Ah... I had the priviledge to glimpse a tiny sliver of what he is writing about, that feeling of experiencing something that will be soon lost forever. People, culture, rituals, food, form of existence.
I did 6 months backpacking in India and Nepal in 2008 and 2010. Nepal was tame, relatively full of westerners(at least parts visited - Annapurna circuit in pre-season time, Kathmandu, Pokhara, Chitwan). But India could be wild in many ways. We went off popular places quite a bit and travelled and lived as close to natives as possible, and you could still find places where kids (or whole village) would look at you in awe and horror when you came, everybody would gather around you, touch you, bring you home for dinner and so on.
Those experiences in my late 20s shaped my personality more than anything else. I felt back then I was in another universe since forever, former existence just a memory of distant dream even if it was just 2 months into trip. All this pointed me later to directions in life that stood test of time as best choices of my life.
I still did it almost completely unplugged (well internet coffee max once every 2 weeks, super unreliable), no phone, no credit cards, just all cash i took with me on body belt.
This could be achieved on average monthly budget of +-500$ back then. But costs were growing maybe 20% every year.
Imagine what the original experience back then must have been...
As one friend with similar mindset, whom we found around Annapurna said back then - you can't share those stories with people back home. They don't understand the magic, the intensity, be it positive or negative. Often they don't even want to hear about it. But with similar person you feel you are member of same tribe, and they understand that smile when you tell stories much better...