An international trip should be an opportunity for learning, growing and excitement, but an advancing virus completely alters the outlook
Text: Bruce Dennill
Bruce Dennill is the editor of Very Interesting magazine.
When I agreed some months ago to go on a content-generating trip to Thailand with a few other journalists, COVID-19 didn’t exist. Or if it did, nobody outside of specialist epidemiology circles knew anything about it. As the departure date crept closer, events started taking place in Wuhan and other far-flung places, and murmurs of an impact on travel, and established lifestyles in general, began to circulate. As matters developed, questions were asked about the wisdom of travelling in such a climate. And, based on the best information available at the time, it was decided to go ahead: as things stood then, while there was a threat, it was well contained… elsewhere.
Shortly after we’d arrived, however, the World Health Organisation declared the coronavirus situation a pandemic, meaning that, along with a number of more specific definitions, whichever preventative measures needed to be taken were now the responsibility of every country.
Decisions deferred
One minute we were in exotic, beguiling new surroundings, the next there was a possibility – not necessarily imminent, but now on the radar, and emitting that nagging, insistent beep every time information on the spread of the virus was refreshed – that we could end up quarantined abroad, away from our families, our striking hotel rooms now beautifully designed holding cells.
Leaving anywhere immediately under these conditions is not easy. There are ethics; professional agreements made in terms of client expectations and what needs to be delivered; the things that good working relationships rely on. In more practical terms, there is the initial spate of cancellations of flights in and out of the country you’re in, as well as into and out of the country your booked flight transfers through and into your home country. There are fewer options to choose from in terms of changing your dates, and the expense of cancelling tickets and then buying new ones from a now severely limited stock is now prohibitive.
[blur] Suddenly, but subtly, everyone involved in handling the different aspect of your journey becomes, broadly speaking, an ally or an adversary. Your lovely hosts do their best to maintain the magic of what, until the previous week, was a highly desirable destination, but you’re distracted. Twice, three times a day – more – you check the status of your flight home. For now, it’s still on. You look up and appreciate the gorgeous architecture of a temple in Ayutthaya or the view from the 32nd floor of a hotel in Bangkok. [/blur]
