Category: Travelling

Thursday 26 March – Bangkok, Addis Ababa, Johannesburg, Cape Town

0:55 am – Bangkok – Suvarnabhumi Airport international departures.

I spot the young South African of earlier in the departure hall – he got onto the flights for 26 March – Ek gaan huis toe ! (I’m going home!) he says when he sees me.  We board.  The flight to Addis Ababa is packed – not an open seat.  I fall asleep upright in my seat before the security demonstrations start.

6:30 am – Addis Ababa International Airport

We try one more time – go to the Ethiopian Air desk to see if we can switch to the Cape Town flight.  Surely humanitarian exceptions can be made to flight code rules.  There is a queue of over 20 people that does not move.  I said to Shiloh – the irony is there are probably people in that queue wanting to switch from the Cape Town flight to the Johannesburg flight.  But a flight ticket is not a bus or train ticket you can just exchange.

Shiloh meets a young South African couple.  Their Emirates flights from Phuket to Durban were also cancelled.  The only tickets they could find to fly home was Ethiopian Air business class tickets to Johannesburg.  They had to phone home and borrow R86 000 from a friend to pay for the flights.  We meet a South African family – father, mother and two little girls.  Their Emirates flights were cancelled – it has cost them in excess of R200 000 to get these flights home.

We’re not going to get on the Cape Town flight.  I go to the guys preparing the boarding gate and explain my story.  They give us two seats in row 11, right at the door of the plane.

7:35 am – Addis Ababa International Airport

We board 20 minutes early – I light up – maybe that would mean we land 20 minutes earlier which will give us a fighting chance to make the local flight.  The flight is less than half full.  We get served lunch at 11 – I pick a bottle of red wine – we’re mid-air, the flight can no longer be cancelled.  I talk to the head stewardess – she will help us disembark first.

1:00 pm – Johannesburg, OR Tambo Airport

The air hostess had given us Covid-19 declaration forms to complete – listing the countries we’ve visited in the last 14 days, have we experienced any of 8 symptoms, have we been in contact with anyone with these symptoms, have we knowingly been in contact with anyone who has tested positive for Covid-19, have we tested positive for Covid-19.  India and Thailand and no to the rest.  Give our flight and seat numbers, nationality and sign.

The plane circles the airport.  Up to this point in the 4-day drama Shiloh – normally the emotional side of our marriage – has remained very calm, positive and supportive.  The plane circling instead of landing is the pushing the breaking point of his self-control.  Surely there are hardly any other planes keeping up the landing.  We finally land 1pm – most of the 20-minute head start lost.  Our connecting flight is leaving in 55 minutes, boarding gate closes in 45 minutes. Within seconds of the seat belt sign switching off we are at the door with our hand luggage.  As the door opens 4 masked officials step on to the plane.  Everybody back in their seats.  We need to take your temperatures at your seats.  We turn around and sit down.  We’re right in the front and our temperature is taken first.  Two girls step forward they need to get to a funeral, their temperature is good, can they disembark.  The official lets them go.  Shiloh gets up – we need to catch a connecting flight – our temperatures are good, can we disembark.  No sit down.  And the emotional wall of calm breaks – we need to be on that flight, the country is in lock down, we need to get to Cape Town, this is our only chance, we need to disembark!  I cringe – now they’ll keep us until midnight!

Are you South African – I bring out our two green passports – which countries did you visit – Thailand and India – give us the forms – OK go!  And we run.  The ramp splits up and down.  We run down – door is locked, back to the split run up, door opens.  The door opens on to seats of passengers waiting for their last plane out of South Africa.  We’re in the transit area – not passport control.  We’re not turning back, we ask where is passport control, some dazed looks, someone points that way, we run, where is passport control, we need to check into the country?  That way, but it is for check out of the country.  We run past the checkout controls.  Where is passport control, we need to check into the country – that way but I think it is closed.  My lungs start to ache from the thin Johannesburg air.  We get to a control point that looks pretty closed – four guys packing up – please we need to check into the country – how did you get here – we got off a plane, we need to make the last flight to Cape Town before lockdown.  The dramatic line seems to hit a cord.  I’ll take you.  Some door is unlocked.  Go straight then slightly left – follow the passage.  We go straight, slightly left.  We’re in what looks like a lounge of sorts with drinks and food and people waiting, we follow the passage and an area opens with a snaking queue – emigration!

