Throwback to January 2020. Yearned for more time together as a couple, Bryan and I planned an impromptu trip to Kyushu, Japan during the CNY long weekend. As the dates drew nearer, I had second thoughts on holding off the trip. Although I took sabbatical leave to do my postgrad in Brisbane, I haven’t secured a position with my previous organisation and my savings were depleting from paying off my tuition fees and rent. We went ahead with the trip anyway, being more of a budget trip and little did we know that the world was slowly changing then.
The first case of Covid-19 in Singapore was reported on 23 Jan. During our trip in Kyushu, my WhatsApp chat groups were flooded by tons of messages about Covid, mostly forwarded ones. Fake news or not, it was too grey to tell then. It was not helping when we saw Chinese tourists clearing the surgical masks off the shelves at duty-free stores in Fukuoka. Their fears were starting to rub off on me. Did I truly enjoy the trip? Well, not really, as the whole time I was thinking of the worst but I’m glad we went ahead with the Kyushu trip cos little did we know it was the last overseas trip for a while to come. (Not till a vaccine is available.)
When can we travel again?
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