Rabat – Indian travel video blogger Sujith Bhakthan and journalist Baiju Nair, friends who have been stranded in Morocco since March 10, expressed satisfaction with their safe environment for confinement in Morocco.
Bhakthan shared the two friends’ experience with Morocco World News, detailing their travels in the country and the help they received when Morocco decided to impose a lockdown and suspend travel to contain the spread of COVID-19.
Safe confinement
The blogger and Nair, an automobile journalist and television anchor, arrived in Morocco on March 10 to explore the country.
Bhakthan and Nair came to explore Morocco’s tourism assets and to share their experiences with their audience and followers via YouTube. Their channel on the video site, Tech Travel Eat, has nearly one million followers.
“We travelled as normal tourists until 18th of March and then came the lockdown announcement,” the blogger said.
From March 10 to 19, the media figures visited Casablanca, Marrakech, Tangier, Tetouan, Rabat, and Mohammedia.
Bhakthan said he and Nair received a call from an Indian national who informed them of Morocco’s decision to implement its state of emergency lockdown.
The two were in Tangier when Suneer Kandi, a man of Indian origin who runs a chain of restaurants in Morocco, made the call, the blogger said.
Bhakthan elaborated that Kandi knew about them through a WhatsApp group.
“He offered us an apartment to live in Mohammadiya city [sic]. He asked us to reach Mohammadia before 6 p.m. on 20th March.” The two reached the city on that day, the same day that Morocco implemented its lockdown measures.
The blogger and the journalist have been living in the apartment ever since.
“We contacted the Indian Embassy and came to know that there won’t be any repatriation for Indians from Morocco, because there are only a few people like us in this country. But they have given us instructions to stay home and obey the rules of locked down here,” he said.
The two friends said that while it is disappointing to be unable to return home, they are happy and satisfied with the preventive measures that Moroccan authorities implemented to protect tourists and citizens.
The two feel they are in safe hands in a country like Morocco. “We have seen the complete lockdown process of the country right from the beginning of taking precautions against COVID -19,” Bhakthan said.
Blogging makes confinement fun
The confinement did not stop the blogger and the journalist from creating fun and joy in their own way.
The two tourists uploaded a couple of videos from their trip on Bhakthan’s YouTube channel.
They also highlighted their experiences in the kitchen, sharing recipes with their followers.
The posted videos depict both their travel experiences and life in Morocco’s lockdown.
One video shows Bakhtan making food with local ingredients, explaining how isolation in Morocco can be fun.
“We were talking about the situation in India and Morocco and we were preparing an Indian dish called ‘Idli Upma’ for our breakfast,” Bhakthan said.
Despite the enjoyable activities they have undertaken in isolation, the blogger and the journalist are keen to return to their country.
The two are waiting for Moroccan and Indian airports to open. Their visas expired on April 4 and the Indian embassy in Morocco promised it would handle the visa issue, Bakhtan told MWN.