There is a lady taking temperatures.  We’ve been running, Shiloh says in an out of breath voice.  She looks at the temperature and laughs – don’t worry you’re good.  There is a queue of about 50 people – Shiloh makes a Whatsapp call – we’re at emigration but I don’t think we can make the flight there is a queue.  The guy in front of us hears his conversation – go to the front of the queue he says – it looks like everyone heard the conversation – they give way and we go to the front of the queue – welcome home, stamp stamp.

I check for terminal B – left – run, run – terminal B is huge and deserted of passengers.  Where do we board flight 343 – SAA.  Go up.  We go up.  Ask again where do we board flight SA 343.  One official start running – follow me, you can make it.  We run.  We get to the check-in counter – do you have luggage?  No only hand luggage.  Where are your boarding passes?  We checked in online I give her our green passports.  Here – I’ve printed it for you – now run like you’ve never run before.  Security – our bags go through the scanner.  OK run the one official lady tells me – or you stay in Johannesburg for the lockdown.  I laugh – I’ll stay with you.  For a moment she pictures the scene.  Its not very modern she says.  It’s alright we’re old hippies Shiloh shouts over his shoulder as we run. We’re at gate D1 – our gate is D8.  I glance up at the departure screen.  There are only four flights listed – SA 343 to Cape Town – Boarding Closed. A barista from one of the coffee shops packing up see us running – the only passengers in the departure hall – where are you going – D8 we need to make the flight.  He grabs our boarding passes and starts running.  Come follow me.  The three of us – a barista with our boarding passes, me with my new carry-on bag on wheels, laptop bag over the shoulder, and Shiloh with his backpack, running down the departure hall.  Along the way cleaners and shops stewards chants run, run.  I am not sure if they are mocking our desperation or supporting us, but I would like to believe we are running on the wings of Ubuntu, South Africans helping South Africans get home.

We get to gate D8 three ground stewards manning the gate.  The barista has already handed them our boarding passes.  Before I could thank him, he is gone.  It is well after 2pm.  They scan our passes and we walk down the corridor to board the plane that should have left by now.  As we step on to the plane two broadly smiling stewards welcome us with a bottle of cold water each.  Cheers to SAA !  Their smiles break into happy laughs.  We make our way to our seats.  The plane stays stationary – after five minutes an announcement – good news, our last crew member has arrived, and we will be departing shortly.  We made the flight because one crew member was late.

4 pm – Cape Town International

We land in lovely Cape Town – one leg left – the drive to Onrus.  At Bidvest Car hire a young intern helps us.  Mevrou has a small suitcase for someone who has travelled for 3 weeks.  (You don’t know half of it young man.)  They are closing at 5 – its 4:55 when we get the car.  The airport is closing at 5, our young intern tells me excitedly, we’re expecting the army trucks at any moment.  We stop at Woolworths in Somerset mall and I buy 6 bottles of red wine before they close at 6pm – the last wine we can buy until the lockdown is lifted.  Jo-ann who was looking after our cat for three weeks messaged me earlier – she has stocked us up with some groceries at home.  Over the mountain, Onrus and home.  We need to take the car back, its already dark.  Quickly take out the luggage and bottles of wine, Shiloh in the rental car, me in my car, we drop the Bidvest rental car off in town.  At home, for the last time before lock-down kicks in, we get two massive pizzas takeaway from Karmenaadtjie, the best pizzeria in town, could be the best in the world.

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We managed to get home, many other South Africans I am certain are still stuck in Thailand and other parts of the world.  In my opinion, Emirates cancelling their flights while the borders were still open and the demand was high, was criminal.  If not legally criminal, morally criminal.  People stuck in a foreign country are at high risk – they hang around airports, sleep on benches, scramble for tickets disregarding their own and other’s safety, expose themselves to possible infection and get exploited financially when financial hardship is already a reality waiting for the world.

We got home before lockdown on the wings of the prayers and support of our friends and family back home and the kindness of complete strangers.  When big brands failed us, service from Ethiopian Airways, SAA and Bidvest car hire were there.  Africa brought us home.

