Travel in the Time of COVID

After a really good trip to visit our kids in the US, I’m back in Singapore serving my second round of mandatory quarantine (known here as SHN, or “stay at home notice”) at the Swissotel the Stamford. Tom is at the Shangri-La Singapore, as he returned a week earlier.

At first I was assigned another hotel, but after appealing with documentation about my claustrophobia, I was able to transfer to a room with a balcony. If a claustrophobic is going to be confined to a room for 14 days, having access to fresh air really helps. A bonus to my new “velvet prison” room is a stunning view of the Marina Bay harbor and downtown cityscape.

International travel in the time of COVID is anything but normal (what is?). Singapore requires a negative PCR test taken within 72 hours of departure, documented entry approval from the government, remain masked during the 24 hour door to door journey, and pay SGD 2,000 pp (USD 1,500) for hotel quarantine and COVID test at the end of the stay. No one makes the decision to travel here lightly.

Despite these hurdles, I still love the thrill of international travel. All of it. Organizing my travel documents in the worn red leather travel wallet that my dad used during his 30 year career traveling overseas with Texaco. Packing my carry on so that I have what I need to freshen up before landing. Following the flight path over the ocean and cities – Seoul, Shanghai, Pnohm Penh, Bangkok – beckoning a visit. Rewatching movies; my guilty pleasure is Working Girl. Anonymity. People watching in airport lounges during transit.

My earliest memories are of the long TWA flights to Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, my dad’s first international post. My sister Ruth (age 6) and I (age 3) would sprawl out to sleep, alternating between the seats and floor, seatbelt buckles pressed into our small backs with head resting on mom’s lap, or wedged between carry on bags, stockinged feet, and scattered litter.

When we moved to Indonesia, the journey would take a few days. First, we travelled to California where we would stay for at least a night, or longer if we convinced our parents to take us to Disneyland. Then we would fly to Taipei, Tokyo, or Hong Kong and pause for something like a 12 hour stay in an airport transit hotel while the jet refueled. Onward to Singapore, to gather our bearings over another one or two nights. And finally to Pekanbaru in central Sumatra on the Caltex company prop plane. I wonder how many others there are whose make believe game of choice was “Passport Control”? Fashioning passports out of hotel stationery, I pretended to be an immigration official processing passengers (my sister and parents), making theatrical stamping motions as I waved them through to “Customs.”

I don’t think we will see a return to travel as we knew it for quite some time. But my hope for this new year is that the vaccine will be effective and that countries will view this as a wake up call to invest more deeply in their infrastructure and people so that we, collectively, are better prepared for the future — and next pandemic.

Pics from Quarantine, Round II

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Pics from Christmas Vacation in the US

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