On 1 April 2021, Pala, Kottayam native Jibin Madhu packed a bag with just a few garments and different requirements and left his dwelling searching for a job. Whereas his Yamaha FZ had a full tank of petrol, his pockets had simply Rs 5,000. However he was sure {that a} regular, full-time job would by no means work for him as he needed to discover new issues. So, he determined to spend many days at completely different locations, work someplace for no more than a month, earn cash and journey to a different place.

Nonetheless, his ‘brief’ journey was prolonged to 1 yr, three months and 17 days, the place the 24-year-old visited Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Uttarakhand, Meghalaya, Maharashtra, Sikkim, Himachal Pradesh and even crossed Nepal and Myanmar, turning it into an ‘worldwide, all-India’ journey.

Apparently, his dad and mom and mates got here to learn about this journey by means of his Instagram posts and YouTube movies, they usually tried to speak him out of it. However even with restricted facilities and overcoming excessive weather conditions, he explored new territories on his two-wheeler.

“From once I might keep in mind, I used to be focused on travelling. Close by hills, rivers and vacationer spots have been the locations then and it slowly expanded,” says Jibin, the lodge administration graduate. “Since I used to be a youngster, an all-India journey was at all times my dream.”

“Having mentioned this, I had no prior expertise of taking such a protracted journey alone. I believed bagging a part-time job can be straightforward however that was the hardest a part of the entire journey. It was solely after assembly 14-15 people who I started working in a dhaba, that too with meagre wages,” shares the rider.

A two-wheeler meals stall

When discovering jobs at completely different places turned a activity and his pockets felt lighter, Jibin determined to utilize the obtainable sources to begin a meals stall on his bike. He had a kerosene range and some utensils together with some Kerala matta rice. He bought some extra objects to serve noodles, bread omelette and tea to travellers on his route. The kitchen was arrange on the bike’s high field the place water and gas have been saved. Every part felt easy as he had prior expertise in a kitchen. 

“Within the excessive altitude areas of the japanese half, there are barely any meals stalls. I started my enterprise right here and it was an immediate success. I purchased the elements from the valleys. When Keralites visited, I served them boiled rice too and I earned Rs 500-600 per day from my two-wheeler meals stall,” says Jibin.

He additionally provides that it was in the course of the experience that he noticed many individuals operating such stalls on their autos. That is how the thought struck him. Jibin purchased just a few extra utensils and paper plates after incomes a good quantity. The remaining was spent on gas and different necessities for the journey. He was even in a position to ship a ok quantity to his dwelling from the overall revenue. 

“Greater than the revenue from the stall, it was because of the kindness of people who I set forth my dream journey. Whereas some provided me work, others offered me with an area to sleep. A person from Assam even gifted me a tent, as mine was torn within the center,” he remembers.

Regardless of all these hiccups, the journey wasn’t straightforward in any respect. His bike broke down a number of instances and Jibin needed to spend round Rs 10,000 on its repairs. “However what saved me going all alongside is the fondness of strangers, assist from fellow riders and assist of my followers on social media,” says the YouTuber who has 16,900 subscribers on the platform. His channel is named Kumbu Journey which is crammed with the reside journey experiences shared in each Malayalam and Tamil languages.

Throughout the journey, a vlogger from Tamil Nadu featured Jibin on his channel which introduced in a whole lot of Tamil viewers to Kumbu Journey. As a token of gratitude, Jibin often makes movies in Tamil. 

The traveller even took half within the farmer’s protest whereas staying in Delhi. 

Whereas standard riders cowl a whole bunch of kilometres a day, Jibin finds a vacation spot and stays there for just a few days realizing its individuals and tradition. This additionally helps him to search out small jobs too. 

“I by no means imagined a random journey would flip into an all-India journey. There’s one thing about travelling which makes me hold going it doesn’t matter what obstacles and challenges are available in between. Travelling supplies a brand new sense of freedom and satisfaction,” gushes the teenager.

Jibin has plans to go to international nations together with Thailand on his two-wheeler. He’s getting ready himself and his bike for this massive journey now. “No matter occurs, I’ll have my kerosene range and utensils prepared which supplies me the arrogance of in the end reaching my vacation spot,” he says. 

Edited by Yoshita Rao