F.A.Qs

Do you have some burning questions you want to know about me? I have answered some of my Frequently Asked Questions below!

I’ll start off with the fact I’m an iced coffee addict, complete Potterhead, addicted to magic, a cat lover and I love anything to do with history.

I’m super petite, around the 5-foot mark, and people often say I’m a free spirit.

Where are you from?

I get this question A LOT. People always think I’m from some exotic land. But, I’m just a Brit. 

My family is from Wales in the UK but I was born in Bournemouth, England. So, I guess you could call me a half Welshie!  I now live in Wiltshire in the South West of England.  

How old are you?

Cheeky, but I’ll let you off. She’s old, I turn 34 next year! 

What’s your favourite destination?

Ohhhhh. This is such a hard question as I love so many aspects of so many countries! My favourite continent is definitely Asia. 

But, if I really had to choose, I’d boil it down to 1) India (obvi) 2) Scotland and 3) EGYPT! 

Favourite books?

There are lots of books that I read often. I’m a HUGE Romantisy lover (Romance + Fantasy), It’s all I read. I have so many book boyfriends.

At the moment, I am well and truly obsessed with ACOTAR and my favourite is A Court of Silver Flames, I love Nessian. Throne Of Glass (Elorcan is my ride or Die) and Crescent City series by Sarah J. Maas!

Also, the From Blood and Ash series by Jennifer L. Armentrout…Casteel Da Neer is just…*chefs kiss*, IYKYK.

The Plated Prisoner Series (Commander R.I.P), Unseelie Prince, Ice Planet Barbarians, Broken Bonds and The Bridge Kingdom are all amazing too.

My new obsession is delving into the Fae world of Solaria with Zodiac Academy (I’d let Darius Acrux crack my spine in half), Ruthless Boys of the Zodiac and Darkmore Penitentiary. All are incredible escapism!

I also loved Serpent and the Wings of Night in the Crowns of Nyaxia series and Beneath Black Sails and Kiss of Iron by Clare Sager.

I have the biggest TBR but dark romance on Kindle Unlimited always keeps me distracted.

Are you an ACOTAR fan? I recently visited a real-life Velaris in Zermatt Switzerland!

What sort of music do you like?

I have an eclectic taste in music. I like KoRn, Slipknot and heavy metal. Glam, thrash and Indie too. I love Adam Ant.

My favourite bands of all time are The Doors, Stone Roses and Nirvana. 

Favourite movies or TV shows?

Tough one for movies as I have so many favourites. I’d say Harry Potter is one of my favourites of all time especially Half-Blood Prince. It used to be Prisoner of Azkaban.

But, I also love Pirates of the Caribbean, Twilight (big Twi-hard over here), Hunger Games, LOTR, Pulp Fiction, Rambo, Die Hard and many others.

For TV shows, at the moment I’m obsessing over The Witcher – uh Geralt is…ridiculously hot.

I also love Merlin, The Last Kingdom, Outlander, Black Sails (SO underrated), Vikings, Vikings of Valhalla, Game of Thrones, Bridgerton and Stranger Things.

Do you play video games?

Yes. Big time but I’m a PC gamer. My first love of games came from Monkey Island and if you haven’t heard of it or played it – change that right now!

It’s the best pirate game ever made and it was created by LucasArts (now owned by Disney) Guybrush Threepwood is my hero.

I’m also an OG Runescape player on classic mode sometimes and I used to play Civilization and Total War a lot (I was a weird kid but I loved strategy games). I love puzzle games.

I also like Skyrim, Morrowind and Oblivion although I threw those out the window when I downloaded The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt.

Holy S*t. Best game I have ever played especially the expansion packs and I would give my soul to play that game for the first time again. It’s the music, the quality, the vibes, characters. All of it.

Pretty sure I’m on over 200 hours plus of game time now. No regrets and I’d do it all over again.

If you’re interested in my ‘lesser evil’ choices, here they are;

• Yen or Triss: Yen (obviously, it’s Geralt’s true love..although… Shani…)

• Endings: I saved Ciri in Wild Hunt and both sisters in Blood and Wine. HEA forever.

