Hi there, I’m Shah, hailing from a small city in southern India. With an Engineering degree and an MBA under my belt, I currently work in Product Strategy and Operations for a SaaS company in India.
This blog, however, isn’t about my professional life. It’s a reflection of my personal principles, philosophies, and the stories of people and experiences that have shaped me through travel. As of 2025, I’ve explored 4 continents, 30 countries, and over 100 cities. My favorite pastimes include reading travel blogs, researching new destinations, and crafting detailed itineraries. There’s always a list of dream itineraries waiting to be realized!
Coming from a middle class family, my definition of travel evolved over a period of time.
I still remember my father’s Hero Honda CD100 from my high school days, when he would take my mother and me on “triples.” I often argued with my parents, feeling embarrassed about sitting sandwiched between them. But hey, it saved us the auto fare! With that trusty bike, we explored every corner of my hometown. Looking back, those rides were where the seeds of my love for travel were planted. The joy and memories from those days inspired me to push my boundaries and journey to 30+ countries and 100+ cities by 2025.
My college days marked the official start of my travel adventures. Like every other college, this “travel” came disguised as an “Industrial Visit.” The first one was in my second year, where we visited TCS in Trivandrum (for namesake) and then shifted our focus to sightseeing at places like Padmanabhapuram Temple and Kovalam Beach. The second, and the most memorable, happened in my final year when we traveled to Shimla and Manali—a trip of many “firsts” for me:
And so many more unforgettable moments.
After graduation, I moved to Bengaluru for work. Until then, my travels were limited to buses and trains. Like most middle-class kids, flying felt like an unattainable luxury. My father had flown once, but neither my mother nor I had experienced it. That finally changed in 2011 when I was sent to Hyderabad for a training program—marking my maiden flight experience
I still vividly remember my first flight. Though I’ve always been the type to mask my excitement, anyone who saw me wouldn’t have guessed how significant that moment was. The boarding process, the camaraderie of traveling with colleagues, and the flutter of nerves during takeoff are etched in my memory. Back then, I couldn’t have imagined that one day I would take over 100 flights in my lifetime.
After a few years of working, I decided to pursue my MBA, and this is where my international travel journey truly began. During the program, I had the option to participate in a three-month exchange program abroad, but at the time, I chose to stay back and spend those months on campus. Looking back, it seems the travel bug hadn’t bitten me yet, and I still regret that decision—but hey, who doesn’t live with a few regrets, right? 😄
As life would have it, destiny had other plans for me. My college introduced a course called “Business Planning in International Markets,” the first of its kind, offering 120 out of 450 students the chance to visit one of three countries: Japan, Singapore, or Dubai. Each country had just 40 slots, and seats were allocated through a lottery, provided you met the cutoff criteria. And guess what? I landed a seat in Japan—my top choice!
What a thrilling destination to kickstart my international travels. I loved every moment of it. We spent a week in Tokyo and explored breathtaking places like Shirakawago, Takayama, Osaka, and Kyoto. Traveling on the iconic bullet train was the cherry on top of an unforgettable experience. More on my Japan stories here
The concept of “Grad Trip” was introduced to me here and it is a tradition in our college. Once everyone gets their placements, friends who are close to each other plan to travel to a destination. Our group of 8 decided to travel to the North Eastern part of India (Sikkim and West Bengal). During this visit, we also visited Bhutan which was quite unplanned. More on my Bhutan and North Eastern travel stories here .
Come next year, none of us turned up. But then two other friends joined me and went on our first boys trip to Thailand. As per the tradition, we visited Bangkok, Pattaya, Phuket, Krabi. More on my Thailand stories here
Come next year, one person dropped out and yet a new person joined and we went to Vietnam. We explored Ho Chi Minh, Hanoi, country side places and Halong bay. Vietnam was wild with my hostel stories. More on my Vietnam stories here
After college,my parents and I went to Kashmir. It was her dream destination and her first flight. Read to know more about my Kashmire journey here.
