What happens to my travel plans post COVID?

How can we have perfect vacation once this pandemic is over?

It goes without saying that travel is never going to be the same again. We will have new normal. In back of our mind, we shall always have that experience of being locked in our homes for weeks if not months and we shall remember how long world took to heal and get back on its feet. 

But, it doesn’t mean we won't be traveling; we won't be exploring world, we won't be exposing ourselves to new place, culture, people, food and languages. We will be doing everything we used to but just not the same way. We will be more careful with our own health and safety. We will be more alert of the impact we leave on the environment and we will also be making choices with more thoughtful manners like we didn’t before.

Now, for those of us, who already had plans in place, who already had reservations made, tickets booked, packing list readied, what now?

Needless to say, we are going to wait and observe. We are going to keep our eyes and ears open before we are finally going to go on with the plans we have postponed.

While your sightseeing tour plans wait, while your trekking itineraries are safely put away, while you are trying hard to not eat away the savings you have made for this well planned vacations for snacks, you would want to keep yourself from doing anything that may be likely to ruin your plans. You would also be doing everything that you didn’t have time to do regarding the preparations with your plans.

So, here are the few things for you about how you can make most of this lockdown, travel bans and free time to make your travel plans successful and your vacation be perfect.

1.     Keeping yourself Sane 

I am definitely joking, NOT. The most challenging and daunting thing I have been doing this whole summer is keeping myself from losing my mind out of boredom. First few weeks were kind of positive, hopeful and optimistic. Many people were doing things they loved. Cooked, painted, spent quality times with families and many were busy in self-care. Once they were past that "adjusting to the new norm phase", they were already bored with what new to do, what else would make the lockdown survivable. 

For the travel enthusiast, it's completely different reality. Being home and fortifying the hobby "travelling"-- for those whose means of income is traveling may have been devastated and for those whose bucket list had been already piling up with travel goals, it didn’t look too hopeful.

Likelihood for travelers to be able to travel freely is still under the question and how long will the travel restrictions be held up and when will people be able to freely travel? 

Despite the odds, you have to continue to keep your mind occupied, continue to be optimistic that your travel destination shall wait for you and you will be there ticking off your bucket list soon. 

If you are looking forward to travel to Nepal, you may want to have idea on what traveling will be like in Nepal after Covid-19 

2.     Physical Preparation 

The more you lazily lay around and spend your days, you will have weakened motivation. You need your strength to do everything you wanted to do soon after the pandemic blows over. If you have booked or have been considering to book for the trekking, then obviously your stamina has be to be reliable and you need those biceps, legs, abdomen and lungs working at their best.

You need to train your body and brace yourself for 8-10 hours a day in all weather conditions, to walk on a rugged terrain of 8-20 kg. You're going to walk both below and above the average altitude of Nepal. Trekking under the hot sun and the chilly cold nights is also likely.

Training makes the journey less complicated, safer and more pleasant. So before you go on a trekking experience, you need to spend longer and more effort training.

So while you are home, don’t be too concerned about gyms being closed. You can stay at home and train your body.  The best way is to get to the top stairs that take one or two minutes. Till you puff, you can do 10 sets. By putting on a backpack from 5 Kg to 20 Kg, you can add strength. Your heart and lungs will become healthy by doing so. One thing you have to remember is that before you start the training program you still have to warm up and stretch. Aerobic activity protects the heart and reduces the risk of stroke and heart attack. It also strengthens your lungs. It enhances breathing, endocrine, muscle tones and strengthens bones. All the anatomy and benefits of exercises aside, I just meant that you should totally use this time to get those abs show.

3.     Influence your friends or family

Even if you are solo backpacker and enjoy your trips solo, may be it is perfect time to make more people see why they should travel more often. This is the time to convince your cousin to tag along or best friend to finally travel with you. At this time more than ever people are likely to understand life is too short to stay at a place worry about the jobs or play safe with their bills. 

4.     Perfect your plans into Perfection.

No kidding, but how perfect that a plan can go if you keep planning and planning? Is it even possible for everything to work out perfectly when you travel to unknown destination? Who knows? I for sure don’t, but there is no harm in revisiting those itineraries, keep tracks of the ticket prices, hotels, foods you don’t want to miss to try and poses you want your pictures in when you are out traveling and you come across amusing buildings, monuments, quite villages and vast seas. Plan where you will land, what you will be doing, who will be with you and what you are going to pack.

5.     Research about culture and language about the places you want to travel to

Imagine being so cool? I mean yeah, every time a foreigner talks in my native language I jump with amusement because how cool are they? How come they come so prepared that they even have perfected the idea of impressing the locals and mingling with them?

Once a American lady came to my house (it was her first time in Nepal) and without even needing for us to tell, she took her shoes off, placed it in the racket and said Namaste to my family before entering to my house. We were shocked and our jaw dropped in AWE. She continued to surprise us washing her hands and eating meal with her right hand and then also receiving the tika next morning with two palms joined together close to her chest. I tell you, this is how you respect another culture and language.

"While in Roman, Do what Romans Do" okay? Also first you must know what actually Romans do in Roman before you go to Roman. That’s Smart! 

6.     Mindful-tourism

I don’t even know if this word exists and is valid. I made it up. This is just supposed to make the traveling sound fancy but with little purpose to it. I am suggesting that you should travel with purpose. Yes, there is culture, nature, your own spirituality, true calling and so much more to explore while being away from home but having some purpose to your traveling makes it meaningful. People now travel for cause, volunteering is awesome example.

There are many "eco-friendly everything" lovers who says conserve the nature while traveling and I 100% agree. If you are traveling, choose your destination wisely making sure what impact you are going to make, what impression on the locals you meet shall have of you once you leave, what you are going to take back home and what kind of memories you want to have. It's always about taking and giving and hence while you think about what traveling has to offer to you, also consider what you have to offer to places you shall travel.

While you are home now, give this a thought. May be you are missing out on the sense of purpose.

That’s it! Safe Travels Peeps! Stay safe, stay cool!