• Olgierd or O’dimm: I picked the sick saddle for Roach maybe not the best choice but I’ve made my peace with it. Why would I want a sword that I would level out of easily in the next game? I’d rather Roach be black to match my armour, help me fight, have white devil eyes and let off smoke, duh! We’re a team, she deserves some good stuff too.

• Favourite city: Beauclair, hands down. If I could live in Corvo Bianco in real life I would! Toussaint is a dream. Although Novigrad is also a work of art too and I’ve never seen a game city like it.

• Favourite monsters: I love the trolls, they are so cute and silly and I never fight them under any circumstances. I hate Bruxas and Harpies the most.

• Favourite quest: Ladies of the Wood, No Place Like Home and Dead Man’s Party.

As a side note, after reading the books, I wish they made Eredin a bit hotter in the game. Book Eredin is smoking and they really did him dirty. Still waiting for those steamy Sparrowhawk and Swallow chapters….

Anyway I digress…although I love The Witcher games, I’m sure I’m going to be hooked on Hogwarts Legacy when it comes out next year!

Do you dye your hair black?

Yep! Unfortunately, I was blessed with the family gene of early greys. So, It’s a necessary evil haha.

What’s your travel style?

I think that travel styles change as people change and grow. At first, I was a shoestring traveller who would stay in hostels try to keep in a £5 budget. 

But, now I appreciate a good nights sleep, so I have stretched my budget and I’m not afraid to splurge! 

I definitely like to travel slower and, as well as seeing the main touristy attractions (I mean, they are amazing and touristy for a reason!), I hunt down hidden gems and offbeat places. It’s definitely my soft spot. 

Craziest travel experiences?

Again, so many! Probably Skydiving in New Zealand and the A J Hackett Nevis Bungee. Visiting an absinthe treehouse in Koh Ta Kiev in Cambodia. 

Also, travelling to Mon and meeting Headhunters in Nagaland. Or, that time I got stuck on a mountain pass in the snow on the way to Tawang. 

Worst travel experience?

Definitely that time my friend and I stayed in a hut on Koh Rong and someone broke in while we were sleeping….they climbed in from the rooftop! 

Not fun. at all. This resulted in lots of screaming and the police had to get involved. Never again.

Is travel blogging your full time job?

YES, for the last year or so I’ve made my travel site my full-time job. This means, yes, I do make money from my site! I couldn’t do it without you guys so THANK YOU. 

No, I’m not thinking about getting a ‘real job’. My blog means I pull in way over a 35 hour work weeks (more like in the 90s). But, I love it and when your passion is your profession it doesn’t feel like work! 

If you want to know more about how I make money, you can see this post here.

What do you blog about?

I always call my blog a little bit like a cabinet of curiosities! I blog about travel destinations, tips, hidden gems, offbeat places, literary travel, and even historical pieces.

So, I blog about a lot of stuff. See my start here page if you want to know more. 

Why Third Eye Traveller? 

I chose the name when I was living in India! Living and travelling around the country is really what inspired me to start my blog. I guess it gave me a ‘third eye’ to see how my future would lay out. It hasn’t failed me so far! 

Also, it doesn’t limit what I can write about and no one else had that name at the time. 

What camera do you use?

For my videos and photos I mainly use my iPhone 13 Pro Max! The photo quality is so good now.

But, I also use the Olympus OMD EM-10 Mark iii (bit of a mouthful) which looks almost vintage and I love it! I tried getting on with a heavy canon but it just wasn’t a me. 

What do you edit your photos with?

I use the Adobe Lightroom Classic CC for Desktop. I don’t know why but I’ve never got on with the phone app. 

I use my own set of presets to edit them so they have a similar feel. 

What do you edit videos with?

I use an app called InShot for ALL of my videos. I edit with it for Youtube, Pinterest Video Pins, Instagram Reels, TikToks etc.

It’s honestly the best app for video editing, so simple and fast. It has lots of features like filters, effects and even royalty-free music. I pay around £18 a year for all the pro features and have never looked back.

I know a lot of people use Adobe Pro but it’s way too complicated for me haha. With my blog, I like simplicity and speed so InShot is a dream.

How do you take travel photos on your own? 

These days I use my Manfrotto Lite tripod with a tripod phone extension to take photos and record videos.

I slot my phone in and use an app called Lens Buddy which acts as a self-timer and takes photos continuously.

