About Me
It’s Chernobyl trip that changed my life. Have a look at the above pic of tourist-Greg (look at what I was wearing! 😆🤦♂️) standing on top of one of the buildings in Pripyat: hangover, sleep-deprived, exhausted from the previous night shananigans with the boys. But it was that trip and a moment just before this pic was taken that truly changed my life. Even though I was probably still drunk I looked over the horizon at the overgrown city of Pripyat and I had an epiphany.
I realized this is what I want to do. It all made sense from that moment. I want to find more places like this. Overgrown, taken over by nature, eerie, desolate, lost and… abandoned. And that’s where the moniker Greg Abandoned was born. I went all over Europe and England in my first year of exploring but soon after I moved to China. Here is where I stumbled across urbex-gold-mine.
At the beginning I even tried the whole “model thing” (beauty in decay) but it wasn’t for me. I rather focus on the places itself.
I did some cool places in Europe but before I could spread my wings and explore more on the old continent, I was soon on the plane to China 🇨🇳 ✈️
And here is where I went from place to place, from province to province. China is so huge it changes your perspective on flying. 3 hour flight somewhere for the weekend? That became a regular event in my life. I was discovering incredible place after another amazing abandoned location. In my most vivid dreams I couldn’t believe how lucky I was to be here.
After few years of exploring in China I was ready for new challenge and decided it’s time for ‘Holy Grail of Urbex’ (that’s a short summarisation). My trip to Kazakhstan was the most challenging and craziest adventure I have ever done in my life and it was special (as you can probably imagine). Waking up on the concrete floor of the MZK hangar and looking down at the abandoned shuttles remains the best day of my life. This story in detail here.
Covid-19 came and I wasn’t able to leave China and explore abroad. I focused on the country of my residence and after a while I collected and documented enough places to start compiling them into a book format. Abandoned China Book One was the effect of that work and the future volumes are in the works.
As of today I am still based and exploring in China.
Also, in September of 2020, after being invited to photography podcast for an interview, I fulfilled my long-lasting dream of hosting my own podcast. Chasing Bandos Podcast was born soon after and this pod is something I’m super proud of it. Being able to talk to other explorers from around the world, listen to their stories, laugh, be amazed and sometimes even cry has truly been one of the best things that happened in my life. I cherish this little urbex pod and I feel very grateful to all the listeners who tune in to listen to it!
Chasing Bandos pod is a blast! Love hearing the stories and talking to other explorers.