Wednesday 25 March – Bangkok – Summit Windmill Golf Residence

The hotel serves breakfast in the rooms – a buffet is no longer considered safe.  I eat fruit and coffee.  I check my emails – no cancellation, rather an email from Ethiopian Air reminding me of our journey.  I am starting to see the end of the journey through the murky sea water – 26 March in Onrus.  The hotel had offered us late check-out 2pm knowing we’re only flying late in the evening.  I booked the shuttle to the airport for 2pm – the earlier we’re there the sooner we can get our boarding passes.  I’ve tried printing the digital boarding passes but keep getting an error message.  There is some security in having a boarding pass. If the airline cancels a flight after it has issued boarding passes, they need to set us up in a hotel and pay daily convenience allowance until they can re-book a new flight.  Well that was the rule before the world went upside down.

The one step in the journey still worries me.  South Africa is going into lockdown midnight 26 March.  Normally if we rent a car at the airport to drive home, we return it the next day.  It is the cheapest and most convenient way to make the journey from Cape Town International back to Hermanus.  Avis in Hermanus closes at 5pm. With the lockdown, Avis will not be open 27 March to receive the car.  I contact Kevin in Hermanus – can he contact Avis and ask how we can return the car to them – maybe after hours on the 26^th.

We wait for 2pm.  I’m even relaxed enough to start a spreadsheet of all our expenses.  We watch a movie.  At 1:30pm we pack up.  I check my phone – there is a message from Kevin – cancel with Avis, they are not interested in helping no matter what the circumstances.  Book with Bidvest, they will help with an after-hours drop off on the 26^th.  I cancel and rebook as we get out the door and check-out.

2:30 pm – Bangkok – Suvarnabhumi Airport international departures.

As we enter the airport, our temperature is measured – we each get a dotted sticker on the shoulder.  Information tells us we cannot get a boarding pass until 9:30 pm.  We have 7 hours to kill.  The chairs in the waiting area are marked with social distancing stickers – only every third chair can be occupied.  We find two chairs across from each other where we can sit.  The airport is filled with people with different degrees of protection.  Unlike the messages from South Africa that don’t encourage wearing a mask if you are not sick, compromised or caring for someone who is sick, the messages here along with sanitise is – wear a mask.  At the hotel the receptionist offered me a mask which I wore around them as a courtesy.  On the airport most people are wearing masks.  Some are wearing gloves and plastic face covers, like a see-through welding helmet.  Some people are wearing light raincoats.  Then there are families and groups in full hazmat gear – white suits with hoodies, boots, gloves, face masks and large see-through goggles.  Even little children walk around in the full protection.

To the right of me a young American is on his phone – trying to arrange a flight home.  He has been touring South East Asia for the last 3 months.  The last month he’s been in the North of Thailand, working at a youth hostel.  He had a flight home booked for tonight, but it got cancelled. He finally gets a flight via Japan to New York in two days’ time.  We chat – he is 21, his family are pig farmers in Tennessee.  He is considering his options – stay on the airport for two days or book into a youth hostel.  His dad told him not to leave the airport, if Thailand goes into lockdown he will get stuck at the hostel.

6:00 pm – Bangkok – Suvarnabhumi Airport international departures.

We chat and watch the nervous rush of people trying to get home.  I get and SMS from FlySafAir – your flight has been cancelled.  I check my emails – full explanation – FlySafAir needs time to park their planes before the lock down midnight 26 March, the final SafAir flight is 25 March.  We’re stuck in Jo-burg for the lockdown.  Shiloh chat to Kevin – who has now become our de-facto travel agent back home.  There is one option – SAA is flying Johannesburg to Cape Town 26 March, there is still space.  The flight leaves at 1:55 pm from domestic departures terminal B, we land at 1:05 pm international arrivals terminal A, we have to disembark, clear customs and complete whatever test and questionnaires Covid-19 controls has put in place, collect our luggage, walk from terminal A to terminal B, check in and board before the boarding gates closes at 1:45.  Forty minutes.  I call it the 40 minute sprint.

I log on to the Google free wifi spot, find the SAA flight – R4500 for the two of us.  I start to complete our details, make mistakes, redo the details submit.  The price had gone up to R9000 for the two of us to fly Johannesburg to Cape Town.  Confirm the transaction.  We got the tickets.

