Meet the Indian Solo Traveller Who Quit His Job, Set Out for His Dream Trip in 2020 and Got Locked Down in Colombia!
A few months back, I was looking through my Instagram direct messages when I came across one that truly caught my attention. With borders closed and the world plunged into a pandemic, Mumbai backpacker Saurabh Gupta, also known as an Indiantraveler, was stranded in Colombia, on the opposite side of the planet!
After working, accumulating money, and leaving his long-term career, he eventually took his dream solo vacation to South America in February 2020. A month into his journey, however, he was held down indefinitely at a Medellin hostel, far from home. It was an adventure no one could have predicted.
Saurabh and I had a lengthy conversation regarding his choice to leave his full-time job, his previous trips, what brought him to South America, and his six months of incarceration in Colombia. Prepare yourself for an engrossing and motivational tale.
An introverted banker decides to travel alone full-time.
“I was exposed to a wide variety of cultures, people, languages, places, and landscapes through world cinema. I had a desire to see them in person at one time. I thus made the decision to go alone.
Saurabh has been trapped in a rut for a large portion of his life. Office, home, work, repeat. Being an introvert, he sought solace in international cinema, particularly works by artists like Satyajit Ray and Krzysztof Kieślowski, which inspired him to travel the world.
He was awestruck by the western world, like many Indians, but he was a little let down when he visited Western Europe and the US. He first hitched a ride in Central Asia, where he was captivated by the distinctive hospitality and culture of Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, and Kazakhstan.
He sold the outsourced sales company he and his elder brother had, resigned his more than ten years of banking employment, and began traveling and writing full-time as a result of this journey. According to Saurabh, he tries to hitchhike, couch-surfer, volunteer, and cook wherever he can while traveling on a tight budget. His basic expenses are covered by his assets and savings.
Following his resignation in late 2019, he traveled around East Africa for two months, visiting Rwanda to hike to a crater lake and search for mountain gorillas, Kenya to explore its beaches and wildlife, and Uganda to help at a coffee farm and forestry project. After that, he traveled to Northeast India, where he hiked in the Dzukou valley and visited the other seven sisters, Manipur and Mizoram.
He gradually started to fantasize of traveling without a predetermined route or return date. He had no idea that the future would actually bring it.
Being placed under lockdown for six months in Colombia
“I had visited four continents on my own, but I had never lived abroad and had no plans to do so. However, the cosmos had other ideas for me. Saurabh Gupta
For over a month, Saurabh traveled to northern Colombia, where he witnessed sand dunes along beautiful beaches, went to Punta Gallinas, the southernmost tip of South America, and attended the second-largest carnival in the world, Barranquilla’s. He then traveled to Medellin via sleeper bus from Cartagena. He saw that a lot of the city’s attractions were closing as he started to explore it. The announcement of the coronavirus was not being taken seriously by most individuals in mid-March.
However, after a few days in Medellin, rumors quickly spread that almost the whole world—including Medellin, Colombia, South America, and India—was going into lockdown. Anticipating that the situation would only last temporarily, Saurabh made the decision to remain in Medellin rather than purchase an extremely expensive ticket back to India. Airports, schools, colleges, offices, stores, shopping centers, and transit all closed in the meantime, and Medellin became silent.
He was only allowed to leave during the first lockdown twice in ten days to use the ATM or buy food, and he was tracked by the final digit of his passport number or cedula (the Colombian national ID card). At the time, he was lodging at an inexpensive hostel and quite relished the experience of