All this while, I travelled only with a group and I never knew the concept of solo traveling.
In 2016, I received my H1-B visa for the USA, and my company decided to send me there. To be honest, I dreaded the idea. I was fiercely patriotic at the time. Back in college, when my friends went to the US for their master’s programs, I despised the idea, thinking they were being unpatriotic, while I focused on preparing for my MBA. But life has a funny way of surprising us—those who least desire something often find themselves getting it. So, off I went to the US. Little did I know, I’d come to realize that countries are merely man-made borders, and nationality is just another form of modern groupism. More on that in my philosophy blog here.
My first project took me to New York City, where I spent six months. I was lonely and didn’t particularly enjoy it at first, but it was there that I discovered the essence of solo travel. I had friends scattered across the US, mostly pursuing their master's degrees, so my weekends were often filled with flights and bus rides to visit them and explore new cities together.
I ended up spending 2.5 years in the US, visiting many states. The one regret I have is not making it to Alaska, Colorado, and Hawaii. However, I was fortunate to experience some of the country’s most iconic places and wonders—Yellowstone National Park, the Statue of Liberty, Miami, Las Vegas, the Grand Canyon, the Empire State Building, Washington, Boston, Raleigh, Charlotte, Chicago, and Minneapolis.
By this point, I had become a seasoned traveler, yet the idea of slow, long-term travel still felt like a distant dream.
In 2019, I moved back to India. I went through a few personal hardships. Switched jobs and moved to my home state. During this time I took a solo 1 week Sri Lanka trip, where I covered 1000+ kms on a Honda Dio to Colombo, Kandy, Nuwara Eliya, Adam’s Peak, Dambulla. More on Sri Lanka stories here.
And then COVID happened. This was a blessing in disguise for a traveller like me, and I got to know the concept of long term travel to me.
When the first wave of Covid hit, we were all restricted to our places and were working from home. When the Government started to relax the restrictions,I travelled to Kodaikanal with a bunch of my friends. After a while, I went on a road trip with them to Chickmaglur, Dandeli and Goa on a 2 week road trip. In Goa is where I found a lot of travellers like me where they were working remotely for a month or two. I returned home after this trip with a new idea. The new idea is to work From Mountains or Beaches.
The first location I chose was Ladakh, I booked a one way ticket to Leh and a week stay at a hostel. Leh changed my perception of long term travel, I stayed there for a month with a lot of travel stories unfolding. More on Leh stories here.
After Ladakh, I chose to go to Kodaikanal but with friends I made there I ended up going to Vagamon which I never knew existed. After Vagamon, I went to Nepal, Goa again. I met a lot of travellers, people, which changed my perception about life, money and career as a whole.
And after all this, I decided to take my long term travel game international.I started planning for a 2-3 week europe trip, this inspired from visiting Spain. I started learning a bit of Spanish when I was in the USA, but ever since something Spanish intrigued me. It all started from there, what started as a 3 week europe trip became a 3 month europe trip.
I visited Spain, France, Croatia, Bosnia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Austria, Slovenia, Slovakia and Germany. And it was one hell of a lifetime experience. My special moment was losing my newly bought iphone 13 pro but got my phone back after 10 days. Read more about it here.
Though my initial idea was to go to South America, but daunted by the visa and limited planning time I chose Europe. But my Schengen visa got rejected a month before my travel and read here to know how I got my visa and travelled there
Once we do this much of travel, we become an influencer and inspiration to our connections. My family got inspired, and we travelled together to Singapore, Malaysia, Kazakhstan. I went from a participant in travel, to planning and doing solo travel.
After so much travel, I became a go to person in my circle for any travel queries. And also got elevated to official travel planner. I planned a 3 day trip to Jaipur and a 5 days trip to Sri Lanka for my 10 member family recently.
Travel has always been an integral part of my life, and in 2025, I decided to make my travel game even bigger. Watch out for it!!