Some travel inspo now that Test & Go is coming back!

By Rubani Sethi

As we’ve become so used to travelling during public holidays, long-weekends, the extended Songkran break, and especially during the New Years period, most of us have been left feeling deprived these last two years due to the ever-changing travel restrictions stopping us from ticking more destinations off our bucket lists.

However, now that travel is slowly resuming, there is some excitement beginning to build. To inspire some wanderlust, Masala asked Thai-Indian travel enthusiasts about their next stop!

DEV MOHNANI
Photographer, 28

During the pandemic, it was a difficult time for many. Some struggled through and some took it as an opportunity to build themselves. I took this as a positive time and explored myself.

Seeing that travel restrictions are slowly easing up, I would like to travel to a Western country like the USA or Australia. Personally, it seems like a nice and easy lifestyle – people don’t care what you are doing. You can move around freely rather than with the COVID restrictions, which is something I would like to be able to do.

What’s on my bucket list at the moment is travelling to new places which I haven’t been able to do for the past two years. I’d love to meet new people and partake in new experiences.

JASRAJ SACHDEV
Commercial Finance Analyst, 26

This is such a tough question for me. I dream of exploring every corner of the world! It’s been over almost two years since I left the country and I’ve got to say that I really miss the thrill of visiting new cities, interacting with new people, and just soaking in a new culture. As for my next travel destinations, they would ideally be Turkey and Greece.

The reason I have these destinations on my mind is due to the history and breathtaking views, which I have only seen in pictures. The charming beaches, the archaeological sites and the adrenaline-pumping activities, such as diving, going on a hot-air balloon, and paragliding are just a few of the things I plan on doing. However, at the moment, I haven’t put my plans on paper just yet. Hopefully the situation gets better in 2022 and we’ll all get a chance to travel.

SANJANA KHANIJOU SACHDEWA
Owner of a Daycare, 26

Even though the restrictions have eased up compared to earlier in the pandemic, my husband and I still wanted to travel locally for our year-end trips, which were to Ubon for Christmas and Krabi for New Year’s! We are not 100 percent confident to leave the country yet due to the new variant that’s been going around. However, if the situation stays calm and things don’t get worse (fingers super crossed!), we are planning to go on a trip through Europe in April for our delayed honeymoon!

MATHAVEE SACHDEV (SUHAWNA) 
Bachelor’s student, 21

My next travel destination has got to be Australia! I go to university there so I’ve just been waiting for their borders to open up to finally be able to go back. The good news is that it’s finally open now after two frustrating years! I can’t wait to go back to Australia’s summer with the beautiful beaches and yummy brunches. I also have plans to travel locally in Australia this year, backpacking through the central coast to visit their small towns and amazing beaches. Most importantly, I’m very excited to go back to university in-person since it’s been online for way too long. Meeting my friends that I haven’t seen for almost two years is something I’m really looking forward to. Hoping all goes well this time with travelling!

ROSARIN GAMBHIR
Master’s Student, 25

I had Europe planned as my next travel destination with my sisters. We were thinking of backpacking for a month and visiting Spain, the Netherlands, Austria, and Croatia. The reason we chose Europe was so we could visit multiple countries on a single trip, motivated by the pent up frustration of not being able to travel abroad for over two years. There were numerous trips planned that got cancelled because of the pandemic, and so we thought to seize the first opportunity we had to travel. However, we did take advantage of the situation and explored different nooks and corners of our beautiful country. For me, travelling and exploring is a source of happiness, and so I would take it in any form I can get it!