Bihar Youth Hitchhikes to 187 Countries on $6 a Day

A YouTube video about hitchhiking changed everything for 16-year-old Shubham Kumar from rural Bihar. While his classmates planned for engineering entrance exams in Kota, he started dreaming of highways that stretched across continents.

At 20, Shubham packed four sets of clothes in a small backpack and bought a ticket to Russia. He had no itinerary, no hotel bookings, and no safety net beyond his determination to see how far curiosity could take him.

Four years later, he's visited 187 countries and become one of the youngest Indians to do so. The remarkable part isn't just the number of countries but how he got there, traveling on roughly 500 rupees (about $6) per day.

Hitchhiking became his primary mode of transport. Shubham would stand on highways waiting for rides, sometimes for hours, sometimes for days. Drivers, truckers, and even the mayor of a city in Kazakhstan stopped to pick him up.

Finding shelter required equal creativity. He spent nights at petrol pumps when they were safe, fire stations that welcomed him, and police stations that offered a place to rest. The kindness of strangers became his travel infrastructure.

The journey brought extraordinary moments. He attended weddings and funerals in communities he'd just met, visited parliamentary buildings, crossed the Arctic Circle, and walked through deserts for three days straight. In Mongolia, China, and South Africa, he witnessed cultures completely different from his village upbringing.

But the road also tested him. Shubham was robbed during his travels, detained by Afghan soldiers, and stranded in Iran during strikes that shut down transportation. Once, he ran 44 kilometers in temperatures reaching negative 71 degrees Celsius.

Through it all, he kept documenting. His YouTube channel now has 3.9 million followers who watch his videos from the road. The platform helps fund his ongoing travels while inspiring others to rethink what's possible with limited resources.

The Ripple Effect

Shubham's journey is reshaping how young Indians think about travel and possibility. His story proves that exploring the world doesn't require wealth, just willingness to embrace uncertainty and trust in human kindness across borders.

For every person who helps him with a ride or a place to sleep, the interaction becomes a small bridge between cultures. His videos show viewers that strangers around the world are more generous than fearful, more curious than closed off.

From a village where international travel seemed impossible to 187 countries visited before turning 25, Shubham Kumar's journey continues one hitchhiked ride at a time.