A: Well, the biggest fear so far isn't so much about catching the virus and falling ill, but being stuck with an extended quarantine period even if you're perfectly healthy. So if we look at the situation in Tenerife at the moment where a lot of hotel guests are stuck in quarantine at a hotel where four guests have been tested positive for the Coronavirus. The guests who are not ill are faced with being stuck in their hotel rooms for two weeks followed by a further period of quarantine when they get back to their home countries - so that's a massive disruption to your daily life! Instead of getting a relaxing holiday, they are faced with an extended quarantine period and that really sucks. There's also of course the passengers on the ill-fated Diamond Princess who were quarantined for 14 days on board, then evacuated home only to be quarantined again. Simply by being in the wrong place at the wrong time, you could end up with an extended quarantine period even if you're not sick at all. That would hugely inconvenience your normal life - like you wouldn't even be able to do something as normal as going to work, meeting your friends or go join a class at your local gym when you're in quarantine. So yes, the virus could well and truly mess up your life if you're very unlucky, but I need to point out that most people are still traveling with very little fuss. A colleague has just recently traveled to Singapore and he told me that nobody really did anything different, apart from the fact that some people around him wore face masks on the flight.
Q: Are the governments doing enough to monitor the actions of people who have traveled to hot zones?
A: No, quite simply, too little is done! So for example, there is a massive outbreak in the city of Daegu in South Korea, but flights from Seoul are still arriving in Heathrow airport. Within South Korea, there isn't a Wuhan-style lock down where people are stopped from traveling into Daegu - so someone who has been infected in Daegu can easily travel to Seoul, get on a flight to London and then simply land in London, walk through the arrivals hall and infect plenty of people in central London. There are still of course plenty of flights arriving everyday from Beijing, Shanghai and other Chinese cities in spite of the fact that the virus is present in all these other Chinese cities. And of course, there are still flights from Northern Italy, Japan, Hong Kong and Singapore - so there's really nothing at all done to prevent people from traveling. The only thing they are doing is taking the temperatures of the travelers to try to detect anyone with a fever, but it is entirely possible to be a carrier without having a fever or simply take some medicine like paracetamol or aspirin an hour or two before landing to ensure that your fever is not detected. There's a lot of talk of 'self-quarantine', for example, the UK government are asking people who have returned from Northern Italy to self-quarantine, but nobody is monitoring this and they're completely dependent on people acting responsibly. The governments simply have been very reluctant to act with a heavy hand in case they get accused of being too draconian, because simply shutting everything down from schools to public transport to businesses will have a massive economic impact which is another huge problem altogether.
A: Firstly, the biggest risk is when you're on an aeroplane - you're in a confined space for hours and you have to sit with people you don't know at all. Furthermore, you're all sharing a very small number of toilets for that period and if a person sneezes or cough, the droplets in the air are circulated in that tiny confined space. Then there are the crew members - if members of crew are unwell, they could be serving all the passengers, spreading it to everyone they come across. Then there are airports as well, whilst you're not as confined in an airport as when you're on a plane, there are still certain bottlenecks such as passport control, when you're queuing up to go through security checks and at the boarding gates. So imagine if someone who is checking the hand luggage of the passengers is unwell or if a ground crew member who is at the boarding gate is unwell, then the chances of catching the virus there is a lot higher. Then of course, when you're at a tourist attraction, once again, such bottlenecks can form when you're queuing or crowding around a certain popular site (picture all the tourists trying to see the Mona Lisa at the Louvre), then you're increasing the chances of encountering someone who has the virus. Bear in mind that I am merely analyzing how traveling can statistically increase the odds of you getting the virus, you could travel loads and not get infected at all because you simply do not encounter someone who is infectious. After all, the population of China is 1.4 billion and there are only about 82,000 cases (as I am writing this, that number is sure to go up by the hour) - if it was that infectious, then we would have had millions of cases by now but that number is still comparatively low: that shows that Covid-19 really isn't as infectious as some people imagine it is.
A: Firstly, there will be many checks when you pass through somewhere like an airport where your temperature may be taken to ensure that you're not feverish. And of course, many major tourist attractions in Europe and Asia are now closed to minimize crowds. But wait, there are so many more things that can go wrong: imagine if you're merely visiting a quaint old town in Northern Italy and then you suddenly find yourself stuck in a quarantine zone. You're stuck there - unable to leave, you miss your flight, you're having to pay for accommodation and food in the quarantine zone, and on top of that, you're missing many days of work. It is unclear what your travel insurance would cover in such a situation. It may cover your flight and accommodation but what about the disruption and loss of pay if you're unable to work due to the quarantine? But here's the thing: the worst case scenario is always very grim of course, but most people still travel with little disruption because so many people working with airlines and hotels will try their very best to make sure you're still able to travel because their livelihoods depend on it. Heck, it is a mitigated risk that we all take when we choose to go on holiday - in all likelihood, everything will be fine but it is important to realize what we're dealing with. Thus to be on the safe side though, it would be prudent to make sure you get travel insurance prior to any trip you're planning then double check what you're covered for under the current circumstances, so you know where you stand in a worse case scenario.
