'I will come back to India, had a great experience despite pandemic,' says Israeli tourist

Covid-19 has changed nearly everything, from people' lives & lifestyles to their travel experiences post the resumption of travel by air. Tourists have been witnessing the whole travelling affair transformation quite closely. There are tons of norms to be followed now including constantly putting up with wearing masks and gloves, filling a form declaring health issues pertaining for two months.

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Yaya, who had come to India in November, a month before the deadly virus become world news, is returning to his home Israel. He started off with Hampi in Karnataka and made it to Himachal Pradesh's Dharamshala during the pandemic. The experience is one of its kind, Yaya recounts, adding "I had been travelling till November when this whole thing started, I was in Hampi. Initially, the authorities asked us to leave from Hampi. A lot of people then stuttered to a lot of places. I decided to go to up North in Himachal Pradesh. It was pretty difficult as they had closed the state and we were unaware of this very fact. It took us twice the usual time to get there and we had to argue with a lot of cops since they didn't let us through due to security reasons, but neither did they give us any alternatives to follow. We had find our own way to go.(sic)"

Yaya adds, "While the Indians had an option of commuting via buses across the states, we had none. We were not allowed to travel in the same local buses. We had to come back to Delhi only to take buses to the local villages. The local transport was smooth as the buses were running uninterrupted. Only the buses ferrying tourists faced such interruptions at different points. I was roaming in Himachal with only my bags. Because of the Corona scare no-one really let me stay at their places. I have also faced a certain degree of ostracism along the way. I spoke to the health ministry and only after that the guesthouses accepted me. We were 8-9 people in a guesthouse as the owner refused to gather more people there. We stayed there for a month."

"The travel experience certainly has changed upside down during this. After the first week at Dharamshala, things started to limp back to normal and we didn't face any problem in getting food. I've been to several countries but here getting food was the smoothest. I had a great time in India despite several odds. I will certainly come back very soon", he says. 

Yaya said he will be back with his friends and family once the world gets rid of this pandemic.

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