'Desperate' tourists stranded by India lockdown told to wait

NEW DELHI (AP) — Tourists stranded in India after their vacations were abruptly ended by India’s coronavirus lockdown and grounded flights are running out of money and hoping their embassies can help them get home.

British tourist Emma Snashford said she and her friend had been kicked out of their hotel and when she sought help from officials in London, she was told to keep waiting.

They were visiting Jodhpur, a town popular for its royal palaces, forts and temples, but were kicked out of their hotel shortly before India announced the lockdown on March 24. They managed to find a hostel in New Delhi that opened its doors to 25 foreign tourists.

“We’ve been desperate for quite a while,” said Lambert Desrosiers Gaudette, a Canadian, who is now trying to get on a French rescue flight.

“We have called the (British) embassy and we get put through to London and no one really knows what’s going on. For the last week, we’ve just been told to sit tight, wait,’’ Snashford said.

Australian Matthew Chinery had planned for a long vacation, including the tourist’s paradise of Himalayan Kashmir and learning new sewing techniques he could use for his business back home. But his dream holiday turned nightmarish after the lockdown started.

While in the western city of Goa, popular for its beaches, Chinery was kicked out of a hostel because his smoker's cough resembled a COVID-19 symptom. Other hotels and hostels refused to let him stay unless he had a coronavirus-negative certificate.

So he checked himself into a government hospital, got tested and waited four days in isolation with other suspected cases of the highly infectious disease, he told The Associated Press on Thursday.

The medical certificate still didn't make finding a room easy. He managed to get one...