Hey there, welcome to my blog – Madman’s Journey! :)
Hi! I am Manas Patil, the person behind this space. I come from India but spent most my childhood in the Riau Islands, Indonesia. However, I studied my final school days in India and graduated college mid 2023 in Bangalore.
Though I created this blog back in 2018, Madman’s Journey has found its place in travel not long ago.
Looking to collaborate with me? Click here.
Today, Madman’s Journey is a personal blog as a means of putting out my travel stories and guides. It focuses mostly on budget travel aspect for solo-travelers, teenage travel enthusiasts, and family travel as well.
With most of my travel revolving around Southeast Asia and India, you’ll find most my articles on these countries. Detailed itinerary and insightful travel guides to be exact. When I started this blog in 2018, Madman’s Journey wasn’t like this. It wasn’t even ‘Madman’s Journey‘.
Fun fact — the name ‘Madman’ didn’t pop out of nowhere. Someone called me it and the name stuck. Now I see why it touches the blog so well. You’d think as a ‘travel blogger’ I’d make the best itineraries for myself. Nope — on the contrary, I plan way less.
I believe planning my tour ahead takes out all the adventure from the trip. There’s no ‘exploring’ when you have read all the reviews on TripAdvisor. I prefer tagging along wherever the day takes me. After all, it’s the unplanned parts that make the best memories of any trip.
That’s what Madman’s Journey is all about.
Those crazy travel stories make the backbone of this site. The itineraries and guides come second, but are thorough based on personal experiences, parts where I went wrong, things I could have planned better.
Now if everyone traveled the same way I did, this blog would cease to exist. Encouraging to plan less, I am inevitably digging my own grave, right? But it is the amateur travelers, those with time/budget constraints, and wallflowers that I seek to reach. There will always be people endeavoring to break free. I look back and realize how I was one among them.
And that is the goal — to push people to loosen up, pack the essentials (don’t forget the charger), and travel!
A Little more about myself
It’s nice to finally meet you! Coming from India, I’ve had the privilege of visiting countries from the age of 6 ever since we shifted to Indonesia.
I lived in Indonesia for 8 years before moving back to India for my higher studies.
Why this blog? I had a soft spot for writing as far as I can vividly remember. Scribbles were all over the house as a kid – tiny stories in notebooks, essays in school competitions, mini-novels on mystery ideas I had back in high school. When I turned 17, I started this space.
When I started this blog (in June 2018), I knew writing. But blogging was new to me. Blog posts, pages, hosting and wordpress, and the dreaded SEO. Though pursuing engineering, I wanted my writing side to stay afloat somehow.
So I learned all about building a website with everything I could find on the Internet – even took up an online course!
Things I’ve been doing lately
November 2023: I graduated college in mid 2023. Through campus, I landed my first job in Japan and will be moving there soon! For the past 6 months, I haven’t had the time to be consistent with the blog. On one hand the Japanese classes kept me ever busy and the other, my traveling has never been this exciting before!
To name the places I traveled in the last 6 months, here are the ones I can remember so far — Karnataka (Dandeli and Coorg), Himachal Pradesh (Manali and Bir Billing), Vietnam (Bac Ninh, Hanoi, Saigon, Hoi An, Da Nang), Singapore, and Indonesia (Batam Riau, Bintan). I kind of missed a few.
Anyway, now that I’m nearing to going to Japan, my travels will have to come to halt a little. It’s time I focus back more on this site as well. Speaking of which, I have developed a soft spot for the Medium Platform.
In fact, I’ve been more consistent with the platform and plan on bringing readership from both — this blog and Medium together. Thus that greenish button at the top of this page.
November 2022: This blog got listed on the Top 60 Asia Travel Blogs on Feedspot. That was a big deal to me. But I’ve yet a long way. I made a solo trip to Singapore in June, 2022 and visited my parents in Indonesia. Returned to India and traveled to Goa and Kerala.
Last but not least, these days I am playing the guitar. Working out occassionally. I code sometimes. Oh, did I mention I landed a job as an web engineer in Japan? (I’ll be shifting in a year or so!) That’s about it I guess.
Other Places to find my Scribbles
As a kid, I remember beginning my writing journey with stories I imagined in my mind. These weren’t any official works out for display as such. Some were randomly sketched on pieces of paper I found.
Some I typed out and stapled together into a mini novel. You get the idea.
Even when leaping into writing on the ferocious Internet, I didn’t head to making my own blog at first. I wrote a bunch of fiction stuff on Wattpad. Needless to say, it didn’t go well with all the unrealistic fanfiction written by 14 year olds around (was that too specific?).
I stopped writing fiction and began writing articles on Medium. I fell in love instantly with the thought-provoking communities here. I have the urge to write here from time to time. It’s a platform where I can focus purely on the writing rather than SEO.
With travel writing, I didn’t hit it off right on my own blog. I began as a freelance writer like most bloggers out there. I wrote my first post for the Travelista Club and got my first payment! While I wanted to monetize my writing, I didn’t want rules for my hobby. That left blogging as the last resort.
Later did I realize this blog was the best decision ever :)
*PS That doesn’t mean I don’t write anywhere else now. I still write on Medium, work as a freelancer when I get a chance, and even write guest posts! Here are some of my favorites I’ve worked on (both paid and free):
My Favorite Post Collaborations
Where to Start
As I write this line, this blog currently has around a little over 100 posts. Countries I’ve written most about are India, Indonesia, Singapore, and Malaysia. Putting all content into sections based on places, most articles are linked to their related places and nearby places as well.
Visit my destinations guide page to begin reading your preferred itineraries.
If you’re unsure what you’re looking for but genuinely enjoy my writing, how lovely! I’m honored. Why not begin by subscribing to my newsletter?! Get the latest post updates (and my life) straight to your inbox. Let’s keep in touch!
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