Famed tea stall owner, who traveled the world with his wife, dies

Kochi-based tea stall owner and renowned traveler KR Vijayan died of a heart attack on Friday, family sources said. He was 71.

Vijayan owned a modest tea stall "Sri Balaji Coffee House" in Kochi with his wife Mohana. They rose to fame for their world tours funded from their earnings at the tea stall. The couple recently returned from a family tour of Russia.

The two used to save ₹ 300 daily from their earnings from the tea stall. In 2007, they had their first trip outside the country to Israel. Starting then, in the last 14 years, the couple had visited 26 countries. They used to take small loans also to fund the trips.

After the traveling couple made news, they started receiving sponsors. In 2019, industrialist Anand Mahindra sponsored their visit to Australia after learning of the couple from social media. Their last trip was a week-long visit to Russia in October. Before that, their last trip was in 2019 owing to the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent travel restrictions.

"Provider of my parippu vadas, pazham pori and chai at least twice a week, the teller of travel tales, young-at-heart buddy, the globe-trotting tea-seller of Ernakulam, Vijayan passes away. He had just returned from Russia where his wish was to meet Putin," writer N S Madhavan tweeted.