Traveling to Asia in middle of COVID-19

This is the English version of a post (in Spanish) published on May 19, 2007.

I was all February in Asian countries. Specifically in Japan, South Korea, Philippines and Thailand. More details about my preference for this area of the world will be mentioned later. The relevant thing is that this trip in particular, was highlighted because of the COVID-19 boom.

I already knew this when I departed from Chile, but the mere option of postpone or suspend my plans was absolutely out of the question. Mis main fears weren’t to caught the virus, but logistics related to the trip instead. Knowing that the main outbreak was in China (fortunately this country was not in my itinerary nor as a layover), and that all the countries visited have rising active cases, I was cautious, taking all actions deemed as necessary.

Maybe my decision to not use a face mask might look as polemic, but it wasn’t a random decision. As far as I understand, this is not a strictly effective method, except if you want to avoid a contagion of a respiratory disease you already have, in other people (that situation doesn’t apply to me, because I never got a cold during my stay); instead, I washed my hands frequently (almost all shopping centers and touristic places had dispensers at the entrance). Anyway, in Asia the usage of face mask is frequent (from long time before of COVID-19) and its use is not mandatory (except, maybe, in 1 or 2 places in Seoul, but anyway I had no plans to go there). I also noticed that in South Korea a popular method to prevent a cold is to drink Red Ginseng, with many available brands. It was a novelty for me, although this hot drink is a really bitter. Sometimes I included the Woongjin Red Ginseng Honey, much more sweet and delicious. 🙂

I guess that the main logistic problem was that my 2 first destinations were experiencing low, Winter temperatures: Japan (Fukuoka)= 4° C; South Korea (Seoul)= -5° C, but the next 2 countries, enjoying tropical temperatures: Philippines (Manila)= 28° C; Thailand (Bangkok)= 33° C. This involved to use (and buy) warm clothes (in UNIQLO, ¡my favorite clothes store in Japan!) para counteract any risk of getting a cold, with additional baggage, later unnecessary when landed in warmer destinations. At least this action was effective and I had no problems for adaptation to the hot/humid weather in the upcoming days.

The touristic destinations in Japan and South Korea never disappoints, although it was clear the lack of tourists at certain places. The most interesting places of Fukuoka (a city I stayed 2 times before) are the surroundings of Hakata and Tenjin stations, as well as the Fukuoka Tower, all illuminated at night. Important mentions to Uminonakamichi Seaside Park, Nokonoshima Island and Ainoshima Island (the “cat island“ 🙂 ). In Seoul, the Gyeongbokgung Palace is majestic and imposing; reaching the Seoul Tower by foot (in a mountaintop) is like a pilgrimage of infinite stairs, but memorable (going down in cable car was very pleasant). Discovering the spot of infinite padlocks left by visitors with diverse messages, ¡very impressing!

(I left my name there too…)

Fortunately, all the main attractions were open during my stay. The absence of people was more obvious when taking flights from/to Seoul. As an example, from the Incheon airport (one of the more beautiful and elegant ones, in my opinion), my ICN-FUK flight had only a few passengers, despite being a very popular route.

Philippines and Thailand were different experiences. Even if I was able to not use 3 daily layers of clothes and a scarf, the hot and humid weather is a different suffering, at least for me, not so accustomed to hot weather. But the bigger contrast was to see that almost no filipino was using a face mask (only 1 COVID-19 case there during my stay), and that in general their inhabitants are much more relaxed, so to say (I consider that the concept of “Latins of Asia” is somewhat correct). Additional contrasts were a change to much lower prices, as a couple of dishes plus a soft drink for USD ~1.8 (Jollibee is my favorite fast food chain there). 🙂

Last but not least, Thailand was my last and favorite destination. I have been 6 times there, and even when you think that this is country I not so advanced compared to my first 2 destinations, Thailand has not only imposing temples and cultural richness, but also endless shopping centers, cheap and unbeatable street food and some traditions that I admire, because respect is extremely important. Transiting countries where Confucianism and Buddhism predominates (except by Philippines) is very clear and I like it. If I want to create an entire blog post about all things I hate of Chile, probably many of these things simply doesn’t exist, or it is in very low levels in some Asian countries.

Thailand, during my stay, had only 37 COVID-19 cases. As I said, even not being so developed, this country is controlling relatively well the influx of this virus, and it was clear when I saw the great amount of hand sanitizer and public announcements everywhere. Same as Japan and South Korea, the absence of tourists was evident in certain places (such as Wat Arun and Wat Pho), given the high volume of Chinese tourists normally visiting Bangkok.

I would say that from beginning to end, I never fell threatened by the current situation. The Asian authorities were very strict when controlling passengers and fortunately I never had any symptoms. I traveled there because I already knew that catching the virus was a latent risk, even taking precautions (always could happen something apparently harmless, such as put your hand in an infected surface, then scratch your eyes -based on the announced ways of transmission-, and that’s it, you got infected.

Anyway, I hope the situation improves in order to contain this virus soon. In new posts I will write on previous and future trips, but I think this specific holiday deserved its own publication. 🙂

The photos depicted here are in low resolution for reference purposes. The high-res versions will be published in my online album soon.