Like in a Tarantino movie we follow Kevin’s instructions to give us the best chance to make the 40 minute sprint.

1. You can only have hand luggage – there is no time to wait for luggage at OR Tambo. I have a big suitcase – but after I left half my luggage in Delhi, I should be able to throw out some stuff – like liquids not allowed in hand luggage and fit everything into a cabin sized suitcase.  There is one shop on the airport selling suitcases.  I swipe my credit card – I have no idea where my credit balance is by now – we just need to get home.  In the waiting area I open my case and start re-packing into the smaller case, Shiloh taking some stuff in his backpack.  The young American next to us looks half embarrassed the other way.  When I put my branded cap in the throw away pile, he quickly chirps – I’ll take that.  I take my large suitcase to information – I want to get rid of this suitcase, where can I leave it?  The woman behind the counter thinks for a second then points to the cleaner – there give it to housekeeping.  The cleaning lady is first confused but after some exchange in Thai between her and information lady, her face breaks into a broad smile.  The free suitcase has made her day.
2. Check in online and get your digital boarding passes. Done.
3. Before you board the flight to Johannesburg find the chief air hostess – tell her you have a connecting flight you need to make in very little time – ask to disembark first even if it is before business class.
4. There is another possibility – there is a flight from Addis Ababa to Cape Town leaving around the same time as the Johannesburg flight – when you check-in in Bangkok, ask if you can switch to the Cape Town flight from Addis Ababa.

8:30 pm – Bangkok – Suvarnabhumi Airport international departures.

The Ethiopian Air check-in desk is allocated – right at the end – W6.  It only opens in an hour but I want to get in the front of the queue to get the best chance to switch to the Cape Town flight from Addis Ababa.  We say goodbye to the young American – he gives me the link to his YouTube channel.  While we were sitting there, Thailand has announced a lockdown to come into effect before he flies so he is staying on the airport – he plans to make a video of his two days on the airport – like a Tom Hanks movie.

Behind us in the queue is a large group of youngsters due to fly to either Buenos Aires or Sao Paulo.  The rest are South Africans connecting to Cape Town or Johannesburg.  One young South African was due to fly to Cape Town in two days on Ethiopian Airways.  Since the SA lockdown was announced on Monday, he has been trying desperately to change his flight – phoning Ethiopian Airways with no answer.  He tried contacting the SA embassy in Thailand – no answer.  Yesterday he was notified his flight from Addis Ababa to Cape Town was cancelled.  He needs to get on to tonight’s flight.

The que starts to move.  We get to the front – a friendly sweet Thai lady.  I show her our passports, she finds our bookings, I ask can we please switch to the Cape Town flight?  Our connection flight from Johannesburg got cancelled, our country is going into lockdown, we have no other way to get home. (I choose not to tell her about our 40-minute sprint option.)  She asks for details on the flight that got cancelled.  I had thankfully printed it out at the hotel.  She looks at it, she calls her manager.  Short upright Thai guy walks from the other two check in counters where he has been overlooking check-ins.  He studies the printed sheet of paper.  This was not done on our code, we cannot change.  I desperately plea – why not?  If the connecting flight was booked via Ethiopian Air he can change, this flight is on another code, he cannot break the rules.  I plead again – our country is going into lock down.  Is there any way I can buy a ticket to get on to the Cape Town flight?  You can buy a ticket from sales in Johannesburg – but it needs to be a new ticket, you cannot change this ticket.  How do I contact sales now?  He shrugs her shoulders.  I plead– please we need to get to Cape Town.  He moves to another problem at another counter.

I accept our boarding passes – Bangkok to Addis Ababa, Addis Ababa to Johannesburg.  A win to have boarding passes, the 40-minute sprint will have to deliver.

