In Pursuit of Adventure: Savi Munjal and Vidit Taneja

Savi Munjal (SM): “We met in high school in New Delhi. We travelled a fair bit in South East Asia as teenagers when we had just started dating because Vid (Vidit Taneja) went to university in Singapore. That’s when we fell in love with travelling together! We finally moved to London and got married. At that point, we would save our salaries to travel together each month — and that’s how we ended up exploring Europe, the US and parts of Africa.”

Vidit Taneja (VT): “Scotland was the first place we visited after marriage. We’ve since been to over 80 countries and 500 cities across six continents! We’ve travelled quite extensively, so we have a fair idea of the kind of trips and places we love. We enjoy gruelling hikes, scenic drives, extreme winter destinations, independent cafes and bars, street food and fine dining.”

SM: “Almost 10 years after we first started travelling together, we decided to blog about it, and that’s how Bruised Passports was born. The greatest irony of this decade is that there is so much information on travel online, but few are well-written articles that actually talk about what a traveller needs to know. Many regurgitate information penned in reputable guides. We found this really frustrating when we first started travelling. So, that’s the gap we wanted to address.”

VT: “We fused my love for photography with Savi’s background in literature and creative writing to further fuel our common passion for travel. We wanted to generate travel-related content that we thought the internet needed. We worked 20-hour days to learn the basics of digital marketing, set up our own website and garner a following. So, it’s definitely been a steep learning curve.”

SM: “As Indian passport holders, the hassles that come with obtaining visas are endless. We need visas for practically every country we travel to, so we have no choice but to plan in advance. But having long-term visitor visas for countries like the US and Canada definitely makes it easier!”

VT: “We love our work, so it flows quite organically. But having said that, professional travel blogging is demanding and not as glamorous as it might seem. When we are working on projects, entire days go by in conceptualising and executing shoots and creating and curating content. But we always strive for balance. So, work-fuelled travel will always be followed by a couple of months of slow living in some corner of the world to enjoy quality time together — that’s why we set out on this journey in the first place, and we always bear that in mind (and prioritise)!”

SM: “One of our most memorable experiences was sleeping in an igloo at the Arctic Circle and watching the Northern Lights. Nothing comes close to the overwhelming experience of seeing the aurora borealis for the first time. It’s hard to explain how clean the air feels at that altitude, how buttery the popcorn smells and how enticing warm wine is when one is huddled up on a bench carved out of ice…also, how it is actually possible to feel entirely disconnected from the world when one is in a village surrounded by miles and miles of pillowy snow.”

VT: “We do get a lot of questions about how we fund our travels…and some people tend to insinuate that we have rich parents or ancestral property. Neither is true. We earn every single penny that we spend on our travels. We worked full-time jobs in London and saved for full-time travelling. We also have several location-independent jobs that help sustain our lifestyle — I work on several photography assignments, Savi writes articles for several publications and both of us work with several brands in the capacity of professional travel bloggers as well.”

SM: “One country we find ourselves drawn to is France. We love the culture! And also, who can say no to baguettes, wine and cheese? Memories stick around forever — you don’t ever forget the tingle of a bungee jump or the splendour of seeing an enormous waterfall.”

VT: “Savi is disciplined and I’m a procrastinator. But we give each other plenty of space and go our own ways during travels quite frequently — Savi heads straight to a museum and I usually make my way to a cafe because I’m a coffee addict. The trick is to read up on the place and not be judgemental. You must be open to conversations and making friends.”