Varun Vagish

Some Lesser Known Facts About Varun Vagish

• Varun Vagish is an Indian ex-journalist, academician, radio newsreader, PR professional, and travel vlogger. He worked in different government organisations before he became a full-time traveller. He posts regular videos on his YouTube channel MountainTrekker. He is very popular and is regarded as one of the earliest Indian solo travel vloggers.

• He lived in different Indian cities as his parents were government employees. He spent his childhood in Narora, Tarapur, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Rawatbhata, and Asansol.

  

• He has liked travelling since childhood and used to travel on his bicycle to the mountains in the Western Ghats during his days in Tarapur, Maharashtra. In an interview, he described his love for travelling during his childhood, mentioned his experiences of roaming in the Western Ghats and said,
  

  A major part of my childhood was spent in Maharashtra. It is funny that as a kid, I used to hate maths. So, my mom, who was a teacher, asked one of her colleagues to give me tuitions, so that I get to learn better.  I used to make excuses that madam is unwell today, bunk tuitions and wander off. That time I was in Maharashtra in a place called Tarapur (India’s first Atomic Power station) and the Sahyadris (Western Ghats) was nearby. So with my bicycle, I used to go off to the hills alone, for 2-3 hours. That’s quite a memorable experience of my childhood days. And the love for the mountains was something I grew from a very tender age.” ^[4]The HotFridayTalks

• He decided to become a full-time traveller after a short trip to Shimla. He mentioned in an interview that he was working as a journalist for All-India Radio in Delhi when he got a one-day leave. He went to Shimla by his motorbike, stayed at a Gurudwara for a few hours and came back to Delhi.

• He was employed by Eastern Coalfields Limited as a Deputy Manager – PR before working as a full-time travel vlogger.

• In 2006, he received the National Award for Excellence in Publication in the Hindi language for 2005-06.

  

• His parents were supportive of his decision to leave the job and become a full-time travel vlogger. They were assured that he would do well in his life as he also received an award from the Indian government for his early work in the field of tourism. In an interview, he described his parent’s reaction to his decision and said,
  

  No, both myself and my parents were confident that it was a good choice and that I will do well in it. I was getting a chance to chase my dream and my parents supported me in this. They had seen how difficult it was for me to manage a job with my traveling and blogging and felt I should devote all my time and energies to something I loved doing. Besides I had already started getting a good response to my work, which included the Government of India award for promotion of Tourism, and they felt I was on the right path.”

• He started his YouTube channel Mountain Trekker on 21 August 2007.

• He learnt the concept of budget travel from his Australian friend Ryan who lived with him for a few months in 2004-05. His friend told him about travelling on limited funds and running a YouTube channel or a blog or a website to make money from the travel videos.

• He later spread the concept of volunteering through his videos. He described it as a concept of quid pro quo where a person does a task for the other person who in return gives free food and shelter.

  

• In 2017, he was declared the first winner in the Dekho Apna Desh – Video Contest organised by the Ministry of Tourism of the Indian government.

• He has travelled to various countries including Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Europe, Oman, and the U.S. He has also worked with tourism departments of various countries.

• As of March 2023, he has more than 1.5 million subscribers on his YouTube channel and more than 225 million views on his videos.