This week we had a chat with Thareesha Wijethunga, better known as @traveldrops_tw on Instagram. Known for a vibrant and incredibly esthetic profile, Thareesha shared with us her journey to becoming a travel influencer and travel content creator.
Living in Colombo, Thareesha is currently employed and seeks to create travel content as a leisurely pursuit. She shared that she first joined Instagram in 2014 and went on to change her personal account to a travel-related content page only in 2018.
She shared with us that her story really started when life led her into a toxic relationship, followed by a series of unfortunate events. She said this breakup was really hard on her, which then led her to realise that wallowing in her painful past wouldn’t make things any better, and so she decided to give herself a fresh start to life.
Thareesha shared that she was on the lookout for something new – something to keep her occupied on the weekends – sharing also that while travelling wasn’t exactly new to her, adventure-style travelling of hiking, waterfall hunting, and camping wasn’t something she had previously explored.
She said that this was around the time when she came to cross paths with her friend’s gorgeous travel photos, which inspired the planning of their first trail hike and waterfall hunting trip. She shared that this was a true turning point in her travel life, following which she began sharing her travel photos on Instagram, and the feedback she received from her followers motivated her to continue to keep on creating more content.
She shared that often she is inspired to create when she sees her fellow travel bloggers content, with some of her favourites being #destinationchaser, #professionaltraveller, and #mariefeandjakesnow. “I believe Instagram is a place to get inspired while inspiring others and on the other hand, we have to be creative and authentic,” she said.
“Nothing gives me more pleasure than travelling. It changed my life wholly, so I wouldn’t trade the opportunity to travel for anything,” said Thareesha, adding that some key highlights in her travels have been places like Ella, Idalgashinna, Hatton, Nuwara Eliya, Mirissa, and Pasikuda, which are just a few of her favourite destinations in Sri Lanka. She said she certainly has a lot more to explore.
Thareesha shared that “a lifetime of memories is only one of the many things that travel offers us”, also noting that there is one notable experience she would never forget, where they once lost track of their trail during a hike when it was already dark out, being terrified after getting chased by a herd of cows, but somehow managing to track down their trail the next day morning and returning down the mountain safely.
She said that while at first she used her Instagram account to share her adventures through images, her ultimate goal is to create content that will inspire others to travel more. By way of her content, she is able to showcase the beauty of our country to international travellers as well. She said she absolutely loves being part of the travel industry and helping it evolve.
She also added that she prefers to share travel information for each particular destination through Instagram stories and her posts. Ensuring that all the information shared is accurate, she said she is happy to answer anyone who reaches her via her DMs.
Speaking to us about her experiences during the pandemic, Thareesha said that as her content is mostly travel-related and of course she could not create new content during the lockdown, an old backlog of travel photos have been her saving grace. Sharing them with a positive and timely caption really helps her to keep up with Instagram, she said. She shared that many countries are opening their borders to fully vaccinated travellers, and so she is eagerly awaiting the opportunity to plan her first post-pandemic overseas tour and until then she plans to continue to explore our paradise island.
Instagram: @traveldrops_tw