I used to use a Bluetooth remote but I kept having issues with them. So, now I prefer to let the camera roll to get photos of me. It’s SO much easier.

I used to use my Olympus camera, set it up on a tripod and then use my phone as a remote shutter via Bluetooth. Olympus had an app I could download like most big camera companies.

It feels a bit awkward at first, but then you get used to that awkward stage of taking photos in public haha. If you want to see more tips, click here. 

Do you have any blogging/SEO tips?

There are many things I would recommend if you are thinking about implementing SEO on your blog! Learn how to start a blog here. 

I would definitely make sure that you download either RankMath or Yoast SEO on your wordpress so that you can see where you need to improve.

For keyword research you can use Keysearch (paid), also there is Keywords Everywhere (cheap but paid) or Moz and Neil Patel also have free keyword tools.

Also, I would 100% recommend the free resources from Make Traffic Happen. They have helped my blog no end. As well as their resources they have AMAZING e-books and courses. 

I’ve bought all three of their e-books so far and all of them are easy to read and have made a massive improvement. 

You should also make sure you’re on Pinterest, this is a game changer. It can explode your blog traffic instantly if you have the right picture/pin! 

See my lessons learned from a year of blogging here, or how to run a blog when you work full time here.

Where did you live in India?

I lived in Gurgaon which is a city near Delhi and the NCR. Sector 54 if you want to get specific! 

I had an apartment at Park Place which was a gorgeous complex set up for (mostly) for expats. It had a private pool, a park with a running track, a supermarket and even a nail salon. I didn’t have to leave if I didn’t want to. 

I also had a personal driver (oo err) and had an absolute blast! Gurgaon wasn’t my favourite place in India.

It’s actually known as the expat/bar district and it was FULL of shopping malls. But, I definitely made the most of it with friends. We’d often escape to Delhi for sight seeing! 

Who did you work for in India?

I won’t disclose the name of the company but I worked as a Project Analyst and Trainer for a large Building Society in the UK! 

We were hired in India for cultural awareness training and support for new financial systems. 

I would travel across India and I provided training in many big name IT companies located in Chandigarh, Bangalore, Mumbai, Pune and more.

How long did you live in India?

I lived in India for around a year. Then, I decided to leave on a sabbatical from my corporate job and travel around the country for six months! 

Again, I went on a four month trip recently. So, I’ve spent almost two years travelling the country now. Can you tell it’s my favourite place?

What was it like living in India? 

In a word. Crazy! But, I feel you really get to know the country well when you live and breathe it. It’s amazing how quick you adapt to traffic and the honking of horns.

Delhi is always a nightmare with traffic and chaos. But, that why I really appreciated having a driver. It gave me quite a lot of security, especially at night. 

Eating out is incredibly cheap. Wine, however, is not! A large glass of wine would cost around the price of a bottle back home due to Alcohol tax.

But, despite all the differences, it was one of the best times of my life! 

How many places have you been in India? 

Over the last two years of travelling around India, I’ve visited 22 of 29 states in India. Which is quite a lot considering India is MASSIVE!

I’ve visited all of the North Eastern states, the North to the likes of Ladakh, South India, even East and West coasts. But, not very many places inland, It’s the middle bit that I want to see next. 

My goal is to travel to all the Indian states one day and write about my experiences on my blog. 

Favourite place in India?

Definitely all of Rajasthan. It’s just the colours, mountains, temples, the people, culture and the food is amazing too! 

But, I am also in love with the North East of India. I recently travelled to every state there and can’t wait to share my adventures. 

Favourite Indian foods?

Indian curries are so much different to the curries we have in UK. But, I’d definitely kill for a Murg Makhani (or butter chicken) right now or Aloo Gobi with a garlic nan on the side! Although the gee just makes my bum grow.

My favourite deserts are Gulab Jamun (so sweet it makes your teeth rot) and Jalebi! Sweet greasy batter haha.

Also CHAI is life! 

Something I have never liked in India though is paneer. Never got on with it. But, everyone loves it.  Guess it’s just me.

Have you ever thought of doing group tours? 

Definitely something I am considering soon so watch this space! Or, get in touch if you need any trip planning advice. 

I have a whole range of India resources and posts here.