Just a girl who travels

4 min readJun 7, 2021

One girl on a mission to explore the world more meaningfully.

Hello. My name is Shivya Nath. I’ve been called a storyteller, writer, photographer, digital nomad, instagrammer, social entrepreneur, solo traveller, vegan and environmentalist. But in my heart, I’m just a girl who travels.

I’ve done a solo land journey from Thailand to India via remote tribal hamlets of Myanmar, and travelled overland from the Persian Gulf via Iran to Armenia. I’ve lived with a Mayan community in Guatemala, volunteered at a coral reef restoration project in Cuba, lived in a nunnery in Ladakh (India), and shed my fears and clothes at onsens across Japan.

Life in a remote Himalayan village in India.

How it all began

I grew up in a protective Indian family in Dehradun, a valley at the base of the Himalayas, and spent my childhood wondering what lay beyond the mountains I could see from my rooftop. Upon finishing high school, I went to Singapore to study, with big dreams and a big student loan.

As luck would have it, I graduated in the middle of the financial recession of 2009, when most companies I wanted to work with had ceased hiring. I landed a job with the Singapore Tourism Board, where my experiments with social media began, and I first began following the journey of travel writers around the world.

It was impossible to tame my restless cubicle-bound soul, so in 2011, I took a 2 month sabbatical from work. I went flash-packing across Western Europe with a friend, and volunteer-travelled by myself in the high Himalayas of India.

In those two months, I saw, experienced and lived more than I ever had before, and decided to quit my first and only corporate job with a dream of travelling the world on my own terms.

Contemplating the beauty of Tajikistan raw, wild landscapes.

The journey so far

In 2011, at age 23, I quit my 9-to-5 corporate job with a dream of travelling the world.

In 2013, I gave up my home, sold most of my belongings and began living nomadically.

In 2015, I turned vegan and decided to cut out all animal products from my diet and lifestyle, realizing that it’s better for the animals, the planet and my own body.

In 2018, I published a book — called The Shooting Star — about my personal journey and how my travels have shaped my life choices. I was overwhelmed when it became a national bestseller in just over a month of release! It’s currently in its fourth reprint.

In 2019, I launched The Shooting Star Collection — sustainable travel-inspired clothing that raises funds to grow forests in Uttarakhand.

In 2020, when the pandemic decimated tourism-related livelihoods, I co-founded Voices of Rural India — a curated digital platform to host stories from rural storytellers across India, in their own voices. The goal is develop digital storytelling skills and alternate livelihood options among rural communities, and for the rest of us, it’s a chance to explore remote corners of India virtually!

In 2021, when my travel writing income plummeted, I launched “Journeys” — a storytelling project at the intersection of responsible travel, conscious living and self-discovery. Journeys currently ranks #4 globally among paid travel newsletters on Substack.

The kind of travel I believe in

I’m not a backpacker. While I carry a convertible backpack for convenience, I like to stay in experiential accommodations, seek local experiences and don’t believe in counting every penny I spend. I like to go slow, get under the skin of a place, spend time with locals and experiment with the local cuisine; here’s how I survive and thrive as a vegan traveller. I mostly travel solo or with my partner; group travel with a fixed itinerary is just not for me.

I believe that our travel choices have an impact on the places we visit. On my part, I try to contribute to the local economy, prefer public transport, avoid plastic bottled water and other single-use plastic, say no to unethical animal attractions, consume no animal products, prefer to eat what grows in the region, ask for permission before photographing people and try to form my own opinions of the places I visit and the people I meet.

I believe in slow and sustainable travel, embracing local ways of life, spending time with indigenous communities, exploring places off the beaten path and minimizing my environmental impact.