A: I don't think so! But let's be sensible: if you're planning a trip to China this year, then I would urge you to consider postponing that trip. Many major tourist attractions from Shanghai Disneyland to the Forbidden City to most of the Great Wall of China are shut to visitors at the moment - so it would be fairly pointless to go to Beijing for example without being able to see some of the most famous attractions there. It's no so much that you'll risk getting the virus in China - it's more a question of whether or not you'll have a fun holiday there and let's just say your experience will definitely be compromised if so many major attractions are shut. Likewise, the same thing can be said about Northern Italy - phew, I went just a few weeks ago when everything was still normal. But then again, there are different kinds of holidays: you should think about avoiding big cities just in case the major attractions are shut and heading to the countryside instead. When I was on that long holiday earlier this year with my family, we stayed at an AirBNB high up in the French Pyrenees and my sister loved it so much - she could have just spent hours sitting on the terrace, staring into the beautiful, pristine mountains in the distance and breathing the clean mountain air. If you're intending to go ahead with your trip, you may also find great bargains: from flights to hotels, as tourists stay away, prices will drop dramatically and you could get some incredible deals, such as staying in a 5-star hotel for the price of a 3-star hotel. Restaurants for example would have far fewer tourists, so they would be far more keen to offer you special discounts in order to compete for the fewer number of tourists who pass by. And of course, for the tourist attractions that are open, you wouldn't need to queue for ages if there are far fewer tourists around - say goodbye to the crowds! Hence your experience as a tourist might be really awesome.
Q: What else can I do to minimize risk during my holidays?
A: You can avoid flying to begin with - airports and aeroplanes are places where you're likely to be exposed to the virus. And of course, cruise ships are strictly off limits for now. I would suggest traveling by rail - but of course that limits where you can go. It's not so bad for me in Europe as I can get the Eurostar to Paris or Brussels and then connect from there, but if you're in Singapore, well you only have the line north to Malaysia and then Thailand. Rail travel is also slower than flying, but given that trains are far less congested than planes, your risk of exposure to any kind of infectious diseases are far lower. Buses on the other hand could potentially be as bad as planes given that it is similar in terms of being in a small confined space for hours - so take a bus trip from Singapore to Kuala Lumpur for example, that takes about 4 to 5 hours depending on traffic conditions. So you're in an air-conditioned bus for that amount of bus and if there's someone in the bus who is infectious, well that's not good news. So a way to avoid that is to rent a car and at least that way, you're not in an enclosed space with strangers, you have more control over whom you're traveling with. Think about how much traveling you want to do during your holidays - rather than planning a trip where you have to move from one city to another every 24 or 48 hours, try to stay in just one place for an extended period to avoid having to go through crowded bus stations and airport; so that would lead to a far more relaxed holiday as well when you'll get a lot more restful sleep!
A: Well, firstly there's a very high population density in a cruise ship and a hotel; normally we don't live in such close proximity, we like having a lot of space. So in my house, I have a large living room, I have two bathrooms, two bedrooms, a kitchen, a substantial roof garden and loads more space in the form of corridors and stairwells. People like having space, it is a luxury they will pay for if they can afford it. However, when you're on a cruise ship, you just have a small cabin and space is at a premium - so most people compromise and only spend a little time in the cabin when they are sleeping, otherwise they are doing other activities elsewhere on the ship. That means they can pack a lot more tourists onto a cruise ship and make a lot more money, if they are willing to put up with such arrangements. Everyone on the ship have plenty of shared facilities such as the dining rooms which are served by the small number of staff - a theory as to why the virus spread so quickly on the Diamond Princess is because some of the staff (presumably a member of the cleaning crew, trying to disinfect the ship) was actually spreading the disease. Compare that to when we're at home and we have our own dining rooms and kitchen, we're far less exposed to strangers. The same pattern can be replicated in other places like hotels, hospitals, military camps and prisons - that's why they have been hotbed for infections, because people live so close to each other in very confined areas. My solution to that is simple: spend some money, get a nice AirBNB where you are not living amongst tourists but locals and you will have plenty of personal space. Quite honestly, I really don't see the fascination with cruise ships - I will get claustrophobic in such extremely crowded situations like that.
