Kochi: Vijayan and Mohana the popular elderly couple that sells tea in Kochi is setting new travel goals. They love travelling the world with the money saved by running their tea shop. After visiting Australia recently, Vijayan and Mohana boarded the flight to New Zealand, making it the 25th country that they have been to.
The couple caught the attention of Anand Mahindra, the chairman of the Mahindra group, after they were featured in a vlog by popular American traveller Drew Binsky. Impressed by their amazing passion for travel, it was the industrialist who happily sponsored Vijayan and Mohana's current trip to Australia and New Zealand.
K R Vijayan and his wife Mohana run the Sree Balalji coffee shop in Gandhinagar in Ernakulam and their penchant for travel is quite famous. In the beginning, they travelled to various parts of the country to explore the incredible diversity and beauty of it. They began their amazing feat, in 1988, with a trip to the great Himalayas and have since visited 25 countries including the United States of America, Germany, Switzerland, Brazil, and Argentina.
They usually earn the money to travel by investing savings from the tea shop in chit funds or rotating saving schemes. When this amount is insufficient they would either borrow money or pawn the ornaments to keep their passion for travelling ignited. Though the couple dreams to write a travelogue based on their experiences travelling to various countries, they hardly find time as they are busy either serving hot tea and delicious snacks at their tea stall or travelling the world.
Vijayan and Mohana have spent eight days in Australia and will spend another 7 days in New Zealand. They travelled through the Great Ocean Road in Melbourne and even visited the major spots like the Philip Island, Cairns and Sydney. Their Australian sojourn ended with a visit to the famous Opera house. This time, Vijayan and Mohana are accompanied by their son-in-law Murali. The duo will be back on November 2 after visiting the 25th country.