Monday 23 March – Phuket, Thailand

I wake up and check the Emirates site – still the same message of the previous night – still flying.  We go down for breakfast.  I still feel the nausea of the previous nights – I can’t have anything but watermelon and coffee, strong coffee.  We chat to an Ausie in his late sixties.  His flight for later the week has been cancelled but he managed to get a new flight tonight on Easy Jet.  I check the Emirates app on my phone to see our flights under My Trips.  Message – No upcoming trips.  Where are our flights?  They were there an hour ago. We go back to the room and I check the website – retrieve a booking, enter surname and booking reference – red message flash – we have a technical problem.  What technical problem – has the site crashed with everyone panicking and checking their flight.  Still the message on the site says Emirates are flying to certain countries.  We stay in the room – watch movies while I keep the Emirates site open – anxiously refreshing every 5 minutes.

 

11:30 am – a new message on the Emirates site – UAE government suspends all passenger flights for 2 weeks from 25 March 2020.  I go numb.  It sinks in – the site did not crash; it was taken offline.  Our flights have been cancelled.    No call centre is gong to help us now – we need to get to the airport and get on tonight’s flight.  Shiloh goes downstairs to book out and get a taxi while I stuff the bags – clothes, creams, toothbrushes, electronics.  We sign whatever the hotel gives us to sign.  I send a few WhatsApp messages out before we are out of the hotel wifi range.  I never bought a local sim card in Thailand thinking we won’t be needing data outside of our hotel.  Now I regret it.  Fast route, no scenic route we tell the tax driver.  It’s a long hour drive.  The driver gives a few dry coughs.  Shiloh and I both reach for the hand sanitiser – we’ll take our own cases from the back I mouth to Shiloh.  Traffic light seem to take forever to go green.  The driver gives 3 more coughs.  Just don’t let me get sick before we get home.

1pm – Phuket airport – International departures.  Not to busy – maybe we’ve beaten the crowds.  Emirates has an office upstairs.  We take the escalator – I am still in my beach dress and sandals – not the outfit I was hoping to fly with.  Upstairs there is a long passage with offices – I first see the crowd of about 100 people, then the door to the Emirates offices.  Is this the queue for Emirates, I ask an English girl waiting on one of the plastic chairs.  Well there is no queue (correct it is a crowd).  They were giving out numbers earlier, but they’ve stopped now.  She has number 50.  I wait in the passage; Shiloh takes the luggage downstairs to information to see what he can find out. I wait an hour.  Some movement at the counter – they’re handing out more numbers.  There is a scramble for a number, pushing shoving, no regard for personal space, no social distancing.  The lower your number the more likely you can get on the last flight.  I finally get a number, number 79.  How many spots could there possibly be open on the last flight out.  I check the site, still the same messages.  I start to construct a story in my head that the flight for the 25^th is still on, only after the 25^th no more flights.  There is no cancellation message in my inbox.  The crowd around me is mostly French speaking, some English, some German.  All high-risk countries – we’re an inviting mixing pot for the Covid-19 virus.

Supportive WhatsApp messages are coming through from South Africa – try Singapore Airline, try Ethiopian Airlines, try Cathay, Qatar, Ethiad.  I stubbornly want explicit confirmation that our flights are cancelled.  The queue is at number 45.  An English gentleman and his wife emerge from the office – no place on the flight tonight, they’ve been offered a refund. A blond girl in demin shorts walks up to me – I’m giving up, you want my number?  Number 68.  I take the number.  More people arrive – looking for numbers.  I give my number 79 to a German family with a baby.  Desperate people holding on to pieces of plastic with a numbers on it hoping it will get them home.  We get to number 68.  After four hours I have my audience. Your flight is cancelled.  No space on tonight’s flight. You can get refund.  I want to protest – they’ve moved on to number 69.  I share my message with some new arrivals outside the office.  I see the same denial in their eyes that I had a few hours earlier.

I find Shiloh downstairs – he gives me a bottle of cold water.  With him is a couple – ex South Africans living in Australia, they are on the Emirates flight tonight.  Although we’re almost the same age, I can see the motherly concern in the woman’s eyes when she greets me.  A swearing English guy and his wife bought one of the last business class tickets to Dubai for R 30 000.  They have no guarantee of a flight onwards from Dubai.  I check my emails – finally the formal notification – our Emirates flights have been cancelled.  The finality in writing brings some direction – we need an alternative route home.  An Ausie next to us suggest we check Skyscanner.net – you give it your start and destination and it will give you a route – he can see an option – fly a local budget airline to Bangkok and then get Ethiopian Airline flights via Addis Ababa to Cape Town or Johannesburg.  We phone Kevin on Whatsapp.  He’s also been searching for alternatives.  Ethiopian Airline from Bangkok is the most affordable option.  Bangkok is a big hub – if Ethiopian Airlines can’t help us there might be another airline.

