Do you need to quit your job to travel? There are at least two people on Earth who would disagree. Meet Prasanna Veeraswamy and Sangeetha Ranganath, who have found the time and resources to holiday around the world while holding down steady, full-time jobs. Prasanna has travelled to every country in the world—193 as per UN definition—and his wife Sangeetha has travelled to 168. Their journey began in 1998, when they took their first international flight to move to the US. Since then, the couple has lived in India, China, Singapore, Thailand and Taiwan and is now based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, working full-time tech jobs. How did they do it? We had to ask:

Surprise! There are employers who let you travel at will

“For the first 12-odd years, we travelled on long weekends in the US calendar. For the month-long holiday in December, we would stop over in Europe or Africa. However, in the last 7 to 8 years, it’s been a more aggressive travel campaign–we’ve done at least eight to ten trips a year,” Prasanna says. Luckily, the two have worked for new-age technology companies, which allow them to work remotely and keep flexible hours. “We often wonder how it would have been if we had taken a sabbatical from work and travelled in one go. But we believe that individuals, countries, cities, other humans, societies, et al all evolve with time and over different points in life. With that maturity, with those changes in thought processes and perspectives, we have been able to appreciate the destinations better over time.”

Turns out travelling on an Indian passport isn’t so bad

The duo got their American passports only in 2010. “What we are very proud of is how we managed to visit so many countries on an Indian passport at a time when travelling was much harder,” says Prasanna. “When we started travelling there were only a handful of countries that welcomed Indians without a visa or granted visa on arrival. Now there are more than 60 countries that have this facility. While the US passport does give you the flexibility of travel to so many countries, many of the countries we visited over the past few years still require visas for US passport holders. So, visa runs have been a constant for all these years, irrespective of our passport.”

And travelling when you’re vegetarian isn’t too hard either!

Although Prasanna is a hardcore meat-eater, Sangeetha is a staunch vegetarian–no eggs, no fish, no chicken, no meat and no mushroom (as a personal preference). Choclos (corn-on-the-cob with cheese) and empanadas in Ecuador, roast vegetable pies in New Zealand and patatas bravas in Spain–these are just a few of the delicious vegetarian dishes she’s tried around the world.

A beer in every country

While they may not have the same taste in food, Prasanna and Sangeetha share a common love for craft beer. “We’ve had some of the finest beer in Seattle, Taipei, Edinburgh and Lima. If you really fancy an offbeat blossoming destination for beer, then Athens or Rome is where you should head–where the beer revolution is still brewing.” Prasanna has documented his beerscapades in an album.

On his third visit to Edinburgh, Prasanna decided to stay away from what the country is famous for–Scotch–and go on a craft beer trail instead. (When asked the purpose of his visit by the immigration officer, he simply said, “Just visiting to enjoy some fine ales.”)

Of course, there are stories

The couple has rafted down the Zambezi river in Africa, hiked up Nicaragua and ash-boarded back down, gone snow sledding in Antarctica and partied in a 2,000-year-old cave bar in Syria. And these are just a handful of their adventures.

Once they road-tripped from Sierra Leone to Liberia with a driver, his pal and a rickety, old jeep. Under the blazing hot sun, temperamental air-conditioning and a regulator prone to overheating, the couple made it to the border town of Bo, only to find it shut for the day. They had to stay in a dingy hotel with no electricity, in a room swarming with cockroaches. But what started off as a miserable night, ended up becoming one of their most memorable experiences. As the sun set, the two retired to the courtyard and the cook laid out a spread of French fries with hot sauce and a spicy African curry (one vegetarian, and one with chicken) and opened a deep freeze stacked with chilled beer. In time, the courtyard began to fill up with local kids and adults who gathered to watch the Manchester United v/s Chelsea game as the only TV in the area was at this hotel. “We of course got drunk, cheered with the locals during the game and ended up eating a hearty meal and walked back to our beds smiling. Suddenly all seemed right with why I am in love with travel and why I am in love with Africa,” Sangeetha says.

Another time, when the couple was in Iraq, they met up with friends who took them to multiple bars in Baghdad. But what stood out for them on the trip wasn’t the surprisingly vibrant nightlife of Iraq. It was the fact that in each bar, their friends would check-in their guns at the entry, just as casually as you would deposit your coat. “We would be inside the bar, laughing, exchanging stories, drinking beers and at security, the situation may warrant a gun! That evening stands out as one of the most memorable ones.”

From college sweethearts at BITS Pilani to a married couple travelling the world, the couple has learnt plenty about themselves and each other on the way. “When you make choices about not investing in a home or having kids, people assume that those are sacrifices. We have given it a lot of thought and when you feel no pang or no loss about not having any of those assets (whether it be home or kids), you reaffirm that it was never a sacrifice but a choice.”