Hello and welcome to gohitchhiking.com. We are Aditya and Chetan, two best friends based in India who share a love of books, movies, music, history, nature, and, most importantly, a desire to explore our beautiful and wonderful world.
Before I get into how and why we started this website, please allow me to give a brief introduction to ourselves.
Aditya Bhosale
Hi, I am Aditya. I am a mechanical engineer by profession. I quit my job as a production engineer after working for two years and since then I am doing what I always wanted to do- ‘Live my life on my own terms and travel around the world’.
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Chetan Patil
Hi, I am Chetan. I worked in an MNC for one year but for the last 4 years, I am traveling around the world. Apart from Traveling and discovering new cultures, I am greatly interested in philosophy, ontology, and Astronomy.
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Where did it all start?
There comes the point in your life when everything appears to be going ‘normally.’ Life is such a mystery; one moment you appear to have figured it all out, and the next moment everything appears to fall apart.
It was a similar time after we graduated as Mechanical Engineers and got a job in a well-known multinational corporation.
What more could we have wanted? We knew how difficult it was to get a job after graduating together, but here we were with joining letters from our respective companies.
A few days into our respective jobs, we began to question the direction we were taking in our lives.
We had everything? A good degree, a good job, a decent salary, and a future that appeared ‘bright’ at first glance.
We suddenly felt like we were missing out on something only a few months into our jobs, and what we were missing out on was life itself.
Every month, every day, and every moment of our lives felt like hell. It was like hitting rock bottom in our careers just as it was about to take off.
For all the ‘security’ and ‘safety’ that a job provides, it kills your soul day by day, moment by moment, until you make peace with what society thinks is best for you.
Our frustration had reached a breaking point.
We decided that was not how we wanted to live our lives even if we had to take riskier decisions in our lives. With no plans as to what exactly to do in the future, we quit our jobs with some uncertainties about our future but overall a big relief on our faces.
We both knew that we both loved and passionately wanted to try something on our own, a space where we can enjoy and grow creatively every day.
One thing that we were sure about was our intense desire to experience and explore this beautiful world. We just didn’t know how to find a way to do it.
Coming from India, a developing country, and as a third-world country passport holder, we knew our dream of traveling the world was not as easy as it is for someone who belongs to the West or a more affluent country, but with this newfound inspiration and perspective, we were not going to give up no matter how hard we had to work for it.
We had to start somewhere, and our inner passion for traveling wouldn’t let us just sit at home comfortably so with the money we had from leaving our jobs and the few pennies we managed to earn from our online business we decided to start our journey by backpacking in Southeast Asia.
Thailand was the first foreign country that we traveled to and backpacked, followed by Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Bali, and Malaysia.
Exploring Southeast Asia and being on the road for a long time had a profound impact on our lives at a time when we needed the most.
Backpacking in Southeast Asia worked its magic on us, activating a permanent, insatiable wanderlust.
We realized we can turn into full-time travel bloggers if we traveled mostly on a budget.
So far we have traveled to 27 countries including countries from Central Asia, Europe, the Caribbean, and South America.
We started this website to share our budget-travel experiences and stories so other people can find their inspiration to travel, especially those that dream about traveling for the longer term and belong to developing countries like ours.
We like to travel on a low budget. I think that’s how it should be. Traveling on a low budget pushes you out of your comfort zone and makes you work hard for things you want.
Another reason why we travel on a low budget is that we get a chance to meet the local people of the country and get an authentic experience of their culture.
I hope this blog inspires you to travel more and also helps you in planning your travels.
Thank You for reading and have a great journey! 😊
