Topic: Bald & Bankrupt - Travel Vloggers

[AlphaDelta]

Apart from the once a week trip into the office or walk around the park, I've found myself holed up indoors like everyone else and for the last few weeks I've found myself addicted to this guys YouTube channel:

https://baldbankrupt.com/

He's an English guy who travels around the world, mostly post-Soviet states like Belarus, Moldova, Dagestan etc. I'm jealous of the guy, he speaks near perfect Russian and can somehow chat with strangers like their his mates in the pub!
There was one video which I found fascinating, he finds himself in a remote Belarus village on the edge of the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, meets some random guy and ends up getting invited back to his house where the guys mother who is nearly 90 odd give him food and vodka. The old mother, a typical 'Babushka' is quite the character.

This guy has around 2.5 million subscribers on his YouTube channel and has also released the book The Burning Edge: Travelling Through Irradiated Belarus, under the pen name Arthur Chichester.

I've discovered there is a whole world of travel vloggers, some are a great watch, others aren't. I find them fascinating, they are showing us places that I'm highly unlikely to go to.

[McrRed]

I feel I'm about to have a bad case of travel envy but ok, bring it on!

[RedSince86]

Been watching his channel for over two years, when he had around 50k subscribers, his channel blew up when PieDewPie mentioned in an interview this it was his current favourite Youtube channel and the subscribers shot up.

First video I watched was him in India talking the local language fluently in a market and was gobsmacked as much as the Indians seem to be on the videos when he's over there. He was married to a Russian and they lived in Goa for years apparently.

Speaks fluent Russian, Hindi and his Spanish is pretty good as well.

You should check out the Cuban series,  nice  smuggling operation in those Cuban adventures, Mexico was a funny one, on the hunt for the Cartel of Sinaloa.

I prefer the videos he does in India ,they are more light-hearted fun.

[Oscarmac]

Simon Wilson.

A Red too.

[Pistolero]

Cheers, will check that out...love a travel vlog..particularly the sailing channels..ive spent the whole lockdown binging on Ran Sailing, Sailing Uma, Rigging Doctor, Adventures of an Old Seadog et al...learned more about far flung countries / cities / towns / culture in the last 10 months than I have in years.....

[BER]

Probably watched too much of his stuff where his personality started to grate and then i remember finding out he supported Trump and all the iffy shit he says where you're not sure if he's joking or not made sense. And then there's all the other allegations.

His videos in the Baltic regions and India are great though.

[AlphaDelta]

Probably watched too much of his stuff where his personality started to grate and then i remember finding out he supported Trump and all the iffy shit he says where you're not sure if he's joking or not made sense. And then there's all the other allegations.

His videos in the Baltic regions and India are great though.

Didn't know about Trump but I read in the comments about some weird allegations, just put it down to trolls though.

[Graeme]

I watch some of his videos but don’t read the comments as I watch them on the TV. What are the allegations about?

[AlphaDelta]

I watch some of his videos but don’t read the comments as I watch them on the TV. What are the allegations about?

The ones I read were about him supposedly having threesomes with some Russian babushka's (80 odd year old grannies). I found it ludicrous to be honest!

[Medellin]

Yeah he's good, didn't he upset the Belarus or somewhere alike with what he thought was an innocuous comment?

Harald Baldr for me is a better travel vlogger, they do stuff together too and have recently done stuff in Mexico with Simon Wilson.

Travelbum has reinvented himself with his new girl & the few months holed up in Covid lockdown Peru..

Never really watched stuff like this pre-lockdown.
Fascinating..Harald Baldr in India series is one to watch.

[RedSince86]

I watch some of his videos but don’t read the comments as I watch them on the TV. What are the allegations about?

He was involved a in a court case of alleged rape and cleared with a two friends.

Some guy has a YouTube channel that exposes Youtube celebrities, the video should be still there, I saw it a few months ago, he also did one on his Youtube Friend Harold Badr another huge YT travel blogger being a sex tourist on his stay in Thailand last year.

[Caligula?]

I've watched plenty of his channel and I to be honest, I've enjoyed it. All the "Soviet" (he loves that word, doesn't he?) stuff is brilliant.

I didn't know about the rape allegations, but I did read allegations that he was a 'sex tourist' or 'sexpat' who went to places like India and Thailand and did what those types of people usually do there and that was how his channel or the idea of it started. Basically that he was a sleazebag. I've no idea if it's true or not. To be honest given his character it wouldn't surprise me, but then again if he's not done anything illegal then who am I to judge? The content that he puts out is great and maybe some people are just out to ruin his reputation.

[AlphaDelta]

I've watched plenty of his channel and I to be honest, I've enjoyed it. All the "Soviet" (he loves that word, doesn't he?) stuff is brilliant.

I didn't know about the rape allegations, but I did read allegations that he was a 'sex tourist' or 'sexpat' who went to places like India and Thailand and did what those types of people usually do there and that was how his channel or the idea of it started. Basically that he was a sleazebag. I've no idea if it's true or not. To be honest given his character it wouldn't surprise me, but then again if he's not done anything illegal then who am I to judge? The content that he puts out is great and maybe some people are just out to ruin his reputation.

I'm still enjoying him, think is constantly excitable attitude is great, but could get on people's tits after a while. I've never known someone so excited or happy to see a Soviet bus stop!

That aside, its a decent channel with good contents, defo worth the watch.

[Elliemental]

The ones I read were about him supposedly having threesomes with some Russian babushka's (80 odd year old grannies). I found it ludicrous to be honest!

Someone did a lot of digging on Bald and Bankrupt (I forget his real name now), but he was tried (and acquitted) of rape many years ago and it's quite well documented that he's basically a sex tourist. There's a sub Reddit that details a lot of this stuff. It put me right off his vids, to be honest.

[Flaccido Dongingo]

I've been one of Balds supporters on Patreon for about 2 years or more, he's excellent, someone mentioned Simon Wilson and Harald Baldr, those two and Bald did videos together in Mexico fairly recently.

[JerseyKloppite]

He was involved a in a court case of alleged rape and cleared with a two friends.

Some guy has a YouTube channel that exposes Youtube celebrities, the video should be still there, I saw it a few months ago, he also did one on his Youtube Friend Harold Badr another huge YT travel blogger being a sex tourist on his stay in Thailand last year.

I'm quite uncomfortable with this individual being publicised here. It doesn't take much googling to find out that some fairly committed individuals have spent a very significant amount of time investigating his background and linking him to some unpleasant behaviour. I'm not saying for certain that he has done any of the things he is alleged to have done in every reddit thread, but these aren't just random speculation. Threads like this https://www.reddit.com/r/BaldAndBaldrDossier/comments/jv5034/the_baldandbankrupt_central_dossier_newbies_start/ represent a significant amount of work.

However, in particular in relation to the above post, a ws article for which is at https://www.dailyecho.co.uk/news/5618610.cleared-men-behaved-appallingly shows that whilst being cleared of the charges against him, the judge in the cases said he behaved "appallingly" and should be "ashamed of himself" in relation to the way he treated the victim. Accordingly he doesn't feel like the kind of individual who should be supported/advertised with a thread here.

If anyone has very strong feelings about this they can PM me.