmosphere, I was rescued by a mother-dairy milk tanker. His truck was a Mercedes’ Bharat-Benz one and the interior of the truck was quite impressive. Thanks to my friend, Hardeep, who arranged this ride for me. We drove through the villages, broken roads and he dropped me at Karnal. I took a bus from there, to Delhi.

The rescuer: Barnala to Karnal

Punjab overwhelmed me with its hospitality. I can’t thank all the people enough who made me feel like the part of a world where goodness still overshadows evil. I have made friends with a few truckers who still call me to know how my journey is going on and when I would visit Punjab again. I learnt a good deal about lives of truckers. I have been deeply touched by Punjab. I can’t thank enough.

Click me like this

Truck tyre got punctured

The musical group: Chandigarh Zoo

At a dhaba on NH1

Can I try your shades on?

A long way to go

let him also take some rest

Punjabi Food…slurrrp!

Dear travelers, as I always say, follow your guts but don’t be so scared of hitchhiking. When you do it, you would already have had enough fun even before reaching your destination. And it’s not only about fun; it’s about lifetime experiences as well.

Much Love,

Happy Travels!

My Hitchhiking Experiences with Punjabi Drivers Punjab overwhelmed me with its hospitality. I can’t thank all the people enough who made me feel like the part of a world where goodness still overshadows evil.

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What Solo Budget Travelling Has Taught Me

What Solo Budget Travelling Has Taught Me

It is best to travel when you are young, energetic, and not bogged down with responsibilities. You get to learn new things every day and enjoy some of most rewarding experiences of your life. All the great people in the past have been travellers. Vasco da Gama, Columbus, Gautam Buddha, King Ashoka, Mahatma Gandhi, Che Guevara and many more – they were all great travellers before they…

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Munsiyari: A Day with the Himalayas

Time to fall in love with the snow

Today, I trekked for 28km. Well, I’m in the hilly town of Munsiyari which is in Uttarakhand. Sharing with you all about the great day I had today.

I woke up at 8 in the morning, it was a bright sunny day and the temperature was 5 degrees. I decided to trek to a nearby temple which is dedicated to the deity Nanda and famous for the splendid view of Pnachachuli peaks. I did not know the…

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Why I Travel Solo and Why You Should Too

Why I travel solo and why you should too, at least once.

It is the fifth month of my solo traveling. In these months, I have received a lot of messages asking me why I travel alone. Don’t I get bored? Not only my followers but my friends ask me the same. They say they like the concept of traveling but don’t understand how it is fun traveling solo.

There was a time; I won’t even go to a grocery store alone. I used to call my roommate to accompany me as…

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Everyone wants to travel. Some people travel during holidays, some travel in the weekends, some take an extra day off and a few like me quit their jobs to travel. But there are still many who long for traveling but do not set their foot out. Because they are told traveling is an expensive affair. Hence, many do not travel due to monetary constraints.

This post is for those who think they can’t travel with less money and for those who have money but want to travel with a shoe-biting budget for the sake of constraint and adventure it brings with it. I fit somewhere in the middle of these two categories.

I quit my job in July and started traveling within my native country, India. To be able to last for a year at least, I calculated how much money I had and found out that Rs.300 (less than USD5) is what I needed to spend per day to last for an year on the road. It has been exactly 120 days of being on the road and I have learnt how to survive with such a little money.

If an experience of 120 days is reliable, let me share with you the tricks and hacks I use to stay within my budget and I will be brutally honest about it. You may take what suits you and use it in your travels, but you may not judge me because that’s of no use to you. This post is also an answer to many people who ask me how do I survive and do not get a detailed and satisfactory response.

Let us list down what are the particulars on which we need to spend money while traveling. But before you go ahead and read’em, please be prepared to be as rough and tough as possible. When you don’t have money, you have to have a strong will power and a motivating force within as strong as a rock.

Long distance commute

Short distance commute

Accommodation

Air

Water

Food

Alcohol

Mobile phone and internet expenses

Others

Long Distance Commute: You have two options: Hitchhike or take a train. I won’t suggest state buses.

Indian Trains: If you are in India, you are blessed to have world’s most complicated and the largest railway system which is as cheap as traveling for free. Of course, I am talking about the unreserved general coaches (You think you can travel in AC?). Do not worry about the crowd in these coaches, rather use this crowd to motivate you to travel in such suffocating environment.

In general coaches, you might have to stand for 6 hours without having even enough standing space, you might have to sit close to the stinking toilets and believe me when the speed of train slows down, the smell of toilet multiplies by 1000 times. The smell becomes unbearable and you will hate your life. But remember you do not have an option and remember that there is a beautiful destination waiting for you on the other side. In such situations, I take motivations from the fellow passengers. Most of them always travel in these coaches. For them it is as normal as it is for us to travel in an airplane. These passengers include small children, pregnant women, old couples suffering with arthritis, spondylitis and many more bone-braking diseases. Surprisingly you will find them perfectly normal and the look on your face will be like a constipated person. At times like this, these fellow passengers motivate me. I think, “if they can, why can’t I?” After that, everything becomes ok. Now, I don’t even realize it is the coach that I used to dread from the most. I have become part of such crowd and whenever I have to commute long distances, I just show up at the station, take a general ticket and hop on the next train. I don’t need to curse the IRCTC everyday like everyone else.

They are my motivation. If they can, why can’t I?

