How I Got Here?

I grew up in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and come from a somewhat liberal Indian family and have spent at least 11 years of my life working. I worked odd jobs, owned a career and was in the 'flow' of things. It was a rinse and repeat routine.

The emphasis of hard work, persistence and time convinced me that I was on the road to success, and the importance of earning my own bread truly felt empowering. I grew up with more responsibility than most, juggling my academics and jobs while helping my parents.

But all that years of “doing it all” had worn me down!

I had a strong urge to lace up my boots and just head outside even though I knew nothing about the outside world. I used to peruse the glossy pages of Outside Online and Nat Geo magazines and see pictures of people cliff-hanging, climbing through snow-clad peaks, chasing adventures and thought they had some kind of god-gifted ability to beat all odds and take on these adventures - nowhere near what an ordinary person like me could do.

I didn’t even know how to ride a bicycle, I couldn’t swim and I had no clue what hiking was like. Losing a parent (my dad) and spending the most formative years of my life trying to be financially secure while supporting my parents and myself, and having two jobs made it really hard for me to save, have free time to pursue outdoor activities.

I worked in a PR company that was in a mall, lived next to a mall and literally spent all my life in a mall — my Asian parents didn’t know the benefits of outdoor lives and wild spaces. It wasn’t something that came naturally to me and thought it belonged to athletic males with strong genes. Free time was often used to go shopping, watch a movie but never a walk in a park or connecting with nature.

I knew something was amiss. I had to do something and I had to change. So fast forward months later, I learned how to cycle, how to swim and went for my first ever hike.

I even spontaneously decided to book my first backpacking trip to Myanmar and also climbed one of Asia's highest peaks, Mount Kinabalu (my first ever hike thinking it can’t be that hard but it was and I loved the feel and euphoria that followed!).

Existentialism…

This all happened when I was 25 years old, I felt like I was born at 25 since I was pinching myself so hard on why I didn’t do this earlier in life — maybe I was not exposed to people or friends who were doing the same things or I thought you needed money and time to do this, none of which I had.

After those short adventure trips, I could hardly contain myself. I wanted to experience everything, take on more risks, and more importantly, experience slow travel and immerse myself in the environment via bicycle touring and hiking. I found freedom in these vessels since I did not experience the pure joy of freewheeling as a kid. And for this first time, I understood the true meaning of ‘now’ and living in the moment.

It sounded like I was a bit too late in life to take a gap year but I guess it’s never too late to drop everything and go. So in 2016, I quit my job and travelled solo to the Himalayas in India for three months with the little savings that I had.

The people, culture, mountains and every single experience felt like this whole new world that did not exist to me beyond this point - it was not merely about travelling to these places, but I like how it taught me a bit of everything and challenged my perceptions of people and places. It brought me awareness to simple things and avenged my childhood ideals of what life should be like.

I have always been curious—I like people. Everyone has a story; it’s how you open it up which matters. I stayed on the road for 3 months. It was in India that I became addicted this lifestye.

I continued exploring unknown places and territories in hopes of inspiring others and reminding people of our strength and the beauty of things when we need them the most. I now run this blog, work as a consultant for PR projects and also a contributing writer with an environment portal, Macaranga.

I wanted to look at the untold stories about people, human-wildlife conflict and cultures that otherwise wouldn’t have a voice. I found cycling and hiking the best ways to visit people among these areas and it was also therapeutic and allowed me the opportunity to live in the moment and not worry too much about societal constructs, bills, negativity and the daily cribbing.

It gave me a lot of clarity to look inwards. I started filling my mind with thoughts, ideas and got a deeper perspective of who I am and why I am here. I realised there was so much more to one’s individuality than how the world perceives it.

Also Read: Reflections on Travelling Alone, Cycle Travel and Life

So why is The Goat, Gone?

For the longest time, I have been called a travelling goat (hint: Pashmina). For those, who are not aware - Pashmina is a fine cashmere wool that is made from the high altitude mountain goat.

If that doesn't sound convincing, do note that 'The Gone Goat' name was only inspired by the movie 'Gone Girl' so in this context, I'll do everything and anything to travel and live a solitary life, including staging murders and suicides. I kid, ofcourse.

During my solo trips and bicycle touring in Kyrgyzstan or remote places, I have been told many times I am brave to be doing what I am doing. I still wonder why do people say that.

I realised people share their fears of the unknown and make us doubt about we are doing.

They may be scared of anything new and scared of human beings. It is always the first step that’s the hardest and it takes a lot of self-talk. I believe bravery is subjective and formed by our own experiences, upbringing and beliefs but maybe we should stop thinking in categories and be more open-minded to the world.

More about me, and the kind of travel writing I intend to focus on

After having this blog for three years, solo adventure narratives have become a well-worn trope: the stories always start with the person quitting their job and spending a length of time journeying “exotic” terrains.

I started with this narrative, and it quickly wore out. I realised solo adventures are no big deal, and travelling extensively serves no purpose.

This blog is slowly changing and morphing into using my outdoor adventure pursuits mostly via hiking and bicycle touring to tell conservation and people stories from around the globe, and share episodes of human change.

As I have gotten older and developed opinions of a lot of places in this world, I’ve come to realise that I can’t just enjoy these natural places if they’re going to disappear in the next decade or so - the least I can do is shine a spotlight on these places.

Travel with purpose is far more rewarding and essential to my happiness and it is full of opportunities to be able to write deeper instead of hopping from one destination to another.

If you’d like to read more about these stories, you can access my travel inspiration page or follow me on instagram as I joyfully discover the art of storytelling.

Getting Featured

I started this website in 2016, but for many years I only used it as an outlet to feature my travel stories. Since 2018, I began blogging more seriously and prioritizing this website, and since then The Gone Goat has grown from a few thousand page views to approx. 70,000 per month (as of July 2021). My readership is predominantly men and women between the ages of 25 and 44 who come from the United States, Malaysia, United Kingdom, India, Canada, Australia and Singapore.

I have been featured in the Forbes, The Star, AsiaOne, Epicure Magazine, L’Officiel Magazine, Zafigo, Cycling Plus Malaysia, TripZilla, The Edge Options among others. (p.s: zoom in to read)