The years
Elazığ
Yiğit
Şahinoğlu
Anlatmak kolay. Yaşatmak sanattır.
Telling is easy. Making people feel it is an art.
A reader, or a traveler? I already chose.
Okuyan mı, gezen mi? Ben kararımı verdim.In short
Yigit: from a street cart in Elazığ to a hostel in Laos.
Yiğit Şahinoğlu was born in Elazığ, eastern Turkey, in 2005. At twelve he sold simit from a small cart. Later came bicycle repairs, a ten-square-metre shop, a cleaning company and a real-estate office. Some of it worked. Some of it lost money.
In November 2024 he bought a one-way ticket to India. He hitchhiked through Iraq and Iran, crossed into Pakistan, travelled on through Thailand, and in September 2025 reached Luang Prabang. He planned to stay ten days. He now runs ISANO Nomad Hostel there and films the road for YouTube.
In his words
An entrepreneur. A traveler. A YouTuber.
Still learning. He says the story is only beginning.
- Entrepreneur
- Traveler
- YouTuber
- Still at the start
About him
At a glance.
Where he writes
Where to find him.
A boy from Elazığ who felt he had to see the world.
2005 · 12
Earning money is not easy, and being able to stand on your own feet is something truly valuable.
Elazığ
On May 31, 2005, I was born in Elazığ, a city in eastern Turkey that I have always carried with me in my heart. In Turkey, people often associate Elazığ with the “Gakgoşlar,” and even the number 23 on a license plate is enough to remind people of the city. I grew up in an ordinary middle-class family. My father was a businessman, my mother was a homemaker, and I had an older brother and a younger sister. From the outside, my childhood probably looked like the childhood of many other kids: going to school, coming home, playing with friends, spending time with family, and enjoying the simple things that children enjoy.
16
It was the first time I was running something that was truly my own.
Bicycles
During middle school, I was still the same kid who loved bicycles. My interest in bicycles grew stronger. I began learning how to repair them, understand how they worked, and eventually people in my neighborhood started knowing me as someone they could come to when their bicycle had a problem. One day, I even printed small A5 pieces of paper. At the top, I wrote “Şahinoğlu Bisiklet,” and underneath, I left my phone number. Then I put those papers on walls, poles, and places around the neighborhood. When I think about it now, I can't help but smile.
16–18
Your circumstances do not completely define you. What you do with those circumstances does.
Cleaning, then school
Before graduating from high school, I went to my shop almost every day after school. I opened the door, cleaned, organized the products, waited for customers, packed orders, and took packages to the post office. Sometimes I would sit in nearby businesses and drink tea with people much older than me, listening to them talk about business and life. While many people my age were meeting friends in cafés, going on dates, and simply enjoying their teenage years, I was living a different kind of youth. That doesn't mean my choice was better than theirs.
18
Sometimes going back does not mean giving up. It means preparing yourself to try again.
A passport. Two days.
In August 2023, I bought a one-way ticket and traveled alone to Dubai for the first time. At that time, my English was extremely limited. I could barely say simple things like “Hi” and “How are you?” I didn't have much money. I didn't have a detailed plan. My family didn't really stop me, but of course they were worried. After all, I was still very young, and suddenly I had taken a one-way ticket to a completely unfamiliar country. When the plane landed, I understood for the first time just how big the world really was. Everything felt unfamiliar.
18
If I wanted to travel around the world, I needed to communicate with people from different countries.
The office. The language.
When I returned to Turkey, I still didn't know what direction to take. The cleaning company had already been transferred to someone else, but later the person who took it over told me he couldn't continue and wanted to return the business to me. By then, I had already lost some money. But I bought it back anyway. I became the “cleaner Yiğit” again. At the same time, I started studying English every day. I also opened another office and tried to enter the real estate business. I wanted to make money, but I also wanted to keep moving.
2024.11.29
You do not need much to feel real happiness.
