Partners in flight

Sanjay Haridas and Riya Tony have known each other since childhood. As they grew up, their friendship blossomed into love and with their parent’s blessings, they got married and flew to the US, where Sanjay worked as a software developer and Riya joined for MBA. Till now, it was just another happy story of two childhood sweethearts. What follows is a wonderful journey of two adrenaline junkies.

Liberty Island

Every weekend, the couple, both 26 years old, explore new places, make videos, edit those and upload it on their YouTube channel Trip Couple, which has brought the vloger couple a huge fan base. Speaking over phone from New York, Riya says, “The channel was initially named ‘Kantha Njanum Varaam’. But since people here call us ‘Trip Couple’, we decided to rename it.”

The journeys happen over the weekends. At times, they spend the nights there. Apart from visiting the place, the couple makes it a point to learn more about the place, explore the food, culture and history. “We go with a schedule. I do the research part by planning the places to visit, the less-explored sites, off-road adventures, food and accommodation. We always try to include in the videos interesting trivia about the places. The shoot, edit, graphics and music are handled by Sanju,” says Riya.

They have explored Boston, Philadelphia, Napa Valley, San Fransisco, New Jersey, etc in the past one and a half years. The most memorable journey was to San Fransisco where they spent two whole weeks. “That was our best trip. It’s beauty everywhere in San Fransisco. We went to the McWay Falls, Big Sur coast, Muir Woods, Alcatraz Island, so on. Many beautiful spots were not frequented by people as they weren’t featured in the lists of tourist spots.”

The trip was memorable in another way too. At San Fransisco, a purse containing Riya’s passport and Green card were stolen from their car. Till the new IDs were issued, their travels were limited to the borders. The farthest they could travel was to the Canadian border.

Not all trips were fun-filled either. Only with a shudder can Riya recall that scary trekking night in Pennsylvania. “It was a trip full of mistakes. We started trekking in the evening by 7 — our first mistake. After almost two hours, we reached the top and while descending, I almost stepped on a rattle snake. I jumped back and both of us fell down through the thorny bushes. Suddenly, it turned dark and we could sense the presence of wild animals around. We couldn’t think of anything, forget lighting the torch! We ran through the pitch black and reached the starting point in just 20 minutes! So, our next video was titled ‘Travel Tips: Trekking essentials’,” she laughs.

Mount Pinnacle summit view.

They have so far posted 37 videos. Interestingly, all those are not travel diaries. A three-part series is about the Montauk Project, alleged secret government project conducted as part of developing psychological warfare techniques like time travel, at Camp Hero on Long Island, where they live. “There are a lot of conspiracy theories about the experiments conducted in connection with the project. It is said that a ship was attempted to be made invisible, following which many lives were put in danger. The entry to the site was banned and we couldn’t get permission. But we did some research and made a video on what we came to know.”

The couple also did a Halloween special video by visiting three haunted places — the infamous Amityville horror house, Lake Ronkonkoma and Pilgrim Psychiatric Centre. “Sanju loves horror stuff and I am scared about those. He planned the trip to bust the horror myths and my fear. Though he preferred a night journey, I didn’t want that. All along the way, people kept on asking us to go back. That trip was very interesting though I haven’t yet got rid of my fears,” giggles Riya.

The videos were earlier shot on handycam, but later, as the subscribers increased, they invested on cameras, mic and drone and improved the video quality by adding interesting visuals, background score and graphics. “It has grown out of travelogues. Earlier, our backpacks had clothes. Now, it is more equipment and bare essentials. We always ensure packaging the videos in a pleasant manner with colourful visuals and happy presentation. We want to inspire people to pack their backs and distress themselves by exploring the world,” she says.

The duo wants to globetrot and explore more countries and continents and if possible, stay there and experience the magic the places offer. They are also regretting not having been able to travel across India. During the next vacation, possibly next year, they are planning a big family trip covering many places, especially Hampi, where they had planned their wedding photo shoot that didn’t happen.

As their vlog description reads, the couple’s motto is: Hit the road, live the moment, tell the story. Theirs is indeed a match made in heaven!