WoW 02: Who says it's not a great time to go to Asia?
We’re gearing up to head to Thailand in just 5 short days. What we keep hearing right now is, “Why would you be going to Asia, NOW”. For anyone who hasn’t scrolled through a social media feed, watched the news, or had access to the outside world in 2020 so far - here’s the high level view. The Coronavirus is running wild causing panic all over the world. Though the virus itself is similar to the flu, with a lower mortality rate, the fear of the unknown is really freaking people out. Paired with the rapid pace at which it’s continuing to spread, has people very concerned.
The Coronavirus is continually being compared to the SARS outbreak, however, if you look at it by the numbers.. They are wildly different. SARS infected about 8,000 people at its peak. The Coronavirus is at above 80,000 confirmed cases, and climbing.
SO WHY ARE WE GOING TO ASIA?
The truth? We booked this trip well before we were in a Global Health Emergency. Would we have booked a trip to Thailand last week to go now, probably not.
Alas, here we are… and we are going to make the most of it! Amidst all the chaos, we are still incredibly excited to go. Don’t worry, we aren’t being entirely reckless. It is still considered ‘safe’ to travel to Thailand. That being said, we are definitely taking into account some extra precautions we hadn’t initially envisioned when we booked a trip to this bucket list destination. Our pictures on the beach may be featuring us starring in some face masks - what’s cuter than that? In reality though, the risk within Thailand itself is pretty minimal. The biggest risk is airports and planes, which anyone heading down to Florida this month to beat the winter blues could be sitting in our same boat.
One huge thing that was affected was our flights. China is a HUGE air hub for Asia and lots of flights from the United States connect through China. With the travel ban, our flights to and from had to get rerouted and flights that were already insanely long, were made even loooonger with a few more stops added along the way. (If the Coronavirus doesn’t get us, blood clots in our legs from sitting for an unhealthy period of planes may). Just when we thought we had the air travel figured out, there was a travel ban issued this week for South Korea… and you guessed it (!) that’s the asian hub our flights were rerouted through. So after a few torturously long phone calls with airlines we got our flights cancelled and were able to rebook avoiding any countries with a travel ban. Here’s to hoping Qatar stays safe!
March is normally a very busy time to travel to Thailand as the weather is warm and monsoon season is at bay, however, with the travel ban to and from China we may experience a different reality. The Chinese drive the majority of tourism in Thailand so we are expecting a much more desolate experience which is sort of a silver lining for us. What doesn’t kill us makes for a great adventure and we’re all about making lemonade out of lemons!
Follow us in the weeks to come and we will share more about this adventure of a lifetime.