Traveling During This Pandemic Was No Joke
“With COVID-19, we’ve made it to the life raft. Dryland is far away” — Marc Lipsitch
Before the pandemic, I do not take frequent international trips. For me, one to two trips every year seemed to suffice. I was getting prepared for those sorts of trips in 2019 when the pandemic restrictions began. I told myself, this too will pass. I had a powerful urge to travel home last quarter of 2020. I made the trip first quarter of 2021.
Finding a ticket was the easiest part. Next came the need to run a covid-19 test within a reasonable window of the trip date. It was not enough to have a negative covid test. If the test was too early relative to your travel date, it became invalid. Depending on where you are in the world, there is a cost attached to the test. Then there is the anxiety of what the outcome will be. So imagine going through all these and you are told that the test you have done is invalid.
Some airlines request evidence of payment of a post-trip covid test. This depends on arrangements made with the country of destination. In fact, with some of these airlines, it is as important as having your boarding pass. Without this, you might end up going back home. Some airlines, to be accommodating, might issue you another flight ticket at no cost. It does not get more generous than this. It appears if you don’t show up for the second flight; you pay for future bookings. I did.
Now let’s assume that you have your plane ticket, your boarding pass, and a valid negative covid test. Let’s also assume you have evidence of payment of a post-trip covid test. At that point, you have crossed a significant milestone. The next thing you might worry about is covid vaccination. According to public health guidelines, this would depend on pre-existing health conditions, age, and whatever arrangements made by your resident country. I wasn’t able to get vaccinated before my trip, so I knew I had to be on top of my game with mask-wearing, hand sanitizing, and social distancing.
The airline I used for the first leg of my trip had assigned one passenger per row. This was their attempt at social distancing. Also, displayed were instructions on appropriate mask-wearing. Their restrooms had adequate supplies of moisturizing hand wash. Of course, there were people on the flight who acted oblivious to an ongoing pandemic. Some people wore their masks on their chins. Others thought little of squeezing past you in the aisles. There were still others who could not help but hold on to headrests and hand rests.
As I sat in my seat, trying my best to do my bit, I wondered why the airline staffers did not make things clearer. There are benefits in observing the covid-19 protocols. So it seemed like the case of; here are the rules, we encourage you to adopt them, we can’t force you. Oh dear, was I exhausted! The night before my trip, I had three hours of sleep. I was mentally exhausted plus the anxiety of traveling in uncertain times. For most of the flight, I slept. Food and flight entertainment were both secondary. I woke up from my slumber from the sounds of an elderly gentleman coughing a few feet away.
When we disembarked from the first flight, we had a one-hour stopover at a connecting airport. I could not help but notice how crowded it was. In contrast to my departure airport, this was teeming with people. I guessed some were travelers, while others were friends and families of travelers. My departure airport had clarified that only travelers should be in the airport. The stopover airport seemed different. Yes, people had their masks on, but there was hardly appropriate social distancing. What do you expect with that crowd in an enclosure?
I was still battling with exhaustion, the anxiety of what lied ahead, and the reason for my trip. We then boarded the next flight. The luxury of one passenger per flight had disappeared. Mask-wearing seemed optional. In my cabin, they packed us full. I asked myself; what happened to the idea of reducing the number of people in an enclosure? Wasn’t that supposed to be a way to control the virus’s transmission? Honestly, I wasn’t sure how to react. It was a four-hour flight. I wore my mask, felt for my hand sanitizer in my pocket, and slept off.
I woke up to people clapping as the flight had touched down. Some were singing praises and others were heaving sighs of relief. The checks at the arrival airport were more rigorous than my departure. It had gone beyond asking for passports, luggage slips, and customs checks. As my sister picked me up and asked how my trip was, all I could say to her was: “traveling now is no joke.” She nodded in agreement. Today, I am doing the essential quarantine as recommended by public health authorities. In a couple of days, I am to do my post-trip covid test. We’ll see what that says.
