Alex Strand is a permanent resident of San Francisco, California. Last year in the month of December, he lost his job when GoPro (the company Alex used to work for) decided to shut down their entertainment division. After which, he took a huge step of planning an alone trip to anywhere in the world. He transferred a modest share of money to his friend’s account and asked a few of his friends to plan a trip for him. He mentioned the dates from 3rd to 20th January 2017 but didn’t mention the place. He asked his friends to plan a 10-day trip to anywhere on the earth.
He also had a checklist for his friends for planning his trip to nowhere.
* His trip should not include the continent of United States
* Alex’s trip should include those places that he never visited before
At last, Alex’s friends planned a 13-day trip for him which included India and Nepal. In an interview, he revealed the reasons behind his friends chose India. He said, “They didn’t want me to have a relaxing trip, so they wanted to put me into a place where I would find fun challenges every day. They selected India for a few reasons, but mostly because none of us had been there. They wanted it to be unfamiliar, so a place we’ve never been was important. They wanted it to be challenging, so the language barrier was key. They wanted it to be exhausting, so the vastness of the country was vital”.
He also revealed that he visited Delhi, Darjeeling, and a few other cities of India. And here is what he has to say about India after his first experience, “I found that India was “more real” than expected. I guess what I mean by that is yes, India was colorful and exciting, but I finally got the chance to meet Indian people and see how they lived – and that is the exciting part. So I spent my time trying to get off the beaten path and getting to know people who actually lived there rather than spending my time with other tourists. The most memorable time was getting to know all of the local people in Darjeeling. They were so spirited and it was such an awesome experience spending the day running the half-marathon with them.”
You can check out the YouTube channel of Alex Strand with all the videos of his tour after he lost his job.
Tiru Dehariya
