To be honest, when I started this trip on December 14, 2014, I wasn’t sure it would last this long.. I wanted to, but would the possibilities allow? I do not know. In short, I tried to travel the world for 1000 days without ever returning to Turkey.. Let me briefly explain what happened during this time.
– I didn’t have anything stolen, I wasn’t extorted. I just delivered my backpack to a hotel in the city where I was staying for a week on my way to the Wayuu natives in Colombia. When I got back I didn’t have my sneakers in my bag. I conveyed the situation to the hotel authorities, they were not interested.. I went to the police station and told the story.. They gave me two cops. We went to the hotel with them.. The cops solved the case and my stolen shoe was returned half an hour later.
– I spent about 220 days as a guest at local people’s homes.. (Most thanks to Couchsurfing.)
– My average monthly spending was 3,200 TL (Average exchange rate, 1,000 USD) excluding international flight tickets, electronic equipment, Antarctic expedition, and everything else except the cost of getting to Lenin Peak.. If it weren’t for my curiosity to find natives, my expenses would have been 10% lower.
– I have visited Maya, Tarahumara, Embera, Kuna Yala, Wayuu, Arhuaco, Kogui, Kichwa and Marubo where they live. I even had unforgettable experiences by spending 3-4 weeks with some of them.. It was extremely difficult for me to go to the Marubo natives in the Amazon. The Rio Javari region, where the locals live and I spent 3 weeks, was shown by some websites as one of the most difficult areas to enter in the world.. In addition to these, I stayed in the tents of Pamir Kyrgyz people living in the Pamir Mountains of Tajikistan for 3 days.. I also spent 4 days with the Kashkay Turks in Iran.
– I attended ayahuasca rituals two nights in a row with the shamans of the Marubo Indians in the Amazon.. The most mystical environment I’ve ever been to; those were rituals.
– Although I clashed with the cops a few times, I was never in a police station except for the shoe incident above. I had to.
– I hurt my ankle from excessive walking and straining while searching for the Tarahumara Indians.. It hurt unbelievably when I stretched my foot forward. After 2 months it just got better.
– I had to cross a wooden bridge when leaving the Marubo Indians. The boards of the nearly three-metre bridge broke as I passed over it.. I fell 2-3 meters down with the bags on my back, in front of me and in my hand.. I cried out of pain for the first time in my life except for kidney stone removal.. My left foot is on the verge of breaking and my ankle is swollen. I walked with a limp for the first month. After 2 months, the swelling in my foot went down and I started walking normally.. I understood that; If you have a problem with your feet, there is no choice but to lie down and rest.. You’re in trouble when you keep walking like me.
– The toenails of both my feet are broken three times each. 13-14 times the nails of my other toes broke off. These were due to excessive walking and straining.
– While I was in a remote corner of Guatemala, I ate a ridiculous pizza and got stomach poisoning after drinking milky juice on it.. Going to the hospital was the last resort where I was, and there was no direct hospital anyway.. I barely recovered by locking myself in a guesthouse room for 3 days.
– I spent 11 days in Panama with the Emebra natives. Recently, bed bugs got into my underwear while I was sleeping and ate my whole body.. Only God knows what I endured for a month.
– I was walking in the forest with a local friend while searching for the Kogui Indians in Colombia.. 16-17 ticks got on my legs without realizing it. One by one we took them all out with our hands. Only one left a coin-sized wound. I’ve never been to the doctor.
– I’ve lost nothing but a pair of socks, a t-shirt, and a towel. gunmen busted the bus and shot someone they were driving downstairs.
– In Mexico, I accidentally hitchhiked into a pick-up truck with about 10 heavily armed, masked drug cartels in it, and they unfortunately stopped to pick me up.. These two stories that I lived in Mexico were among the most popular stories in my first book among readers.
– I interviewed with several different production companies to make a travel show on TV. Projects ended before they even started because they made requests that didn’t suit me.
– I saw a lot of active volcanic mountains and some even saw lava spew.. I climbed Mount Roraima, known as the Lost World. I’ve seen Angel Fall, the world’s highest waterfall, from both the plane and below.
– I had over 50 hitchhiking experiences in total. One was ambulance. .
– I learned enough Spanish to travel Latin America and meet all my needs.
– In these 1000 days, my total number of followers on my Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and Twitter accounts has exceeded 500,000.
– 11. When I entered the moon, I said I was tired for the first time and I just stuck around doing nothing for 20 days.. Same situation; 11 of the second year. It happened again in the month of May, and this time I rested in Los Angeles for 15 days doing nothing.. I guess I have to go to annual maintenance after every 11 months 🙂
– I realized that the world is not a small place.
– My project ‘You’re So Beautiful’ made a worldwide impact. Many foreign news organizations, including The Telegraph from England, Spiegel from Germany and the BBC, included my project in their publications.
– I descended with a rope into a 200-meter-deep well in Mexico.. Climbing up by pulling my own weight was the second hardest physical job of my life.
– I spent a night in the Mayan pyramids with 3 of my friends.. We even went inside the pyramid and sat in front of the king’s tomb for about 1-1.5 hours.
– ATV Television used my photos in my ‘You’re So Beautiful’ project without my permission and deleted the logos on my photos.. We took legal action because they didn’t mention my name and said “a traveler who travels the world”. Despite the warning sent to them, no results were obtained and a lawsuit was filed.. 3. I’m waiting for the trial.
– I spent a night in a homeless hostel with about 15 homeless people.
– I wrote and finished my book, Travel Stories Without a Route, and was published in September 2016. Stayed in bestsellers for weeks. My first book is now 14. in print. Before returning to Turkey, I finished my 2 books, “Roadless Traveler Yol Stories,” and it was published in October 2017.
