3/21: Traveling a No Go in the Age of Covid-19

Two weeks ago I wrote about our experiences traveling overseas at was then the beginning of the coronavirus outbreak outside of China. I can hardly fathom how much life has changed in the two weeks since in every corner of the world. Last Friday morning, March 13th, Steven and I flew from Colombo, Sri Lanka, to the city of Kochi in the southern Indian state of Kerala where we'd expected to stay for about ten days in three different cities before flying up to Goa on the west coast of India until the end of this month.

It was only when we checked in for our flight in Colombo that we were notified that we'd be one of the last flights arriving in India as the country was closing its borders that day to foreign tourists. Perhaps you're thinking we should have been alarmed knowing we were almost the last ones permitted in the country but, to the contrary, our thoughts were more of relief that we'd arrived just in the nick of time to explore far more of the country than we'd seen in 2015. It seems now, with the benefit of 20/20 hindsight, we should have immediately looked at ways to get out of India, but our mindset was how lucky we were at being there and the opportunities to be able to continue with our plans and see the famous Kerala Backwaters, the tea plantations, etc in southern India. We knew that the two national parks and the Periyar Tiger Reserve we'd hoped to see were closed because of the coronavirus but there was still so much more to see in our minds.

Later on the 13th, we spent several hours wandering around Kochi, exploring some of its famous churches, temples, a palace, and Jewtown. Most of the religious institutions were indeed closed that day to foreigners because of the virus, but even that didn't deter us from wanting to remain in Kochi and then travel through more of Kerala in the coming days. Steven just joked that my blog post from that day would be shorter than usual because I could only basically take pictures of the outside of the churches, temples, and the synagogue!

Many of you know that I have always been a news junkie and therefore was certainly keeping up with news of the virus back home. There was absolutely no sense then or the next day of the urgency from the American government or news outlets we were following that anyone traveling overseas should immediately return home. As a result, we still felt comfortable continuing with our travel plans. Our intent was to wait for several days until we heard from our tour operator in Bhutan as to whether the government there was going to reopen its borders so we could still go on the almost week-long tour.

Last Saturday afternoon, a week ago today, after visiting the excellent Kerala Folklore Museum we took a very long tuk tuk ride to Chottanikkara Temple. After waiting around for a couple of hours until it reopened at 4, we were eager and excited to enter the important temple. Almost immediately, a female official asked us to take photos of our passports' ID pages and send them to her via WhatsApp. She grilled us on when we'd arrived in India, where we'd come from, what hotel we were staying at in Kochi, and asked whether we were aware of the coronavirus. She needed answers to all those questions so she could relay them via phone to her boss, she informed us. She reluctantly allowed us to walk around the outside of the temple only as long as we wore masks. Since only Steven had one, we had to enter one at a time. When I walked around wearing Steven's face mask, a man followed me very aggressively the entire two minutes I was there gesturing for me to leave. As you can imagine, that experience left a very sour taste in our mouths, especially after waiting for two hours to see the temple.  

If that wasn't bad enough, a few minutes later after our Uber car arrived, a male official from the temple began talking to our driver asking him where he was taking us. Since the nearest destination to the ferry terminal on the Uber app was a hospital, Steven had entered that as the destination! When the driver told the official, you can imagine his alarm, believing we knew we had the virus and had knowingly infected people at the temple. No, no, we explained, we had only entered the hospital as it was the closest destination to the ferry terminal. He didn't believe us, and also insisted on asking 20 questions, beginning with where we were staying, how long we'd been in Kochi, etc, etc. It was pretty alarming to us when he began to write all our answers down as we had no idea what might be done with that information. At that point, we urged the driver to leave right away as we were scared of what might happen next. Fortunately, we were able to convey to the driver we were indeed healthy, that we had no plans to go to the hospital, and only to the ferry terminal. We could laugh about it the further away we got away from the temple but it was a scary experience.

For days I had been in pretty regular contact via both email and WhatsApp with my eldest brother, Andrew, back in Canada. He'd expressed considerable alarm with what was happening around the world and began to question how much "fun" we were likely to have as more and more of the tourist sights we'd come to see would be closing down. Until that experience at the temple, I think Steven and I were both 'blind' to how foreigners were beginning to be perceived and especially how much worse it could become. My younger brother, Keith, also had his nose to the ground and sent me emails last Saturday from the Canadian government informing Canadians to return home immediately from anywhere in the world. That certainly caught our attention as we'd heard nothing like that from the US government. No longer could we remain oblivious of the possible dangers we were in if we decided to continue with our trip. The chances of not being able to leave if we wanted were frightening.