The first real ticket
On November 29, 2024, I bought a one-way ticket to India. This time, I didn't have a complete plan. I only had a little English, some savings, and an increasingly powerful feeling inside me: I wanted to see how far I could actually go. When I arrived in India, I started asking myself another question: “What if I record this journey? Would anyone want to hear my story?” So I began taking social media content seriously. I stayed in India for around three months. But the journey didn't go the way I imagined. Around the second month, I became seriously ill and eventually ended up in a hospital.
Pakistan
You came all the way to Pakistan — we can't let you leave without starring in a mango ad. So here I am in a loud jacket, posing like a model.
Pakistan’a geldin o kadar, seni mango reklamında oynatmadan göndermeyiz dediler ve böyle cıvıl cıvıl ceketler giydirip manken gibi pozlar veriyorum
Pakistan
The caption is his own, written on the photo. The loud jacket was part of the ad.
2025.09
No matter what happens, keep going.
Luang Prabang
In September 2025, I arrived in Laos for the first time. I had absolutely no idea that this country would eventually become my home. I started hitchhiking around the Huay Xai area, passed through Muang Xay and Luang Namtha, and eventually arrived in Luang Prabang. At first, I thought the roads were terrible. The shaking, dust, exhaustion, and long hours of traveling made me think that maybe I would stay one night and leave. But sometimes life works differently. You think you're just passing through. Meanwhile, life has already started writing the next chapter for you.
Now
You don't have to know where the finish line is before you take the first step.
You don't have to know where the finish line is before you take the first step.
The other side of the camera
Today, I live in Luang Prabang, Laos. A place that was once nothing more than a name on my travel map has become a part of my life. I am still that young man from eastern Turkey. I don't have a degree from a prestigious university. I didn't have a perfectly designed plan for success from the beginning. I simply started working early. I made mistakes early. I learned responsibility early. And then, again and again, I learned how to stand back up. I sold simit. I repaired bicycles. I opened a ten-square-meter shop. I ran a cleaning company.
Now
In Luang Prabang. He runs the hostel.
He opened it. He still lives here.
The house
The one at the desk.
A doorway, late light, the courtyard behind him.
The road he names
Places he wrote down.
The countries he has written about, in the order he tells them.
- 2005Elazığ
- 18Dubai
- 2024.11.29India
- Iran
- Iraq
- Pakistan
- Kuwait
- Oman
- Thailand
- 2025.09Laos
In his words
He writes short. The road is the long part.
A reader, or a traveler? I already chose.
InstagramAt 19 I set off alone on a world trip. Was it a mistake? What’s in my bag?
YouTubeI run my own hostel in Luang Prabang.
YouTubeTelling is easy. Making people feel it is an art.
Banner
A note
You don't have to know where it ends.
He left with one bag. India, Iran, Pakistan, Thailand, and now this courtyard. He still feels he is only at the beginning.
Start with the channel
No matter what
Keep going when it is hard.
If you believe in something, follow it. Not because it is easy, but because you are willing to keep going. Don’t be afraid of being alone, of crying, of fear, of failing. Sometimes you lose. Sometimes you turn back. Sometimes you start again. At twelve, selling simit, he could not have imagined a door on the other side of the world. He still thinks he is only at the beginning.
Watch the channelHis closing lines
What he wants to leave behind.
Fate favors those who are willing to work for what they want.
Keep fighting.
Go after the life you truly want.
Then keep walking.
Watch
Six films. The rest are on the channel.
Running a hostel in Luang Prabang
At 19: what’s in my bag?
From Thailand into Laos
Laos: the first 24 hours
Surprising his family after two years
Erbil, an evening street
YouTube@yigit.sahinoglu
Watch
From here
Watch first. Write after, if you want.
Home base
YouTube
@yigit.sahinoglu
Subscribe
Instagram
@yigitsahinoglu1
The daily frame
Open →
This city
The Luang Prabang film
Start here if you are nearby
Open →
Album
The same photographs, a few seconds each
Open →
Place
Ban Mano
Luang Prabang. The hostel he runs.
Open →
A letter
Write
Show email
Contact
Write to him.
Films, travel, the hostel, or just hello.