Nomad En Route - Solo Female Travel Blog

Nomad En Route – Solo Female Travel Blog

Hey! I am Ipsita. I am a travel writer and a solo female traveller from India. I have been traveling for the last 3+ years around the world, volunteering and hitchhiking my way through. I left my hometown Kolkata altogether on 1st January in 2021 to live a nomadic lifestyle on the road. The only home I know now is my 70-litre backpack.

I would like to believe it all started a long time back, but I cannot solemnly vouch for that. I don’t know how it started, or when, or where. I am not even sure what ‘it’ represents. Is it wanderlust? Or the mere necessity to bring a rainbow to my clouds? I would say, it’s neither.

To me, it’s a way of life. Or life itself. I am afraid to call it the whole life, because we should not make anything absolutely whole. But it so damn is.

As a solo traveller, I did my first backpacking across Jaipur for seven days in 2020. I was in my final year in university. Before that, I was quantitatively repressed in my life, with equations, an extremely demanding university schedule and a typical city life, or a so-called ‘urban life’. I was becoming something. Something that was fulfilling and content, until the lockdown struck its blows over my head. And I finally got the free space (not just time) to take a sharp and unbiased look at myself and the future I was so sure I wanted to hold on to.

Then I crushed everything, donated my belongings, paid the last month’s rent and decided to become a nomad traveller. Just like that. In one or two days. I was sick of learning about things through the yellow thick pages of books. I needed to explore. For myself. By myself.

More about My Life Before Full-Time Travelling Happened to Me

Best places to visit in Jaipur — Jaipur, 2020

Being academically sound from an early age, I was on the verge of a hard-core academic life. I completed my MSC in Economics and the ‘plan’ to go for a PhD abroad was a goal I had in mind for 5 years. It wasn’t imposing, it was a goal I cultivated in myself, which later on I realized was the product of my true intention, ‘going abroad’. I was using the PhD as an excuse to explore the outer world. Yet from my college days, I wasn’t content with the subject I was studying. My flair for journalism sprung up due to my avid reading and writing habits from childhood. It’s the literature and world movies that pushed me to the place of an explorer. Studying Economics became a luxury and travelling the extra miles on the shoulders of Jack Kerouac, Haruki Murakami, Wes Anderson and many others became a necessity.

Yet I wasn’t content. Up till then my adventures were confined within the words I read and the movies that taught me about life. Where was I in all this? I was in a refined apartment on the third floor, soon to be part of another system.

I never did travel much before my first solo travel to Jaipur, though on every weekend I would look for a meaningful connection within my city. The university schedule would not allow for it, plus I was in a different mindset back then. Now when I look back, I understand that I saved myself from a version of me I was almost becoming. Unable to relate to a scheduled capitalistic life, the surroundings and the people, I was taking refuge more and more into books. Until one fine night, I don’t remember how, I came across some travel blogs and videos that explained quite beautifully how to travel the world without spending much money.

Up till then, my idea of travelling was just like everyone else’s, it’s a costly affair. The whole concept of budget travelling and the fact that it can be done effusively opened vistas to me. I researched for two days on budget travelling and probably read most of full-time travel bloggers’ blogs to get a hold of the practical side of it. Then I started reading about digital marketing and ended up having a headache. So, after two days of extensive research, I booked my train ticket for the next month (for 1st January, concisely) and set out for a solo nomadic travel-life with only Rs. 3000 in my bank account, indefinitely.

Budget Travelling: How Can I Afford to Travel?

Overtourism in Himachal - Hitchhiking in India — Hitchhiking in Himachal

I am a budget traveller living off a backpack, and I was more or less broke for one year (not anymore). Yet the question remains: How can I afford to travel this much without a conventional job? I write as a freelance writer now. But initially I simply lived off volunteering opportunities at cafes, homestays, villages, ashrams….That was the only way I could be inclusive to local experiences.

Volunteering is a learning process. It’s not just about what you give, it’s mostly about what you take. Every place has given me something fresh and ever-changing,. In exchange for food and accommodation, a volunteer needs to help out in the designated tasks for a maximum of 5 hours a day barring the weekends, and you can freely explore in your spare time.

To save the transport money, and for fun and adventure, I hitchhike. Or else, local bus, the cheapest form of transportation, is the only other option for me.

Travel Journalism

Child marriage in Rajasthan — The family of one of my students in Rajasthan

Journalism, travel journalism to be precise, is an experiential way of coming close to life, culture, environment and everything else that lures you to life. And when you can experience life freely, without the weighing burden of a ‘profession’ or a monetary satisfaction, you live an extraordinary life for yourself.

Last but not the least, learning and writing about your experiences give you a further edge. A constant drifter is not always running away from something. Sometimes, they are running towards. The mingling of culture and people and putting forward those first-hand experiences in writing help you acquire more knowledge than you ever could otherwise.