Hitchhiking: Stand on the highway, stick out your thumb and wave it up and down as soon as you see an approaching vehicle (if you just stick out your thumb and do not wave, chances are that Indians won’t understand if you are appreciating the design of their vehicles or their driving style or asking for a free ride). It can take a few minutes to a full day in getting a free ride. But believe me, when you do, it is going to be the best ride ever and definitely an experience far better than the that of traveling in the train.

When the vehicle approaches, wave it up and down. :P

There is no secret of hitchhiking. Follow your guts and be shameless. If you are lucky like me, you can also get a ride in a C-class Mercedes Benz. You will make friends with truckers and learn more about their lives. Hitchhiking is the most famous way of commuting throughout the world. Of course I am talking about budget minded travelers.

Short Distance Commute: To commute locally in the area you are going to spend a few days, hitchhike. In India, most of the bikers will stop for you. Cars won’t stop so much but you can definitely try. Within the radius of 6-8km, walk. Walk because you need to stay fit and walk because you don’t have stupid money. Walk because after a few months of walking, you’d love walking and start saying no to free short-distance rides.

Walk, trek, and relax. 

Accommodation: You have to understand the power of relationships. You need to be extremely sociable, moderately funny, definitely kind, and awfully shameless. You need to act like a person with no ego, no prejudices, no strong opinions and no radical thoughts. You will be amazed to learn, after a few months, that acting like such a person actually makes you a better and peaceful person. You need to start talking to all your relatives, your long-forgotten friends, people whom you extremely dislike, and people who have no morals and values but can be your valuable resources. The next step is to keep in touch with all such people. Ask them if you can spend a couple of nights in their places. You’d be surprised to see that most of those who you thought were useless people will actually come forward to your help and many so-called closed ones will turn down your requests.

Stay on the dividers. You are lucky if you get a bed. 

Apart from that; stay in ashrams, temples, monasteries, bus terminals, railway stations, road dividers, parks, and any other place where you don’t have to pay. Believe me, it sounds crazy and scary but it’s actually not. The most difficult part of any act is its beginning. Once you take the first step, the other foot will definitely follow you.

Air: We all need oxygen to breathe, traveling or not. You’ll get this for free anywhere you go. If you find a lack of oxygen anywhere, come back from there. Don’t travel in such places. And if you are in a place where there is enough air but due to someone you can’t breathe. Kill that person (if you have guts). Breathing is your basic right.

The best things in life come for free. 

Water: If you had planned to travel 30 years ago, water would be free everywhere. But alas! you are living in the time when humans have commercialized such a basic resource that sustains life. But do not worry, you can still save your money on water. Keep a water bottle with you, fill it from the dhabas where you eat your food, fill it from the taps you see occasionally on the road side. The thing to remember is to KEEP A BOTTLE and keep your eyes open. There is still ample free water available everywhere. If you are trekking through villages, knock on the houses and ask for water. No one has ever turned me down.

If you look for it, you will find it. 

Food: In India, you will find a lot of local food stalls that serve food at an affordable price. Do not forget that India is home to billions of poor people and they all survive at less than Rs.100 a day. They are your motivation. Go eat in the local dhabas and don’t worry about your stomach. You might not get this but our mind is everything. Keep that fit, everything else will be taken care automatically. Eat at your hosts house but help them in cooking. Eat at temples, gurudwaras (Sikh temples), and Ashrams.

“Drink a lot of water and meditate regularly. You will never fall ill.”

Help your host in the kitchen

Free food is God.

Alcohol: Don’t drink local alcohol to save money. You might die. Every now and then they are found poisonous and ironically the poison is found only after a few die due to drinking such alcohol. So how do you quench your thirst for alcohol when you don’t have money? You wait. You wait for an offer, an offer from your host, an offer from the trucker (I got them a lot in Punjab). You should make good friends who drink. You know what, don’t worry much about alcohol, you’ll get it. People won’t give a penny to a beggar or 10rs. to a needy person but they will happily share their alcohol with you. This irony will work for you. You will meet such people in highways and roadside dhabas.

If it is free, it is ok in the steel glass

At times, you meet good friends

Mobile Phone and Internet Expenses: Well, you need to be lucky to get it for free. I am blessed by friends who take turn to do it for me. I don’t know how good you are friends with your friends. Do I sound horrible? Well, the point is to have a good intention behind doing this. You need to know that this help is not a small one and you owe them a big one. You should pay them back with what you can. Your stories, your time, and when you start earning; your money. You need to genuinely take care of such friends. Period.

Others: Others may include a lot of things but if you can take care of all the above mentioned needs, you will take care of everything else. Trust yourself.

When we have less money, we will need people more than anything else. We will learn one thing about different people that they are all the same: their eyes glitter when they are loved and their bodies jitters when they are scared. Everything else is unnatural. You will learn that we need to know who we are without our possessions. We need to define ourselves by who we are rather than by what we have. We learn all this while traveling with a low budget. It changes us in ways beyond description.

P.S. When you start earning through your travels or after your travels, do not forget the important lessons you would have had learnt. Remember all the people who helped you. Also remember that you can never pay them back for their help as the timing is more important than the help alone in isolation. So, help as many people in life as you can. Stay rooted to the ground. Have a wonderful life ahead.

P.P.S. This post intentionally excludes the options of getting a sponsorship, using Couchsurfing etc.

In the end, a photograph to motivate you to do all these above mentioned difficult tasks so that in the end you can be in a place like this.

Much Love, as always!

Happy Travels!

It has been 120 days on the roads, here is how I survive and you can too. Everyone Can Travel Everyone wants to travel. Some people travel during holidays, some travel in the weekends, some take an extra day off and a few like me quit their jobs to travel.

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Apple-laden hut in the Himalayas