– The 3 most frequently asked questions in 1000 days were as follows; Where is this money coming from? Can I travel with you too? What is the brand and model of the camera you use?
– Even though there were times when I was overwhelmed, I never thought of returning to Turkey in order not to leave my 1000-day project unfinished.
– The Amazon region starting from Ecuador to the Atlantic Ocean by using only the Amazon rivers i passed. So I almost crossed the South American Continent from far left to far right over the river.. In 3 months, I spent a total of 20 days on a canoe, boat or ferry and traveled 6,500 km.
– I slept on about 240 different floors.. So in these 1000 days, I changed place on average every 4 days and slept in a new place.
– I had serious sleep problems 6-7 times.. Some took a week, some took two weeks.. I couldn’t find the reason, but as far as I researched, when you try to sleep in a bed other than your own, the body can cause such troubles.. Considering that I change places every 4 days, I attributed my sleep problem to this situation.
– 11. When I said “it’s very normal, actually anyone can do it” for my trip to the moon, 11. After a month, I realized that it is not easy to travel without stopping, to live with only one backpack, and to constantly seek affordable food and accommodation.
– I made my Antarctic expedition, one of my biggest dreams.
– On snow in Antarctica I slept one night, only went to the sea in shorts.
– I traveled on my own for the first 3 months.. Then, with the financial support of both my followers and a few companies from Turkey, I was able to extend my trip for 3-4 more months.. Afterwards, Columbia Turkey is my main sponsor, followed by Canon Turkey, Özdağ Ferforje and Dece Yazılım A.Ş.. I also have sponsors. Qatar Airways is my flight ticket sponsor.. I cannot forget the support of Nil Travel, which also supplies tickets for my intermediate flights.
– I spent 6 days in San Pedro Sula, Honduras, which is considered the most dangerous city in the world with its murder rate per square meter, according to official sources.. I stayed in Afghanistan for a month. Without exception Afghanistan was the most dangerous country I have ever been to. I say that if I left there safely, nothing will happen to me.
– I made at least one new post from my Facebook and Instagram account every morning for 1000 days (except only 3-4 days).
– The richest person in the world ever and I had the opportunity to meet and talk to Pablo Escobar’s own brother, who is known as the most dangerous drug lord.. I took a photo with him and was able to ask a question.
– Normally 50-60 countries can be seen in 1000 days, but I wanted to visit the country I was in properly, so I was able to travel to about 20 countries.
– With the support from my followers, about 40 families in need each month we met your kitchen needs. We took some patients’ medications and had their treatments done.
– The longest time I was without internet; It was when I went to the Marubo Indians in the Amazon with 22 days. Electricity was provided by solar energy at some points.
– I took my best photos so far in the portrait category, which I love most in photography. , next to me were either the people I was staying at or friends from the hostel or local people I met. Sometimes we just walked around the city and sometimes we continued the trip together.
– Except for the longing for family and friends, I miss my bed and Turkish breakfast the most.
– Without my mountaineering experience, Ecuador’s highest mountain, Chimborazo Mountain, at an altitude of 6270 meters I came out on my second try. The hardest physical job I’ve ever done in my life; I didn’t climb this mountain. My experiences on the way to the top were unforgettable memories for the rest of my life.. Although it was incredibly difficult, my future projects in mountaineering started after Mount Chimborazo.
– I climbed the 7134m Lenin Peak in Kyrgyzstan. A total of 9 people from our team of 25, including me, were able to see the summit.. I struggled with the cold temperatures between -20 and -40 degrees for days at the last camp site and at the summit.. When I went to Los Angeles at the end of two years, thanks to Aydın Tuna Palabıyıkoğlu, whose house I stayed there, he took me to a Turkish restaurant and tasted these dishes again.
– I traveled about 48,000 km by land, train and sea for 1000 days.. (I do not include air travel.)
– I went to the headquarters of Taliban militants in Afghanistan, interviewed them and took pictures of them.. I think it was the most dangerous job I’ve ever done in my life.. I wrote pages and pages of my visit to the Taliban in my book Routeless Traveler Road Stories 2, and according to some readers, this was my most exciting story.
I spent 1000 days to the fullest. I met incredible people, lives and had unforgettable experiences.. In addition to all these, although I seem to be living an enviable life from the outside, as I mentioned above, every 11. After a month, I realized that it is not easy to travel like this without stopping.. Living with only one bag, washing clothes all the time, changing places every 4-5 days, and always looking for cheap food and a place to stay tired me out.. For this reason, I rested for 20 days in Medellin, Colombia, and 15 days in Los Angeles.. Afterwards, I gathered my energy and continued the trip from where I left off.. While I was doing all this, being constantly interested in social media and my website, preparing content, writing two books, taking photos and videos were among the things that made me a little tired.. If I hadn’t been so concerned with these things, my trip would probably have gone faster and I wouldn’t have gotten so tired.
Securing my purse, passport, cards and electronic equipment for 1000 days is another suffocating job. was a side. After a while, this situation started to bother me even more, because the value of the items I was carrying was increasing day by day.. To ensure the safety of the goods at all times; It was another factor that tired me psychologically.
In my trip, which I started from Mexico and continued unplanned, the following routes emerged.
In the first few months, I realized that normal navigation no longer tastes good to me.. Afterwards, it developed spontaneously and the main theme of my trips became “human”.. Especially after spending time with the Maya and Tarahumara natives, I realized that; I take great pleasure in finding and photographing locals and spending time with them.. In the second year, I started to enjoy going to more extreme places and climbing mountain peaks as well as visiting locals.. My 1000-day project was completed in September 2017 and I returned to Turkey.
My sincere thanks again to my friends, companies and sponsors who supported me to complete this trip.. Of course, the biggest share; you are my followers.
