I was looking to see if there was a thread and didn't find one and thought I would just ask.
So how are you coping in these Covid times?
For me, it is all over the place. Some days it seems somewhat normal, then days later its total chaos. I have been in Thailand for most of the pandemic and initially I felt little, to no impact, while the rest of the world seemed to be upside down. I watched the US and all my friends live in total confusion and people dropping like flies. Now I am currently in the states and while many are vaccinated it is still total chaos. As of this morning the states is averaging 100K cases a day and virtually all are antivaxxer folks. However the challenge is that you have no way of knowing who is vaccinated or not and people lie about it so they do not have to wear a mask and yet you cannot ask them to validate it. Parents let their children run around unmasked everywhere which is crazy.
My wife and I are now on the last few weeks here in the states. We were going to stay until near end of September but Singapore airlines called us saying that they want us to change our return trip to no later than Aug 31st. While they didn't state it, I suspect they are cancelling all flights into Thailand. They also noted in the update that they are not allowing international flights into Singapore, you can only be in transit. We will land in Singapore and be escorted to a quarantine area for our layover. Of course upon landing in Thailand we will do a 14 day ASQ even though fully vaccinated. We have our COE approved and ASQ booked.
Its a strange world now, sort of like the 9/11 event but far more inconvenient. Traveling anywhere simply isn't worth it. I will have been Covid tested 8 times from the flight here and the return flight back. I am sick of having swabs crammed up my nose. I sometimes feel like a prisoner. Even though here in the states you can go anywhere, you still see/feel this friction amongst people that are not wearing masks and ones that do. Its a strange dynamic. I know when we finally get back home, we will be in a hard lock down even though vaccinated but at least its stress free. There will be no more travel plans for us for quite some time.