Q: Should we then avoid crowded cities on our holidays then?
A: I'm not saying you must but it is more important to focus on your choice of accommodation when on holiday. Please avoid all cruise ships for crying out aloud. You ought to also avoid hotels not just because you're more likely to get Covid-19 there but simply because AirBNB always offers a much better experience for the same money. Let's take a look at a city I love and is affected by the Covid-19 outbreak: Hong Kong. Now it is one of the most densely populated cities in the world and the locals normally just put up with the high population density, they're simply used to living like that but the fact that people are packed into those apartment blocks created a situation whereby diseases can spread from one household to another without the people actually coming into physical contact through each other but the virus and bacteria finds a way through ventilation shafts, the plumbing and communal areas. This was especially bad in the Amoy Gardens flats where the authorities found that the design of bathroom floor drains lacked a replenishment system to keep the water traps filled, allowing virus-laden aerosols to seep into bathrooms, exacerbated by the draw of bathroom exhaust fans. These were among the factors that contributed to the rapid spread of SARS in that complex - the solution may seem obvious: live in big houses and avoid cramped apartment blocks like Amoy Gardens in Hong Kong! Nonetheless, not everyone is rich enough to afford a big house with loads of space. However, we can avoid cheap hotels with equally poor, cramped conditions - some of the cheapest hotels are painfully old and dated, lacking in investment to maintain their ventilation and plumbing systems so this is not the time to save money by staying in a cheap backpackers' hostel where you share a dormitory with 15 people! You should avoid such places as you could easily get infected there.
A: Postponing your holiday plans might not be a bad idea under these current circumstances as the way to minimize your exposure to the virus involves spending a lot more money. For example, getting a bunk bed in a dormitory room at a backpacker's lodge may costs you as little as US$10 a night whilst renting a nice big house on AirBNB for a night could set you back US$200 or more a night. The best solution I think is to stop traveling alone or in duos and try to travel in much bigger groups of five or more - when I was on holiday with my family earlier this year, we were a group of five people in total. That allowed us to split the cost five ways for the rental car (which worked out to be way cheaper than if we used public transport) and get great deals for some of the bigger house we rented on AirBNB. I had far fewer options when I was on a business trip to Brussels last year since I was traveling alone. And of course, the dynamics of traveling in a group are different - sure sometimes, there have got to be compromises about what we want to do, what time we want to wake up in the morning, where we eat etc, but if you can get through those issues, then being able to club together like that would get you much better value for money as a group and would allow you to get a much better class of accommodation as well as make renting a car so much cheaper as your car would be completely full. Other than that, you may actually find better bargains at a time like this when people are cancelling their holidays to somewhere like Italy or Japan, so if budget is a consideration for you, then things may work in your favour under these current circumstances.
Q: Should I visit countries where there are fewer or no cases of the virus?
A: I would take these numbers of reported cases you see in the news with a big pinch of salt. Take somewhere like Indonesia which has reported no cases so far, I'm hugely skeptical - there are already so many cases in other countries in the region reporting many cases including Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia and the Philippines. Now are there really no cases in Indonesia? I find that hard to believe - what is more likely is that there are cases but the hospitals in a poor country like Indonesia simply don't have enough testing kits and even if there are suspected cases, the government is censoring the news to prevent mass panic. Likewise in Iran, it has the highest number of deaths outside China, but with relatively fewer cases reported (245 cases, 26 deaths as of 27 February 2020) - so looking at the statistics from Iran, it suggests a fatality rate of 13.66% of the virus, when in China where the virus had originated from, the fatality rate is much lower at just 2% Is this the same virus in Iran or are we dealing with a strain that has evolved to be a lot more dangerous? Or is this simply a case whereby there are actually a lot more Iranians out there who are infected but not tested given the relatively poor quality of healthcare in a country like Iran? So if we were to use the number of deaths to estimate how many people are really infected, the true figure should be around 1,300 - which would make the situation in Iran a lot more serious than officially reported. However, in contrast, the death rate in South Korea is still only around 0.74%, making it a lot lower than in China: this could be mostly due to the fact that South Korea is a much richer country with better medical facilities and that there are still a relatively small number of cases in South Korea which means that the medical staff there are not overwhelmed the way their counterparts in Wuhan are. Thus I trust the statistics from places like USA, Japan, South Korea and Singapore but not the poorer countries like Iran and Indonesia.
