Coming Out Of The Dark

Who knew we would be grounded for almost two and a half years? We came back from our glorious summer in Israel and Greece with the audacious intent to do both a summer stay in Cannes, France and Lagos, Portugal followed by a winter trip to Sarawak, Borneo. What an amazing itinerary that was – had only it come to pass. Instead 2020 snuck in like a thief in the night stealing everyone's best laid plans and unfortunately many lives. 

COVID-19 changed the world and for what seemed like forever, we were mostly at home until slowly and sometimes in fits and bursts life normalized. Of course the vaccines that began to make real change weren't available to us until Spring 2021 and then Delta came along and made safety a question again. During this time, we tried an RV trip, an Airbnb in Borrego Springs, another  Airbnb in Half Moon Bay, Emily's parents timeshares – but no vacation beyond the reasonable range of our vehicles.

All of this time, Emily and the kids haven't stepped onto a plane once. I took one for the first time two months ago for a work trip – and with great initial trepidation.

But despite uncertainty from an Omicron variant, the world is reopening and just over a month ago, most of the countries of Southeast Asia joined the movement, allowing vaccinated tourists in again. The timing closely matched the release of the Pfizer vaccine for ages 5 to 11. So, through a miracle of timing, the opportunity to go somewhere warm and interesting appeared. We debated heavily, made the vaccine appointments, got our boosters and booked tickets on Singapore Airlines Vaccinated Travel Lane flights. Sure, after being grounded so long, Emily and I both desperately wanted Bali  - the comfortable , smooth antidote for the past two years. A leisurely three weeks around Ubud would feel life-giving and repairing. But with COVID always a possibility, no one wants to end up in a Balinese hospital. So, we turned our gaze toward Thailand which boasts more one hospital accredited by the Joint Commission – the US's top healthcare accreditation organization. 

So back to the Kingdom we go. A Kingdom which claims to have had a little more than 2.2 million cases of COVID among its 66.5 million people with a little more than 21,000 COVID deaths and almost 70% of its population fully vaccinated. Fairly impressive stats which are of course up for some question. Nonetheless, many places have had it much worse. 

For safety, Emily wanted us to stay within a reasonable range from Bangkok and its top-tier hospitals. So, we will visit Bangkok for half our time and Ko Samet, my favorite Thai island, for the other half. Ban The – the town from which the ferry to Ko Samet leaves – is about a  three hour drive from Bangkok and Samet is fully visible from the coast. Samet is a small, dry island with perfect sand, bathwater warm water and very little to do other than beach-going, massages, walking and eating. The island is as popular with Bangkok Thais as it is with foreigners and has always been more low-key than most of its famous cousins like Ko Phagnan, Ko Samui, Ko Phi Phi and even neighboring Ko Chang where we went four years ago (and if you haven't figured it out by now, Ko means Island). In short, Ko Samet is the road-less-traveled paradise within short-range of Bangkok – which seems tailor-made for our current needs.

Strangely, with our escape right in front of us, it seems hard to believe we're going to actually travel. Two years of fear and anxiety, of feeling like travel was foolishly dangerous, and of faded inertia making it hard to get up and go. Our world has become smaller and going back out feels hard in some way. Emily has more trepidation than me. A lot more trepidation. But somewhere, sometime it's time to live again. COVID is likely to remain with us long-term, hopefully in less dangerous ways. We're freshly vaccinated and boosted up and I'm not sure there will be a clearly better moment. So it's time to hold hands and take the big leap.

As per usual, we won't be going alone – only this time we're not bringing someone to help us. Instead, we're bringing our 15 year-old niece Bailey as a special experience. Taking her with us on a big trip like this is something we can uniquely give her. We also get all too little time to spend with her – and so these three weeks will be a wonderful opportunity to know her better and share some experiences we hope she remembers well in the future.

As for Sennen and Ailyn, they are excited. They remember a lot about Thailand, though not surprisingly Sennen remembers more. They are looking forward to Thai Iced Tea cakes, elephants, Kidzania, the beach, queen sized beds, Thai food and Mr Panya – the grumpy and sometimes stubborn driver we had the last two times. There's no guarantee we'll get Mr. Panya. Emily and I also don't particularly care for Mr. Panya and have no idea what their connection to him is. But the kids really like him…. 

So, it's on. We're packed. PCR tests results are rolling in. The shuttle van comes tomorrow at 4pm. We're armed with KN-95 masks for adults and children (as well as the usual sunscreen and topical Benadryl for bug bites). Off to the tropical warmth and sun of Southeast Asia. Deow-pop-ghan mai, Mun Thai (see you again soon, Kingdom of Thailand).