Dec 21: Ukraine resident Vladyslav Gorobchuk (Vlad) landed in Nepal almost a month ago, with just small luggage weighing seven kilos. In it, he had a few shirts and shorts. Having ditched his trekking boots in favor of flip-flops in East Asia, he now wears a jacket given to him by a fellow traveler during his journey that started in September 2017. In just a little over a year, he has been to 16 countries and Nepal is the 24th place he has visited.
Vlad was born in the small town of Vinnytsia in Ukraine. Growing up, he confesses was the quiet kid who kept mostly to himself. Unlike most children, he never dreamt of becoming an adventurer or harbored heroic dreams of saving the earth. He didn’t think much then. He just studied hard and began working in the courts from the age of 19 and later had a thriving career in corporate law. As a lawyer, he represented individuals and private banks and had a good, steady income. But after a few years, he realized while his jobs paid the bills he didn’t love it. “There was nothing more for me there. The job had lost its allure,” he says.
He then traveled to India on a whim and spent half a year in Himachal Pradesh, that too at Dharamshala. “Indian philosophy, culture and religion have always fascinated me. I read a lot of books on India and read about many travelers’ experiences there, so I thought why not? I went to India just to see really,“ he explains adding that he hardly traveled anywhere then and only stayed at Dharamshala where there were people from different parts of the world. At Dharamshala, people gathered together despite not being from one another’s country or even speaking the same language and sang together every night. “I always loved music and I loved Indian music too. I was the happiest then,” he recalls.
Upon returning to Ukraine after visiting India, Vlad decided that he would travel and wondered why he hadn’t been doing it already. So he hitchhiked to Russia from Ukraine and then moved on to Georgia and then finally to Turkey from there. “And this was when I realized that I could really travel far by hitchhiking,” he says.
However, initially, hitchhiking was hard. For a quiet person who interacted with limited people, it posed to be an even bigger challenge. “I worried about expenses then, about the insecurities of traveling alone and depending on the hospitality of strangers. But I’ve learnt that fear is just in your head. If you want to do something, you just do it. When troubles come, let them come and then think of how you can overcome them,” he says.
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He just had US$150 with him when he was hitchhiking his way from Ukraine to Turkey. Yet he returned with US$30. By searching for hostels, occasionally sleeping at cafés and asking for rides instead of taking buses or taxis, he not just completed his trip but did so at very little cost. “It wasn’t easy the first time around,” he says recalling his experience of being on the road in heavy rain. Not only was he soaking wet but his bag was drenched too. “I repeatedly asked myself what was the point of going through all the hardship but the rest of the journey made me believe it was just one bad night and not a bad idea altogether,” he adds.
From Turkey, he came back to Ukraine, adamant on traveling more. He applied for a Chinese visa to begin his travels. Since making the decision and applying for the first visa, he has been to China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Hong Kong, Macau, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Brunei, Singapore, and India, before finally landing up in Nepal.
Apart from a few international flights (and that too because of logistics problems), Vlad has largely hitchhiked his way through the places he has been to so far. He says apart from being cost effective, hitchhiking acquaints you with real local life and you learn a lot that way. “If you want to travel to learn and understand, never jump on a plane to go from point A to B. What will you see then? Skies and the occasional bird. That’s no good,” he says.
Vlad confesses to traveling on a whim. He goes to touristic areas if he feels like it or just visits random local villages where people barely speak English. He sleeps at temples very often and particularly likes the gurudwaras. He doesn’t require much so it makes traveling a lot more convenient. The uncertainty adds to the experience, he says, and makes traveling all the more interesting.
He traveled Cambodia and Loas on a motorbike. By consulting maps, he would stop at a random temple and spend the night. Then in the morning, he would be off again. He recalls being held by the police in Vietnam. He and a friend he met in Hong Kong (who is now his best friend) were pulled over by the police because they were foreigners. But Vlad’s lawyer instincts kicked in and he argued with the authorities. He even pretended not to be able to speak English (which he does very well) and also spoke some Russian to confuse them.
Another experience he recalls with dread is getting lost in the Indonesian National Park and believing that he was going to die that day. In Indonesia, he visited the Java Island, Bali, Penida Island, Sumbak Island and Lombok Island. Sumbak Island is one inhabited by the locals and rarely ever visited by tourists. During his stay he didn’t meet a single foreigner at the island. The locals of Sumbak Island urged Vlad to walk up to the top of Tambora Volcano, promising him breathtaking vista. They also assured him that the walk was nothing and that he would hardly break a sweat.
So Vlad decided to make the walk. His plan was to climb for half the day and walk down the other half. He wore shorts, a tank top and, to save himself extra weight, carried just a bottle of water and nothing else. He was through his lone bottle of water before noon. The road was arduous, to say the least. He saw many wild animals in his climb and wasn’t too enthused about it. By nighttime, he was still climbing. He rested on a plain surface for some time. He was hungry, thirsty and very cold. He knew that the animals were nearby and started fearing for his own life. He abandoned the idea of reaching the top and made his way downhill in his haste to get away from the jungle. Descending was a nightmare and one that he chooses not to think of. Upon reaching the main road, he rejoiced in seeing a human being after nearly 24 hours.
His travels thus haven’t been without challenges but, in hindsight, he says the difficulties have made it even more rewarding. Each experience is different. “I went to Dharamshala just recently and it felt completely different this time. The place hadn’t changed. I had. Even if you go to a certain place time and time again, the experience is going to be different each time. People attach with emotions not the place itself,” he says.
Wherever he travels, he captures moments on camera and puts his pictures on display for anyone to take for whatever sum they wish to leave behind. He has done so in Kathmandu too and most of his photographs have been picked up already. He sometimes stages musical performance with travelers he meets along the way. He recalls having given away his guitar to a guy he met in Bangkok (coincidentally a Ukrainian) who played it with unbelievable skill and was sad he didn’t own one.
Being in Kathmandu and visiting a vipassana center has been an eye-opening experience, he says. Now, Vlad wans to trek to the Annapurna Base Camp. And then he plans to go back to Ukraine. He isn’t ending his journey. Not just yet. But he has to renew his passport because it has run out of empty pages. His next big adventure plan is to hitchhike all the way from Ukraine to North America and then to South America.
However, he doesn’t see himself traveling his entire life. “At least I hope not. It can get a little tiring,” he confides. But, for now, he definitely wants to travel more and see more. “I might have seen a lot but I feel there’s still a lot more for me to experience,” he concludes.
