I haven't spoken about coronavirus on this blog much. It's been fairly intentional in that the purpose of this blog is to provide reflections on my traveling, not provide commentary on current world events. I haven't wanted to post anything that could be interpreted as advice or recommendations for how to procedure during this challenging time. There's a lot of ignorance and a lot of fear mongering out there, by both the overreacters and the underreacters. I don't want to be one of them, so I've stayed away from the conversations here on this site.
Considering the frequency of my posting I doubt any of you few readers have been wondering about my realtime thought process regarding being abroad and travel while the virus spreads. I am touched that so many people have reached out through social media and text to make sure I'm safe and in good health, though. Since I left the US on December 30 I have been following the news about the spread of coronavirus and keeping it in my mind while making travel plans. Much to my parents' annoyance/frustration/concern I didn't view the virus as a reason to return. While it was spreading in China, South Korea, Iran, and Italy, it wasn't a major issue is Australia, Thailand, and Laos. I had to weigh the risks of being away from my home country with the reality that I may never get an opportunity like I've had these few months ever again.
My mom cautioned me a little while ago that she wanted to make sure I wasn't making the decision to stay in Asia based on emotion. The assumption that I wasn't looking at the situation intellectually hurt me and angered me. It played upon all my insecurities that people view me as ditzy and not very smart. It felt like a low blow because it felt like my mom was saying that I was just too caught up having fun to pay attention to how the world was reacting. I got a lot of messages telling me about the news that I had already seen as if I was completely cut off from western press, despite me saying over and over again that I was reading western sources. What I think was really going on was that my mom was frustrated/annoyed/irritated/angry/whatever verb that I wasn't making the decision that she wanted me to make - the one that she thought was the right decision. I can appreciate that both of my parents were very uncomfortable with having one of their adult children away from home during this growing crisis. My sense was that both of my parents felt I was just digging in my heels.
In a sense I was. Honestly, I did not feel a threat at all in Thailand. When I was staying in Bangkok I saw regular temperature monitoring of individuals entering public gathering spaces like malls and on public transport. I saw regular cleaning of then handrails on escalators and on the metro. At the entrances to those public spaces there were workers who stood offering hand sanitizer to everyone passing. Most locals wore face masks every day, all day in public. There was so much consideration for keeping people healthy and so few cases that I felt very comfortable. The threat of mass outbreak was growing in the US and the US seemed woefully underprepared, but Thailand had already been dealing with it for months. There was absolutely no concern in Laos because there didn't seem to be any evidence of the virus in Laos.
More so than feeling safe in Asia, I felt less and less certain about returning to the US. Most of what I read talked about how the US wasn't taking the virus seriously and that it was underprepared with few supplies, limited testing, and practically no protocols in place. Why would I want to return to that when I'm in a good spot, having amazing experiences, and not feeling threatened by this virus at all? Asking someone to leave a safe spot to come back to an uncertain at best location seemed foolish to me. Additionally, I was really uncomfortable with the idea that being in Thailand I was safe, but through the process of coming back I could bring the virus with me. For a variety of health and age-related reasons I didn't want to put my parents' health at risk. For those of you who don't know, everything I own except what I currently have with me is either in a storage unit or being stored at my parents' house. Coming back means coming back to their home. If I were to self-quarantine there's no way for me to do that without doing it with them. I don't have my own living space to go back to. That made things much more sticky for me.
My parents kept raising the concern of "well, what if you get stuck in Thailand?" My response was, "Well, then I'm stuck in Thailand." There are much worse places to be stuck. I'm lucky enough to have a job that I could do from afar if we stay in social isolation for long periods of time. If things are so bad that blanket travel bans are in place for long periods of time I don't have to worry about in-person work resuming either. I could do my job from Thailand. The only thing that would stop that is if this virus hurts the economy so badly that my employer closes up shop. Hopefully that's not even within the realm of possibility.
So, I decided to keep on keepin' on. I decided to stay where I was and enjoy my time, but keep my finger on the pulse of the world. I put myself in the mental state of being able to respond reasonably when I knew it time to change my plans, and be able to do so quite fast if necessary. I was extremely disappointed to wake up to news one morning of India closing its borders. My friend Liz was due to arrive for a visit with me in Phuket in a few days and then a few days after that we were scheduled to visit Sri Lanka. If India closed its borders it was only time until Sri Lanka did the same. Liz ended up cancelling her visit altogether and I swiftly cancelled my flight to Sri Lanka. We both felt confident that it was the right things to do because there was a lot at stake. We both agreed that it was better for us to stay in place where we were instead of risking international travel and getting each other sick. It was alright right about this time that New York started ratcheting up its response and most people starting practicing social distancing and working from home. I'd like to note that throughout this past month, but especially in the last two weeks I conferred with friends, colleagues, and other family members and all were supportive of my rationale for staying, all except for my parents. Go figure. I'm swear I'm not trying to make them sound like bad guys here. I understand their apprehensions and fears. We were just in opposition on this topic.
Here's what flipped the switch for me. This morning I woke up to a text that said, "Katie the US State department urges all US citizens to come home or shelter in place." I also had a bunch of news alerts saying the same thing. I read a few articles that made it clear that if I got stuck the US government was not coming to help. This was my warning. Well, poop.
I considered sheltering in place, but just two nights ago I questioned what I would do if I ran out of my prescription medicines. I'm sure Thailand has accessible medical treatment for asthmatics and narcoleptics. It has a pretty good medical system and there is a substantial presence of western doctors in Thailand too. The question was going to be how easy it would be for me to get routine care if the hospital system became taxed. I also started thinking about how I would get food if Thailand imposed a required quarantine. I'd like to think that whatever hotel I stayed at wouldn't let me go hungry, but that's a bit of a gamble. I felt like I had a reasonable rebuttal to every request from my parents to come back to the US, except now.
As new of the virus taking its toll on Italy, it beginning to spread in the US, and governments around the globe responding I began to think about where I could spend my time if borders began to close. Could I stay in Thailand if my tourist visa ran out? If the US closed its border or if I couldn't get a flight were there any other countries I could bide my time in? For a while I had been thinking about how I had to come up with a plan, and probably a few back ups. I was considering going to a yoga retreat in Cambodia a few weeks ago but changed my plans earlier this week when I read that their medical system assumes your family will provide some basics like clean linen and food for you if you have a prolonged stay in the hospital. So Cambodia immediately turned into a no go for me. I could go back to Laos, which I loved and seemed to have a low chance of closing. But, I had just read that Australia closed its borders to all foreigners. I started to get the impression that the chances were greater of that becoming the standard across the globe, or at least in countries that seemed relatively untouched by the virus so far.
After a few days of recognizing that my options were becoming more and more limited and the messages I got this morning, here I am - in the Hong Kong airport waiting for my flight to Seattle to start boarding, which it will do in about 5 minutes. I know it's the smart thing to do, but I am heartbroken that this experience that I've waited 3 years for is now abruptly over. I'm crushed, but also know that I've had so many amazing experiences so far that it would be a bit inappropriate to be too upset about it. There are a lot of people dying from this virus and a lot more are going to get sick. I can handle having to go back early.
And I will sing Neil Diamond in my head as I board the plane. I'm comin' to America... today!
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