Did you ever stumbled upon the meaning Urban Exploring, Bandos, Urbex Explorer? You like the unknown, history, old movies such as Indiana Jones or games like Tomb Raider? It may be, that you are a true explorer deep inside and only has to be awakened.
In the following you'll get to know about Urban Exploring, what it exactly means, where you can do it and what it takes to search for the long forgotten places.
HOW IT BEGAN From my point of view I always enjoyed it to explore the unknown, but I was and still am specially attached to old buildings, objects, vehicles, basically everything that has a history which is shared by generations. Generations such as families that have lived in a certain area and their homes have maybe changed within time, but already have been theirs for centuries.
I imagined while visiting castles, be it abandoned or not, how it must have been to live there, how the people have been, what happened to them and if there are still memories left in the meaning of old diaries, written by the head of the family to keep everything in order.
It is about our past and how it changed until this very day, what we learned out of it and what kind of mistakes are still occurring. We should be proud of our past and the way it shaped us.
I cannot stop thinking about it how the village where I grew up has been only 100 years ago. My grandmother told me stories and showed me plenty of photos. Sure, they are black and white but you get the picture when looking at the places today and hold the photo right in front of it. Sometimes it is sad how much actually changed and how less we were able to keep the way it looked like. But since time is always flowing, we cannot really do anything, except to remember.
SOME YEARS BACK
There has been some people on YouTube that began taking photos and videos and showing them to the rest of the world. A new era was born of explorers that try to find the long forgotten before others.
One of the first has been Exploring With Josh and his friends Exploring With Cody, Steve Ronin and John Yurei. For quite some time they have travelled the world together, sometimes meet in distant countries to team up, until they say good bye for a while, only to meet by surprise once again in, yet, another far away land. True friendship is above boundaries of the common world.
But there are many more very talented Explorers like ImRobzy, JustTheLetterK, Exploring with Fighters, Abandoned Explorer, MeloCat - does a lot of different things which is kind of cool, The Proper People and many more can be found on YouTube.
In case you like to know what I do, its easy. All kinds of exploring and travelling is welcome. But Urban Exploring will be always one of my favourites. Here you'll find me and the channel of a good friend of mine over here. Just in case you have been curious of what I like to do and what countries I already travelled to.
WHAT EXACTLY IS URBAN EXPLORING?
Urban exploring basically means to explore abandoned buildings such as houses, mansions, castles, Hotels and more, mines, ships, trains, car cemeteries, cemeteries in general, underground tunnels, factories, amusement parks, temples, ruins, and everything that deserves the adjective abandoned, decay, lost or forgotten.
WHERE ARE THE "BANDOS" ?
They can be everywhere. Some are known, others are unknown. Sometimes they are directly in a village, town or even city. An old factory, closed centuries or just a while ago, a hospital or mental asylum that should have been locked for only a short time, now slowly decaying, because there is no one that wants to buy and make it great again.
Sometimes they are harder to find, because only locals know about it. They can be in the middle of a forest, jungle, in a swamp, open fields like a Tank Cemetery that I explored a while ago, in a backyard, on top of a mountain, the beach, literally everywhere in the most unexpected areas. Often I stumbled upon an abandoned building by just taking a walk while being on holidays. No kidding, it happens when you not expect it.
HOW TO DO IT? Get out of your comfort zone. Put on some shoes, a jumper, comfy trousers with some pockets, a backpack, phone, flash light and a friend.
Here you find a small list of what to take with you and why on your Urban Exploring.
Maybe you want to check the area where you are right now in Google Maps to figure out whether to see something from above or just explore the environment where in the past should have been buildings, because history books with maps tell the truth of what must have been there which is now long forgotten.
But there is always a risk. Not only physically, or mentally, specially explorations during the night are creating often feelings such as fear or being followed, adrenaline rushes in and out of the veins, you can get lost or done illegally and/or without permission, it is very possible to get arrested and punished with a high fee. Depending on the country that you live in or want to explore you always should check on the penalties, because it may be that it's allowed to shoot every trespasser or to go to jail for several years.
LAST BUT NOT LEAST
Don't be rude and destroy the Abandoned Building that you visit. Pay respect to the history and following Explorers want to have the same experience as you. Keep everything intact, don't steal and take care of you and your friends that join you on the journey.
I hope you enjoyed reading the article and that it has been helpful. Don't forget to share this post on Pinterest or visit me on any other Social Media pages.
Give me a shout, in case you need some more advice and leave a comment below to let me know! I am always happy to help out. :)
Thank you so much and see you in the future,
Sina
You like to save the post for later on Pinterest? Just add the pins to your boards.
Disclaimer: This post contains #affiliatelinks. It only means, in case you decide to purchase something through my links, I might earn a tiny bit at no extra cost to you. :)
Comments