Perhaps the final clincher came after speaking with our second daughter, Natalie, last Saturday night. I tried to convey to her that her father, who had severe asthma and compromised lungs, had told me that he had no death wish but would be at peace if he did contract the coronavirus in India and died from it there as he had lived a long, good life. Her response was a gut punch but what, in hindsight, we both needed to hear: essentially that we had no right continuing the trip if it meant there was any chance of Steven's getting infected and dying because he would then infect others.

Last Sunday morning, the 15th, after having time to reflect on what Andrew, Keith, and Natalie had conveyed to us, I told Steven we needed to get home pdq. He was initially reluctant but agreed it was likely best. In a matter of minutes, he had booked tickets for us to fly home from Kochi-Singapore-Seattle-Denver the following night at what was really a very reasonable price. The bonus was we were able to check our bags all the way through to Denver which was important.

The longer the day went on, the more at peace we both were at the decision we'd made to leave. When Steven read on the Kerala Trip Advisor forum on Sunday the 15th about foreigners forcibly quarantined in their hotels in Kochi, that was very concerning. We were so thankful we'd found the stately Indy Old Courthouse Hotel with its welcoming staff, wonderful breakfast, and great location near the sights and easy access to the ferry. We almost had the entire place to ourselves as there was only one other guest two of the three nights!

While having the entire pool and rooftop to ourselves all day Sunday the 15th, I joked I was getting ready to practice 'social distancing' once we returned home!

Sunday night the 15th we took another long Uber ride to a restaurant that looked like it had an interesting menu. The menu turned out to be far more appealing than the 'restaurant' which only comprised four small tables that backed up to the cooking and prep area. We had another discomfiting experience soon after ordering when a local couple came in, looked at us and immediately turned around and left. We could only surmise that they were concerned coming into such close contact with foreigners who might be carrying the virus. That also helped to confirm that we'd made the best decision to leave the following day as we figured, that if we'd chosen to stay, the likelihood of being targeted would surely increase with each passing day.

Kochi Airport on the 16th:

As you can imagine, it was an exhausting 40 plus hours traveling home, especially the 14-hour flight from Singapore to Seattle. On arrival at SeaTac on the 17th, we had the shock of our lives when not one question was asked of us about what countries we'd recently traveled to, we weren't asked to submit a detailed health questionnaire, no temperature check was taken, no instructions given about sheltering in place for any length of time, and furthermore, no handout was given listing symptoms to be on the lookout for and whom to contact in case of concerns. 

Don't forget, this happened just a few days ago in Washington state which was the epicenter of coronavirus cases in the entire country! We were appalled, disgusted, and alarmed at the extraordinarily cavalier attitude on the part of the federal government taking not one iota of care and attention at passengers arriving from Asia. How could this possibly be happening in the US, arguably the most developed nation in the world, when even Sri Lanka and India had all the protocols in place to screen incoming passengers like health questionnaires, temperature checks and handouts were standard operating procedure?

A view of scenic Mt. Rainier from the plane as we flew back from Seattle to Denver on the 17th, which happened to be the 39th anniversary of the day we met in Zihuatenejo, Mexico:

In the past few days, we've had to time to reflect on how fortunate we were to have left India when we did and that credit for that decision is largely due to Andrew, Keith, and Natalie who made us really understand how potentially dire the situation could become if we'd stayed put even a few days longer. I am sure you, like us, have read stories about how Americans are stranded in Peru and Morocco and on cruise ships with no means of getting home since so many countries have closed their borders and flights have come to a standstill in many places. That so easily could have been us.

We have always taken out insurance for our extended overseas trips but none of it was any good for the flights, hotel reservations and tours we'd booked because such catastrophic events like the coronoavirus pandemic aren't covered. We will take a considerable hit financially but that is of minimal concern compared to being safe and sound at home.

At this point, we've only cancelled everything on the itinerary through the end of April in the faint hope that we might be able to fly to the Philippines in early May and resume our trip through June. We doubt that's likely but we would like to think that we could possibly instead fly to Japan at the beginning of June for three weeks and then return via several days in Hawaii and San Francisco. When I mentioned the latter possibility this afternoon to our son, Alexander who lives in SF, he all but laughed thinking our dream entirely unrealistic! He may well be right but it's nice to hold onto that dream.

Speaking of dreams, we hope to pick up next spring where we left off in India and continue with whatever we were unable to see - certainly our return after just two weeks into our four-month-long trip didn't damper our enthusiasm for traveling this magnificent world.

Next post: The treasures in the National Museum in Colombo back on March 4th.

Posted on March 21st, 2020, from the security of our home in Denver. Steven and I wish each of you peace and good health as we all learn to live in these troubling times.