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ABOUT NATNZIN

Hello, we are Nathan and Zinara. In 2015, we met in a quirky backpack hostel in Colombo, fell in love, and started travelling together. Through NatnZin, we document our real, honest travel experiences coupled with captivating photography. Read more about us here.

CATEGORIES

Sri Lanka
India
Asia
Food

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nsfw • not for kids content 😉 • Picture t

nsfw • not for kids content 😉 •

Picture three: a few moments later.

Who else loves birds? Caught these two in #NuwaraEliya a few weeks back!
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#natnzin
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#srilanka #srilankatrip #srilankatourism #travelphotographer #traveljournal #travelsrilanka🇱🇰 #travelsrilanka #sosrilanka #wanderlustsrilanka #birds #birdlovers #birds_captures #birdwatching #birds_adored #birdphotography #beautifuldestinations

Last weekend in the mountains 🌿♥️ The hills

Last weekend in the mountains 🌿♥️ The hills are so so dear to our hearts.

#natnzin
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#mountains #mountainlife #srilankatrip #srilankatourism #srilankatravel #srilanka #travelphotographer #traveljournal #travelsrilanka🇱🇰 #beautifuldestinations #mountainview

Hello there 🐦 Nathan took a photo of this littl

Hello there 🐦 Nathan took a photo of this little friend when we were in #NuwaraEliya two weeks ago. Does anyone know their name?

#natnzin
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#birdsofinstagram #birdphotography #birds #birds_captures #birds_adored #birdsofparadise #birdwatching #birdlovers #birdlover #birdlove #srilanka #srilankatrip #travelphotographer #traveljournal

Nathan printed out my king coconuts story for Vitt

Nathan printed out my king coconuts story for Vittles last week to give to Uncle Sudath, the king coconuts vendor who I interviewed for the piece. He doesn't have a smartphone to view the link.

(This also made me want to print out all my stories and make a hardcovered book with them. It's crazy I know)

So we went there and Uncle Sudath wasn't there. His friend was, who was so very very overjoyed to see the story and photos of his friend — Uncle Sudath. He was happier when he got to know that the printout was for them to keep, who started showing it to his other friends around.

I've written many things for many places over the 2+ years in the industry, but this was truly the happiest moment. I often don't want to write anything about Sri Lanka (because the experience is so brutally cold) but it's moments like this that really motivates me, and truly, this country, and her best elements — they are all a work of the people in the grassroots, the ones we often forget to celebrate.
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#natnzin #travelwriting #traveljournal #travelwriter #traveljournalist #travelphotographer #srilanka #srilanka🇱🇰 #srilankatrip #srilankatourism #colombo #sustainableliving #communitybasedtravel #colombolife #streetfood #srilankanfood #thambili #kingcoconut

Some railway stations are straight out of a fairyt

Some railway stations are straight out of a fairytale ♥️

#natnzin
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#srilanka🇱🇰 #srilanka #nuwaraeliya #thalawakele #srilankatravel #srilankatrip #traveljournal #travelsrilanka #travelsrilanka🇱🇰 #wanderlustsrilanka #kandy

HELLO HELLO EVERYONE!!! REMEMBER, FARM TO THALI???

HELLO HELLO EVERYONE!!! REMEMBER, FARM TO THALI????

The wonderful Divya, or you may know her as @gonewithawhim, is doing her totes amazing food-y series Farm to Thali (check her feed for her intro post!!!).

Sooooo, I'm taking over her Instagram today and I'm on the first episode, talking about Sri Lankan food. Follow @gonewithawhim and check it out later today! So so excited for this. We'll be doing a video in the future too, as part of the Farm to Thali series.

And and, I'm not the only one. There are many other contributors and creators from across the world who grew up in or are part of South Asian cultures. Farm to Thail will feature episodes from Assam, Bhutan but also from the Indian communities in South Africa. It's gonna be amazing and a platform where we can learn about South Asian food, which is always hindered everywhere.

So see you all later at @gonewithawhim ♥️

#natnzin x #farmtothali
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#farmtothali #gonewithawhim #srilanka #india #incredibleindia #incredibleindia🇮🇳 #indiatourism #srilanka🇱🇰 #visitsrilanka #sosrilanka #bhutan #bangladesh #Assam #southafrica #southasia #southasianfood #food52 #desi #desifood #asia #wanderlust

NEW BLOG POST! Always love writing about the North

NEW BLOG POST! Always love writing about the Northeast! LINK IN BIO 🌿

An excerpt:

"This chutney is packed with bright red Northeastern chilis. It blazes your palate and heats your mouth with the sapid, strong taste it carries. It’s so hot that it puts my spice-withstanding skills to shame.

