If you've been following along with this new series. You'd probably get the idea by now that traveling in the "Norm Norm" has come with many changes, I would say most are really bad; but there are some good things. The beaches and nature here in Thailand are more pristine than ever and everything, especially hotel rooms are on steep discounts and it's less touristy and more private feeling everywhere you go.
The list of negative changes is too long to get into at the moment. But to put it this way, pre-covid I could fly to some 120 plus countries visa free, no questions asked. Now I think I'm down to Mexico and maybe Albania. I'm not even sure. ALL other countries to my knowledge need proof of vaccine or PCR test. Then some go the extra step with quarantines, then others just shut you out entirely. Some countries have gone as far as to shut their own citizens in like the case of Australia.
The other day I experienced a downside that I really was not ready for, nor expecting. Frankly I haven't really thought about it. First, you should know that Thailand finally has opened it's borders to vacationers and tourists from the western world vaxed or unvaxed. However if vaxed, no quarantine necessary, so that's like 95% of who is coming to Thailand now. Vaccinated tourists. I've noticed a slight pick up of new faces and tourist on the island. It was almost surprising to see.
Then it Happened
The other day I was having a beer at a bar something I rarely do. Suddenly an older South African couple maybe in their 50s came and sat down near me and ordered a beer. They were friendly and introduced themselves. The man was kind of quiet but his wife was very chatty.
It was cool having the old traveler conversation again. It's been so long. So where are you from? How long have you been here? Where are you going next? How was it flying and arriving into the country? I specifically did not ask about vaccine, after all I knew it would just come up as it's now synonymous with the topic of travel and free movement in the "New Norm".
I learned that she and her husband left South Africa eight years ago to live in Abu Dhabi. With out asking she quickly started explaining that everyone is vaccinated in Abu Dhabi and everyone goes around with a little green pass on their phones that they are constantly scanning. She explained that Abu Dhabi has everything under control and covid is a thing of the past there and everything is great.
She then went on to explain that she really missed traveling, and she first took the Sinovac two shot vaccine. She complained to me that a few months later, Sinovac was not being recognized for international travel. So her and her husband then went ahead and took two more vaccine doses, this time of Phizer so they could go visit family in South Africa.
At this point it was pretty clear that this was not her first drink. She then proceeded to tell me that when she visited her family in South Africa. All of her immediate family are "crazy" anti vaxers. She explained by the end of her time there, there was so much arguing and fighting over the vaccine issue that she is no longer on speaking terms with her family.
After going on and on about this to me, she stops for a breath, turns and looks closely at me and asks me. "You are vaccinated right?" I explained to her that I'm still in wait and see mode, and I also explained that you're going to encounter a lot of people on this island and all over the world who do not believe in the narrative being told to us by the politicians and mainstream press; and there for don't trust the vaccines and won't take them.
She basically cuts me off in mid sentence and tells me. "Oh I trust them!". I said but you're gonna have to accept that others around you including your own family do not. You can't just cut you father, brother, sister, whoever out of your life based on vaccine status and beliefs.
She didn't like it when I said that. She looked at me with disgust and said that she should probably not be sitting next to me cause I'm not vaccinated. She said that if she were to catch it from me it would mess her trip up and she'd have problems going back to Abu Dhabi and so on.
Then she said that unvaccinated people are 40% more likely to spread covid then the vaccinated. I stayed silent and mumbled ok not to escalate anything, cause at this point she started to look kind of unstable. Like kind of panicky.
So now I was feeling quite uncomfortable. My beer was finished. I paid. I wished her well and to enjoy her vacation. Then I got the hell out of there. It was a pretty depressing feeling leaving that bar on such an awkward low note. The woman spoke in a very hateful and pretty intense way. The husband just kind of sat there and let her talk with this blank stare on his face. I don't think he said one word. Lesson of the day was that traveling in the new norm is now gonna have random social challenges.
It was so weird being so severely looked down upon based on vaccine status. I've never experienced that in my life. She preferred I was not in her presence. Is this how black people felt in the 50s and 60s? This water fountain for vaxed, that one over there for the unvaxed? Is this where we are going? After this experience, it's starting to feel like hateful segregation might be here to stay. And what could come after that is frightening. What do you think?
From the Gulf of Thailand,
-Dan "World Travel Pro"
THANK YOU
Photo by Clay Banks on Unsplash