Afthab
Software engineer based in Chennai, India. Sole author behind every NoMadYa post, no ghostwriters, no AI-generated articles, no syndicated content. Travelled to 15 countries since 2019, every trip planned end-to-end on a spreadsheet before booking.
BASED IN
Chennai, India
WRITES ABOUT
Travel for Indian passport holders
DAY JOB
Software engineer
FIRST INTERNATIONAL
Vietnam, 2019
COUNTRIES VISITED
15
POSTS WRITTEN
63+
EMAIL
hello@loot-on.com
X / TWITTER
@lootondotcom
What Afthab writes about
- Visa rules for Indian passport holders, what changed in 2026, application step-by-step, common rejection reasons
- Real cost breakdowns in INR, what trips actually cost from Indian metros, not aggregator listicles
- Multi-country routing. Japan + Korea + Taiwan style loops, the visa choreography that works
- The boring infrastructure, forex cards, eSIMs, travel insurance, what actually saves money on the ground
Where Afthab has actually been
Chronological. Years are when I was on the ground, not when the post about it went live. Lessons are one sentence each, the rest lives in the journal.
- 2019VietnamFirst international trip, a bus across the country taught me to budget for transit, not just hotels.
- 2019, 2022, 2024MalaysiaKL as a transit hub, Penang for street food, Langkawi as a cheap beach reset between bigger trips.
- 2019Hong KongTransit stop that turned into a dim-sum crawl through Sham Shui Po.
- 2019MacauPortuguese-colonial day trip by ferry, the cheapest way to add a passport stamp to a HK layover.
- Jan 2024KazakhstanAlmaty plus Kolsai Lakes at -22°C, the eVisa is fast but the cold is the real visa application.
- 2022Sri LankaColombo, Kandy, Galle, the most INR-efficient overseas trip I have ever logged.
- 2019, 2022, 2024ThailandBangkok and Phuket in 2019, Chiang Mai and Pai in 2022, Krabi and Koh Lanta in 2024. I saw three visa-regime changes in five years.
- 2022LaosLuang Prabang overland from Thailand, the slow boat down the Mekong is the trip, not the destination.
- 2022CambodiaSiem Reap and Angkor Wat, pre-dawn at Angkor is worth every minute of the 4am alarm.
- 2022SingaporeTransit plus Marina Bay, beautiful, expensive, do not stay more than 36 hours unless someone else pays.
- 2024BaliUbud and Canggu, the cafés are a co-working trap, get out to the rice terraces before they pull you in.
- 2024Nusa PenidaDay trip from Bali. Kelingking Beach is the postcard, the road to it is the workout.
- 2024Gili IslandsGili T has no police and no cars, which is the entire reason it remains a budget paradise.
Editorial standards
- All visa rules are cross-checked against official embassy or consulate sites before a post goes live. Aggregator data is never the only source.
- All INR prices are pulled from Cleartrip, ixigo, or Skyscanner within 30 days of publish. Stale fares get a “UPDATED” eyebrow when refreshed.
- First-person trip reports are marked separately from analytical guides, you should always know whether you are reading lived experience or a comparison table.
- Corrections are logged in the journal with a strikethrough on the wrong line or an explicit “UPDATED” note above the section. Nothing is silently rewritten.
- No affiliate link is ever placed where it disrupts the answer. Affiliate relationships (Skyscanner, Booking, Airalo, GetYourGuide) are disclosed in /privacy; same price for you whether you click or book direct.
Contact & verification
- Email: hello@loot-on.com, usually responds within a day
- GitHub: github.com/Afthab-IN, public commit history
- X / Twitter: @lootondotcom
- Instagram: @nomadya_, trip photos
- Domains owned: loot-on.com (parent) and travel.loot-on.com (NoMadYa). Both registered to the same operator; WHOIS is privacy-shielded but the registrant emails listed above match.
If you are a journalist, fact-checker, or partner who needs to verify identity beyond the above, email hello@loot-on.com from a domain-bound address and we will set up a call.
Recent posts by Afthab
- 2026-05-23 · 7 minBest AI travel planner for Indian travellers in 2026. NoMadYa vs Wonderplan vs Mindtrip vs Layla
- 2026-05-23 · 6 minBest forex card for Indian travellers 2026. Niyo vs BookMyForex vs Scapia vs HDFC
- 2026-05-23 · 6 minBest eSIM for international travel from India 2026. Airalo vs Holafly vs Nomad
- 2026-05-23 · 7 minTop 10 visa-free / low-friction countries for Indian passport in May 2026
- 2026-05-23 · 7 minBest international trips from India under ₹50,000 in 2026, 8 destinations costed in detail
- 2026-05-23 · 7 minMy first Vietnam trip from Chennai in 2019, and what I'd do differently in 2026
NoMadYa has no editorial team, no marketing agency, no paid placements. Every post is by Afthab. Affiliate revenue (Skyscanner, Booking, Airalo, GetYourGuide) pays the bills; same price for you whether you click those links or book direct.