Thailand

This blog is entitled "Thailand" because it was named after we traveled to Thailand. But since then, we have traveled many other places, and some of our trips are documented here. Enjoy!

OUR TRIP TO VIETNAM, SINGAPORE AND BALI, JANUARY 28 TO FEBRUARY 12, 2020

I thought you would enjoy reading about our recent travel experiences and how it relates to the COVID-19 virus.

My wife Judy and I left for a trip to Asia just as the COVID-19 pandemic was beginning in China. We left Buffalo on Friday, January 24th and flew to Los Angeles to spend two nights with my son, his wife and daughter. On Sunday, January 26th, we flew from LAX to Hong Kong, arriving on Monday, January 27th, and spent one night at the Marriott in the Hong Kong airport. At that time, Hong Kong had a handful of COVID-19 cases and was starting to close some of the 11 crossings to mainland China.

Our plans were to visit Vietnam first, for a week (I spent a year in Vietnam 50 years ago), and then return to Hong Kong, and travel to Guangdong Province and the old city of Canton. There are 120 million people living in the Pearl River Delta and lots of history there. Five years ago, China granted us 10-year visas and we visited Beijing, Xian, Chongqing and Shanghai, so visiting mainland China would have been easy.

On Tuesday, January 28th we flew from Hong Kong to Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon). When we landed we were not allowed to disembark, and a medical team boarded the flight and removed a Chinese man, his wife and 2 children, giving them face masks. Then after their removal, we were all allowed to disembark with no other difficulty. Needless to say, my wife and I were shocked and concerned that we had been exposed to the virus. We cleared customs and took a taxi to the Sheraton in Saigon.

When I was in the Vietnam war, I served with the First Cavalry Division, and was stationed at Phuoc Vinh, about 50 miles north of Saigon. I was part of the 371st Radio Research Group and was doing intelligence work for the Army branch of the National Security Agency. I had a top secret cryptographic clearance and was involved with Project Left Bank. I ended up with a Bronze Star, an Air Medal, and six other medals and awards.

Phuoc Vinh could not be visited because it is an active Vietnamese military base. But it was close enough to Saigon so I was able to get the sense that I had 50 years ago (albeit without the war). The weather was hot and humid (as normal) and, although Saigon had been significantly modernized (with Chinese money), I was often reminded of my 363 days I spent in country. We visited the War Remnants Museum and I found one of the helicopters I regularly flew as part of our intelligence operations, and some of the weapons that we were assigned. But the best for me was the sense that the Vietnamese people were much better off now than when I was there! It was an awful war and I had my 21st birthday there.

As we stayed in Saigon, we saw more and more coronavirus news, and we decided change our travel plans. Instead of travelling to mainland China, we chose to go in the other direction, to Singapore. We cancelled our flight to Da Nang, Vietnam, because they reported cases of the coronavirus (Saigon had none reported at that time), and on February 2nd, we flew to Singapore.

Singapore was amazing! We stayed at the Marriott Tang Plaza, right in the middle of the extensive shopping area. We visited the Marina Bay Sands Hotel, and went to the rooftop observation deck. This hotel has 3 60-storey towers that are topped with a ship-like structure that has an observation deck and an infinity pool. Next time in Singapore we will definitely stay there! And we visited the Gardens By the Bay one night for a fireworks display. It was superb, even if everyone was wearing face masks. If you have seen the movie Crazy Rich Asians (highly recommended) these sights are a prominent feature of the film. We took a Singapore River cruise, went to the world famous Singapore Orchid Garden, and it was all glorious, and the best was that there were no cases of the coronavirus in Singapore. Until the last day, when we found out there was a cluster of cases one block away from our hotel, in the Grand Hyatt. So we left the next day, February 7th, heading south again for Bali (where there were no reported coronavirus cases). It seemed like the virus was following us!

We arrived in Bali on Friday, February 7th, and we were ushered through customs by the excellent staff of the Category 7 beachfront W Hotel in Seminyak. We had a beautiful room with a great view of the beach and pool. At this point we became a little lazy, basking in the luxury, lounging in the pool, walking on the beach, and eating in the very fine restaurants offered by this hotel. Bali is a Hindu island in Indonesia. It is 85% Hindu, and Indonesia is 90% Muslim. There were historic Hindu temples in Bali and we visited several. Having traveled in India previously, we felt very comfortable among the folks there. And we went to a native Bali dance performance, which was unforgettable. And, best of all, no coronavirus cases in Bali!

But vacation time was running out and we had to get back to the USA. Our options were limited as flights were starting to be cancelled, and the President had blocked all flights from mainland China to USA on January 31st. On Wednesday, February 12th, we flew from Denpasar, Bali, back to Hong Kong. At this time, Hong Kong had cut off all routes to the mainland. We only spent 2 hours in the airport before boarding our return flight to LAX. The airport was a ghost town, everything was closed, the United lounge was closed. The flight was empty and we had no difficulties arriving in LAX the evening of February 12th.

After the various potential exposures to the virus as described above, and being on the airplane from Hong Kong, we began to self-isolate, staying in the Marriott Torrance for 3 nights and, sadly, avoiding contact with my son and his family. I’m not sure they understood then, but they do now. On Saturday, February 15th we flew from LAX back to Buffalo, and HUD (my employer) authorized situational telework for 14 days out of an abundance of caution, just to be sure I didn’t spread the virus. Currently, I am on pandemic telework. Neither Judy nor I have experienced any coronavirus symptoms, but we haven’t been tested. I would like to get an antibody test when it becomes available just to see if we had it and were asymptotic.

These posts are in reverse chronological order, so sorry for any confusion!

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