February 6, 2020
Last Flight Out for Years
Updated November 2022： This section for whatever reason never got typed on the original journal. That day of flying out was one of the pivotal pieces of the entire trip. Covid was spreading faster than anyone could keep up with and flights were being canceled all over the world. The one I managed to catch to Hong Kong and later Thailand was done at the very last possible minute, and I wouldn't be doing another international trip for at least 3 years since that date.
After spending time with family and friends and getting done all the things that needed to be done, it was time to catch the next flight to Hong Kong. I had been eyeing this for quite some time beforehand as many flights were being canceled. This was mainly affecting the ones coming from Asia, whereas the other direction was running as usual.
I had just gotten over some kind of cold and fever-like combination sickness and thought in the back of my mind maybe this was the coronavirus. But who knows really. At this point I was in good health and with normal body temperature so it wouldn't cause any problems if they did temperature checks at airports.
I wished my father well and gave him a hug before leaving the house to set off for the airport. Little did I know that would be the last time I saw him. He passed away almost 3 years later while I was still stuck in China due to the zero-covid policy, basically right after the Shanghai lockdown and unable to return home to see my father in time before his passing. Because of that, I will never forget and will never forgive the authorities in China for enacting their draconian covid policies that caused this separation.
But at the time I had no idea what was happening next. I simply went to the airport and checked into a near empty international flight.
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The flight was pretty bliss actually because almost nobody was on it and I could sprawl out across empty seats. The airport also had an eerie deserted feel to it with many people wearing masks. I didn't have one. The priority was the duty free shop where I was able to procur some vodka as well as get a whole bunch of smaller bottles to put in plastic bags that were allowed through the gate onto the flight.
Once arriving into the Hong Kong airport, there is where things got surreal. The airport had completely changed from the last time I was here a little over two weeks ago. People everywhere were masked up and you could smell the disinfectant in the air. Many flights were also canceled and the place felt empty. While passing through the transfer station, an employee put a large temperature scanner to my forehead and was very careful in checking it. Thank goodness my earlier fever had gone away.
The vibes were not looking good to say the least. Thankfully I was off to the land of smiles so was hoping to relax there.
The next flight to Bangkok took off on time and it was a little more of a festive vibe on it, as well as more people than the last one. Also not as many masks which was a good thing. We could relax. When I deboarded and went through immigration, there was a machine scanning body temperatures just like I remembered for SARS in 2003, but they didn't seem to be taking it very seriously. Just walk on past.
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