I grew up eating my father’s coconut sambal every day at home. For his coconut sambal, my father picks up a handful of deep red, dried chili and crushes them. He chops them with scraped coconut, Maldive fish flakes, and salt, and sprinkles a lime before he serves it with his stir-fried dry fish. My mother would often complain that my father’s sambal carried heat one couldn’t stomach. I agreed, but I loved his spicy sambal. For years, it trained me for any spicy food I came across in my humbly evolving food journey. Yet, when I finally mouthed a chutney made of northeastern chili in Nongnah, I realized I wasn’t quite trained enough for it."

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#natnzin #northeast_india #northeasttrails #northeastindiatourism #northeastindia @northeast_trails #traveljournal #travelwriting #incredibleindia #india #lonelyplanetindia #indiatourism #meghalayatrip #meghalaya #meghalayadiaries #westkhasihills #southwestkhasihills #nongnah #nonglang #ruraltourism

I'm always so fascinated by the sheer love the Kha

I'm always so fascinated by the sheer love the Khasi community of Meghalaya has for fishing. They aren't devoted fish eaters like the neighbouring Assam or Bangladesh.

They don't use nets that catch tiny fish and harm the river life.

But they—mostly men, but also women—spend hours and days—standing, sitting, lying flat—on rugged boulders scattered in shallow rivers with their fishing rods.

They'd float and twirl in their tiny wooden boats the entire day to catch one fish. Young people swim, wear diving masks and dive deep to catch giant fish hiding behind river-drown rocks. They cook rice over a blazing fire by the river banks for smoked fish with a charred tinge. If their rods bring them fingerlings—or, tiny fish—they are returned to the waterbodies.

Some villagers hike for several days inside the wet jungles to fish—fishing trips—or, fishing treks. Fishing competitions happen often in many parts of Meghalaya. Kids spend hours after school in the rivers, picking up bits and pieces of their fishing culture.

📷: @sahidulislaml

#natnzin #meghalaya
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#india #incredibleindia #meghalayadiaries #northeast_india #northeastindia #northeastindiatourism #meghalayatourism #meghalayatrip #meghalayaphotography #thisisnortheast #discovernortheast #northeasttrails

Hi everyone ✨ hope you are all well. In the last

Hi everyone ✨ hope you are all well. In the last two weeks, I filed copy for five articles while working on three social media accounts. Also moved houses with Nathan and went on a con call with my friend's Vietnamese students—happiest moment in the week.

Now that it's done, I'm working on a small passion project. Also writing a blog post for next week!

What are you up to?

Zin x

Jumpsuit by @ayana.apparel at @beverlystreet (not an ad but absolutely love it).

#natnzin
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#srilanka #srilanka🇱🇰 #visitsrilanka #travel #travelwriter #travelwriting #traveljournal #traveljournalist #passionpassport #colombo

Turmeric from the backyards in Majuli. Funnily eno

Turmeric from the backyards in Majuli. Funnily enough, the whole of Sri Lanka don't have turmeric now—except for those who grow them in their gardens, like my father.

#natnzin
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#majuli #assam #assamdiaries #assamtourism #travelassam #northeastindia #northeast_india #india #incredibleindia

NEW BLOG POST 🙌 We recently did another collab

NEW BLOG POST 🙌 We recently did another collab and published this blog post on the most beautiful Himalayan villages in India one should visit ♥️

Link in bio!

#natnzin
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#himalays #himachalpradesh #ladakh #spiti #arunachalpradesh #dharamshala #northeastindia #sikkim #india #incrediblenindia #indiafeatures

From the fishmongers who roam the streets in Colom

From the fishmongers who roam the streets in Colombo 6.

#natnzin
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#srilanka #srilankatravel #srilanka2020 #srilankatravel #travelsrilanka #visitsrilanka🇱🇰 #srilanka🇱🇰

Absolutely love finding great new eateries in and

Absolutely love finding great new eateries in and around #Colombo because there aren't many great ones. So a week ago we came across the amazing @kimskitchenlk in Pelawatta ♥️ (they sometimes had a stall in @goodmarket.lanka).

Kim makes all the food and she's from a small village near Da Nang, Vietnam. She made us a tamarind juice sprinkled with peanuts (it's not on the menu) when we told her how much we loved the tamarind drinks at Dao Krua Thai xx

#ColomboDays #natnzin
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#srilanka #srilanka2020 #srilankan #vietnamesefood #vietnamesecuisine #srilanka🇱🇰 #srilankatravel #travelsrilanka #visitsrilanka #visitsrilanka🇱🇰

Rural ASSAM (it's a state in India if you didn't k

Rural ASSAM (it's a state in India if you didn't know) is one of the most beautiful, self sufficient, sustainable (please look at the indigenous village folks for sustainable tips, not White people who travel) diverse regions in the world.