A: In a recent post I had talked a lot about the 'damsel in distress' approach that so many Asian people take when confronted with racism - that irritates the fuck out of me I swear. Don't take any shit from anyone, if someone dares to be racist with you, you stand up for yourself and punch them in the face. Show them you're a bad ass motherfucker and they picked a fight with the wrong Asian. Not that I condone any kind of racism or bullying, but I think it is simply pathetic to be that passive when someone attacks you - I have long accepted that I'm way too ugly to be anyone's damsel in distress that's why I always fight back and having that attitude makes me feel a lot more prepared to take on the crazy shit that life will throw at me. Further to that, nobody in the West knows how to pronounce Wuhan: it should be Oo-hun, the W is silent and the 'han' should rhyme with 'bun' not 'ban'. Most people are saying it as 'Woo-Han' but I even heard on pilot pronounce it as 'Hwan' - like I am not making that up, I have even embedded his Youtube clip below where he repeatedly pronounces Wuhan as 'Hwan'. Good grief. Likewise, Daegu is pronounced 'tay-gu' and it is a T sound not a D sound, anyone who speaks Korean will know that. But no, everyone is mispronouncing that too. This begs the whole question about how we are transliterating Asian place names into English, surely it would make a lot more sense to name places like Wuhan 'Oo-hun' instead since it is very clear that the rest of the world is totally confused by the Hanyupinyin system.
Q: Should Asian people avoid traveling in this period because of possible racism?
A: Again, I don't think so. There have been indeed some reports of racism in places like Romania and Russia but having traveled to both countries before, I had experienced no racism at all when I was there. I am a British-Chinese person living in London and I have not encountered any racism relating to Covid-19 but what I have encountered however is quite a lot of ignorance and stupidity. I need to point out that ignorance/stupidity is not the same as racism. The key difference is the absence/presence of malice. The most stupid comment was from an Italian person in London who asked me if white people was immune to this 'Chinese' virus as it seems to be just Chinese people getting the virus - oh the irony that Italy now has the biggest outbreak in Europe. He said that rather dumb comment to me earlier this year before Covid-19 really hit Italy hard but now that he has friends and family members in Northern Italy directly affected, he has began reading the news a lot more and thus he is a lot less ignorant about Covid-19 these days. Given how there are so many new cases in places like Italy, Iran, America and Spain and how these new patients are mostly white, the perception is changing (albeit slowly) - it is no longer seen as an exclusively Chinese or East Asian virus anymore. We have witnessed some anti-Italian discrimination (or racism, if you choose to call it that) in Hungary when Honved football club suspended their Italian coach and his assistant as a precautionary measure just in case they could infect their players - there was no suggestion that the coach and his assistant were sick with the virus or had been in contact with sick people in Italy. They were suspended for merely being Italian and that's pretty fucked up. There have also been some reports of Italian people being harassed in the UK today over fears of the corona virus - so it is safe to say that the virus is no longer seen as an exclusive Chinese or Asian virus given how it has spread so widely around Europe already.
Q: Do I have any plans for any further holidays in light of the current circumstances?
A: We had a taste of snow this morning in London - it was only a little bit and it all melted very quickly as it was 2 degrees, way too warm for the snow to linger. So that has inspired me to want to get some colder, winter weather whilst it is still winter in Europe. I have seen my friend post pictures from his recent holidays to the far north of Norway, so that could be a nice option given that there has been only one case so far in Norway and they are a very rich country well equipped to cope with this kind of situation. I have done a lot of Finland and Estonia in recent years but have not been to Norway for a while and I only spent an hour in Sweden in the border town of Haparanda on the Finnish border, but before that it was ages since I've been in Sweden. I given that I've done a lot of Southern Europe in the 2 years (Portugal, Spain, Andorra, France, Italy, Malta, Croatia, Bosnia, Montenegro, Greece, North Macedonia), I think I will pass on that part of Europe for now. So I am definitely tempted by Norway, I've only been there once and that was way back in the summer of 1998, that was a good 22 years ago. Obviously, it would be prudent to avoid places like South Korea, Japan and Italy for now - a trip to South Korea and Japan is definitely something I'd love to do but not under the current circumstances. I've been to Italy twice in the last 12 months, so I'm happy to pass on Italy for now. Furthermore, if I do go skiing, I will be heading to a smaller ski resort rather than a very crowded and popular one. There are some small ski resorts in Norway with pretty good conditions at the moment, so that's definitely possible but given that I had just returned from Greece and North Macedonia not long ago, so I will wait till at least mid-March before booking my next trip.
Oh man I re-read this 4 weeks after I wrote it and now everything's shut down until further notice. Sigh.
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