6 pm – Phuket Airport – domestic departures.  Air Asia tickets to Bangkok about R1000 each – only flights tonight would be to the domestic airport in Bangkok.  We take it.  Flying at 7:15pm. We buy some sandwiches and chips and water.  I can’t eat, the tension creeping up my back and throttling my throat so I can barely squeeze down the fresh bread with cheese and tomato.  We change our clothes before flying – from beach wear to jeans.  I wash my hands – for 20 seconds – maybe it will wash off the virus I most likely got exposed to waiting outside the Emirates office.  I feel my forehead, feels cool enough.  How is my breathing.  I will my body to stay healthy until we get home.

8:30 pm – Bangkok – Don Mueang Airport domestic arrivals. We sit down on the plastic chairs near information.  I connect the laptop to the airport wifi.  On Ethiopian Airline’s website I search for tickets in the next couple of days, Bangkok to Cape Town.  Only business class at R35 000 plus a ticket.  Bangkok to Johannesburg.  More business class tickets.  I go back to Skyscanner.net.  They show economy tickets available – Bangkok to Cape Town.  I hit proceed. Oops – something went wrong says my browser.  Back to Skyscanner.net, find the tickets, proceed. Oops – something went wrong.  Maybe we can get help at the Ethiopian Airline offices at International departures at Suvarnabhumi Airport.  Information points us to where we can get a taxi.  It’s a thirty-minute drive.

9:00 pm – Bangkok – Suvarnabhumi Airport international departures. We walk around like two lost souls with our baggage in tow, looking for anything that would say Ethiopian Airlines.  We ask around.  At a desk of another airline, hostesses are packing up for the night.  We ask for help finding Ethiopian Airlines.  The take pity on our exhausted faces and one of the hostesses dial a number.  After a minute she says – no answer they are closed.  I ask her if she knows if there is an Ethiopian Air flight out tonight.  She says – there was but it got cancelled.  That word – cancelled – bounces around like a game of torture ripping out my guts.  We ask where the airline offices are – they point upstairs.  We take the escalators upstairs.  There is a row of small cardboard offices for a multitude of airlines.  All the offices are closed, most look bordered up for more than just overnight.  The Qantas airline office is open.  We ask if they are still selling tickets – our tickets are sold out until the end of the month.  There are four rows of plastic chairs at the top of the escalators before the airline offices.  Three travellers are sleeping there for the night.  We sit down and I take out my laptop and connect to the Google hot spot.  If there’s no office to help us, we must find tickets online.  The connection is temperamental but will have to work.  On to the Ethiopian Airline site.  Bangkok to Cape Town. Business class tickets appear as option, via Johannesburg with a SafAir local connection to Cape Town leaving 1:30 am 26 March.  Around R90 000 for the two of us. I refresh my search – there must be economy tickets.  Nothing.  I change my search Bangkok to Johannesburg – if not home just get us to South Africa.  Only business class.  Despair is creeping up on me as the realisation starts sinking in – we will have to bite the bullet and buy business class tickets if we want to get home.  I refresh my search. A new item appears on the list – R20 000 for two.  Only three tickets available.  I blink and click proceed.  My heart pounding my palms wet.  Shiloh holds the passports as I type our details in.  Address.  Date of birth.  Names as on the passport.  Contact details, next of kin. Proceed.  Credit card details.  Visa, numbers, expiry date, cvc number. Proceed. The wheel turns.  I pray that the Google hotspot do not fail us. Turn, turn.  A message on the screen.  Thank you for choosing Ethiopian Airlines.  You should receive your e-ticket in the next x number of hours – or something in that order.  We’ve got tickets.  We’re flying to Johannesburg on 26 March.

