Frequently Asked Questions
FAQ About Travel
The beauty of travel is that it is accessible to everyone in some form. If you do not have enough money, you can travel locally and find budget accommodation.
There are several ways to make most flights affordable, whether by being flexible, searching on new websites, or just by planning. Know the best time to book a flight: two months in advance for domestic flights and four months for international flights.
Make a bucket list. Then choose a destination according to your finances and the amount of time you have available, making your trip more enjoyable and less stressful.
If you have only one week, it is better not to travel to a time zone too different from yours; otherwise, you might spend your entire trip being jet-lagged. Every hour of time difference takes about one day to adjust.
Our favourite beaches are around Phi Phi Island in Thailand. Other beautiful beaches on our bucket list are located inside Central America, Bali, Philipines, Italy, Portugal, Mexico and Oceania.
Make sure your passport is not expired and you have a valid visa. You might also want to look into getting travel insurance.
Bring something warm to wear because, at times, the temperatures on the plane can drop. There have been a few instances when we had to wear a down jacket, hat and scarf during a flight.
You can bring earplugs and an eye mask to help reduce noise and light. A plane pillow will make your sleep more comfortable, and lavender essential oil can help you get better sleep.
The food on the plane can be hard to digest, and having some ginger candies, digestive pills, or charcoal will help.
Most airlines do not give away free headphones, so make sure to bring a pair before you embark on your adventure.
If you like travelling with a bunch of electronics, do not forget a small power strip. It can come in handy for sharing a crowded outlet in an airport and a simple way to keep all devices close by once at a hotel.
While you are flying, try to stay hydrated. Avoid caffeinated drinks and too much sugar, and get enough rest. We also take a homeopathic remedy called Jet Lag.
FAQ About Photography
We have two cameras. One is Canon 5D Mark IV, which is a professional camera that takes fantastic photos. The downside is that it is heavy and big for travelling.
Our second camera is a crop sensor Sony a6400. The quality of photos is not as good as the Canon full-frame camera, but it takes beautiful images despite that. It is a good travel-size camera.
More info coming.
It depends. Travel photography includes capturing landscapes, portraits, street scenes, and architecture — subjects that require different gear to be appropriately framed.
For landscapes, a wide lens with a focal length of around 16 – 30mm works perfectly. To take sharp portraits, we use a prime 50mm lens. The 70 – 200mm lens offers a good zoom for taking wildlife photos. An excellent all-around lens is 24-70mm. With this lens, you can take photos of landscapes, portraits and close-ups.
We do not use filters very often. The circular polarizer helps to cut glare, it makes the colours appear more saturated, and a bright blue sky can take on a deeper hue. To create a milky waterfall effect, you will need an ND filter and a tripod.
Lighting
It is natural to want to shoot all day, all the time, and everywhere on vacation. However, the best images will likely occur in the early mornings and evenings as the sun is lower in the sky, thus providing a much softer light to photograph.
Places
The way that you shoot a place can make a huge difference. Don’t just arrive at a scene and take a shot from the area you are standing. Instead, take a few minutes to walk around and see if you can find a better frame or composition.
Composition
Before you start snapping away because something looks amazing to the naked eye, ask yourself: what do I want to capture in the frame? What should or should not be included? Think about what you are trying to convey by that photo.
Creativity
Try to experiment with your camera and be creative. Instead of shooting your subject straight on, why not take a photo from below, snap a close-up shot, or use a wide-angle lens to capture more.
Having a tripod is not necessary, but it can also be one of your best accessories. It will allow you to get excellent shots in low light. You can also get creative with your images, for example, when taking a long exposure.
Tripod can be very handy if you are travelling alone, and there is no one else to take your photo. As well, if you would like to take a group photo. You do not need a massive tripod, especially if you want to travel light.
We use Adobe Lightroom Classic.
Yes, we back up our photos in a few different ways. We store all of our pictures on two external hard drives that we synchronize together; otherwise, they take too much space on our computer. We also back up our photos to cloud storage.
FAQ About Us
We are fortunate to be living on a beautiful Vancouver Island in Victoria, British Columbia. It is an outdoorsy place with many hiking and biking trails, and it offers an excellent opportunity for sea kayaking.
We would love to live in Italy or Bali for an extended time.
We are both vegetarian for over 20 years. Some of our favourite cuisines are Indian, Italian, Mediterranean, Japanese and Thai.
When we are not travelling, we mostly cook at home. Manoshri has a food & beauty blog called Myriad Flavours, where you can find many recipes that we make.
Galya was born in 1971, and Manoshri was born in 1978. You do the math!
We love running a few times a week. Occasionally, we practise yoga and the Five Tibetan Rites. Our hiking trips help us to stay in shape as well. We have to watch how much food we eat; otherwise, we can put on extra weight.
We try to visit far-away destinations a few times of the year. More often, we take shorter or longer trips throughout British Columbia, Canada.
During warm months we love camping. We think of ourselves as very lucky because there are so many beautiful places inside our province.
We own a small wholesale business. Galya also works in the construction business as a finishing carpenter.
Blogging takes a lot of time. Manoshri writes the blog posts and edits photos mainly in the evenings and on the weekends.
Galya’s most significant accomplishment is running the longest foot race in the World three times, the 3100-Mile Race. He is the third-fastest finisher, running the distance in 42 days, 17 hours, and 39 minutes. Galya also won one 24-hour race, four 48-hour races, and two 6-day races.
Manoshri’s most significant accomplishment is running a 6-Day Race in Florida in 2016, where she finished first overall with 432 miles / 695 km—averaging 72 miles per day. She also participated in the 10-Day Race in New York twice, where she ran 609 miles / 980 km.
Manoshri was born on a Taurus-Gemini cusp. She has the independence & curiosity of a Gemini and a love of beauty & practicality of a Taurus. The meeting of Earth (Taurus) and Air (Gemini) on the cusp of energy creates quite a dust storm of activities. That explains why Manoshri has so many interests and wants to do too many things.
Galya was born on a Cancer-Leo cusp. He has the intuition of a Cancer and the determination & creativity of a Leo.