Right now, Assam is experiencing the state's yearly, devastating floods. The floods happen every year and end up taking lives of people, wildlife (Assam is home to some of the world's rarest flora and fauna like the one honed rhino) and damage crops, homes and livelihoods of people.

There's no news on Indian media. Absolutely nothing while the news of Bachchans (they are actors in Bollywood) testing positive for COVID-19 made rounds in news channels not only in India, but in global publications like The New York Times. A White man actually wrote about how Bachchans ended up here, while turning a blind eye to people who are actually suffering right now.

Friends from Assam tell me that flood victims haven't received any rations or food for 14+ days now. It's not just floods, it's floods in a pandemic. Meanwhile, Assam's COVID-19 cases are on the rise.

#natnzin
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#assam #india #assamfloods #assamdiaries #assamese #assamtourism #indiatourism #indiafeatures #indiaphotosociety #mustardfields #northbengal

- It all started with a train. It always starts wi

- It all started with a train. It always starts with a train. A few hours before we boarded the Shalimar-Secunderabad Weekend Special, we were sitting at the waiting room in Kolkata’s Shalimar Railway Station.

Moving on....

- He always packs a cozy woolen blanket from home, which he declares as the 200 rupee blanket he bought from a roadside vendor. It withstands any kind of cold, from the high Himalayas in Nepal to jungles in Nagaland. And he tucks me in. A few weeks later, when I traveled on a 56-hour train journey to Guwahati, alone, by myself, I had to tuck myself in. He had given me his 200 rupee cold-killer blanket. But he wasn’t with me. And I missed him.

- Vizag was my first real introduction to the gentle, mellower South. The South of India that feels closer to home, but in ways I love more.

So I wrote a post!!! Excerpts from our new blog post above. Link in bio.

📷: @sahidulislaml 🌿

#natnzin
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#vizag #visakhapatnam #andhrapradesh #andhrapradeshdiaries #india #incrediblenindia #beautifuldestinations

Wrote a quick blog post about our stay at @eraeliy

Wrote a quick blog post about our stay at @eraeliya_villas (because we really really loved it). Link in bio.

#natnzin
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#srilanka #srilankatravel #srilanka2020 #travelphotography #travelwriter #beautifuldestinations #beautifulhotels

Too much of us here on the feed, so here's a throw

Too much of us here on the feed, so here's a throwback to this beautiful morning in Deepor Beel, which is a @ramsar_convention_on_wetlands wetland site just outside the center of Guwahati in #Assam.

📷: @sahidulislaml
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#natnzin #india #indiatravel #incredibleindia #guwahati #thisisnortheast #northeastindia #northeastindiatourism #discovernortheast #deeporbeel #beautifuldestinations

We had such a fun candid shoot with the talented @

We had such a fun candid shoot with the talented @chris_kis_kis at @eraeliya_villas ✨🙌 Loved spending a few days in this beautiful jungle villa by the beach in #Weligama.

It's a gorgeous property with so much space, and Nathan and I both loved the meals served here, cooked by the local chef Jerome, particularly the breakfast spread every morning with avo toast, poached eggs, sauteed mushrooms, toast served with homemade dried fruit and nuts jam, and tropical fruit platter.

We also love beautiful spaces with so much character. There are so many tiny beautiful details, like bloomed orchids and houseplants in each room, paintings about the island life, and exquisite chandeliers 🌻 @eraeliya_villas also try to minimize their single use plastic consumption as much as they can.

Hoping to post a couple of more posts about the villas in the upcoming days.

#natnzin
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#srilanka #travelsrilanka #visitsrilanka #srilankatravel #srilanka2020 #matara #wanderlustsrilanka #beautifulhotels #travelcouples #travelwriter #travelphotography
#traveljournalist

Hiiii friends ✨🙌 traveling for the first time

Hiiii friends ✨🙌 traveling for the first time after the lockdown. Nathan and I came to beautiful @eraeliya_villas for a fun shoot. It's a gorgeous space in Weligama by the beach. They are creating some really cool experience packages for local travelers right now. 11/10 recommend for a retreat holiday ♥️

#natnzin
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#eraeliyavillas #weligama #srilanka #matara #galle #srilankatravel #srilanka2020 #visitsrilanka #wanderlustsrilanka #galle

Took time to watch the sunset yesterday ✨ #natn

Took time to watch the sunset yesterday ✨

#natnzin
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#srilanka #colombo #travelsrilanka #visitsrilanka

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