11:30 pm – Bangkok – Summit Windmill Golf Residence.  We take a 20-minute taxi drive to the Summit Windmill Gold Residence and book their cheapest room.  The lone masked lady at reception takes our details and our temperatures.  We pass the test. With very low demand she upgrades us to their best suite.  Only twelve hours earlier we were in our hotel in Phuket believing we’re flying Emirates home.  I send WhatsApp messages and update Facebook – Emirates cancelled our tickets home but we’ve found tickets for the 26^th on Ethiopian Airlines, we are safe and in Bangkok.   We shower.  I curl up on the bed with my laptop open on News 24 waiting for Cyril Ramaphosa’s address to the nation.  Cyril does his address in his calm stately manner.  To curb the spread on Covid-19 South Africa is going into full lockdown midnight 26 March.  What exactly lock-down would mean, I don’t know.  My gut tells me we need to be on those Ethiopian Air flights home or we’re not going home for a long time.

Sunday 22 March – Phuket, Thailand

Just before 10pm local time (5pm SA time).  I’ve just completed and posted an entry to my travel log.  We’re lying on the bed watching a movie.  I have my laptop connected to the hotel wifi, News24.com open.  Waiting for news from South Africa.  President Cyril Rhamaphosa is due to address the nation as he did a week ago.  It looks like the address is postponed to Monday.  I am about to close the laptop when another item popped up on the news feed.  “Emirates to suspend all flights for 2 weeks from 25 March”.  We are meant to leave Phuket 1:35 am 25 March on an Emirates flight, transit in Dubai for 4 hours and fly to Cape Town landing the afternoon of 25 March.  My head spins – this is not possible – why would Emirates suspend flights – just like that??

I log on to the Emirates site – our flights are still displaying.  I check the Emirates app on my phone – our flights are still there.  Maybe this is a mistake, maybe the last flights are on the 25^th. We get dressed – I need to check with one of the travel shops in the road downstairs – they have better access to online booking systems.  We get the lift down – press the buttons with a knuckle.  Outside the street is still busy.  First travel stall, closed for the night, second one closed too.  Third stall open!  It is just after 10 pm.  I ask the lady in the booth – does she know if Emirates flights have been suspended?  She hasn’t heard anything, but she’ll phone a colleague.  She phones.  No, they haven’t heard anything about a cancellation.  I tell her its been on the news.  We are booked to fly on the 25^th.  I want to move our flight to the next available flight out.  She says she can’t change our flight because we did not book through them – I can buy a new ticket.  Is there space?  The next flight is in 3 hours – we won’t be able to make that flight, but yes the flight leaving 1:45am 24 March still has space – but she does not believe the flight on the 25^th have been cancelled – best to call the Emirates call centre.  If our flight is indeed cancelled, she can help us to get on the flight for the 24^th, she is open until 11pm.

We go back to the hotel – reception gives us the number, local and in Dubai.  In the room I try the 24 hour local number – the number is not available.  I call the Dubai call centre.  I’m on hold.  I listen to the same message playing repeatedly – selling Emirates flights.  Why would they be selling flights if they’ve suspended flying ?  We wait.  The add plays.  Whatsapps coming through from South Africa – have you seen the news on Emirates – they suspended flights – yes web site is telling us nothing, I am on hold to the call centre right now.  We wait – 20 minutes, 30 minutes, 40 minutes.  Finally, someone on the other side.  I explain what I’ve heard.  I just need to confirm does that mean the flights of the 25^th is cancelled.  The operator says they have not heard anything official – all they know is what has been on the news.  If my flight is still displaying on the website, we are still flying.  And if the news is true – what then? Wait until tomorrow then we’ll have clarity he says.  Wait?  Go to sleep with this hanging??  No, I need to change my flight I need to fly out on the 24^th.  There are only business class tickets left for the 24^th. And if we fly to Bangkok – are there any space left on the flight from Bangkok?  He tells me again to wait until the morning.  No – I could be stuck in a foreign country – please look if there is an option to fly from Bangkok.  He puts me on hold while he finds out about Bangkok. 5 minutes, 10 minutes, the line goes dead.  An hour into the call to the call centre in Dubai and the line goes dead.  I call again.  I polite voice explains – we are not taking any calls right now.

I’m nauseous, my stomach is in a knot.  Its after midnight in Phuket – the travel desk in the road would be closed.  I check the Emirates site again.  Our flights are still displaying.  I check News24 – the Emirates suspended news item is still there.  Concerned WhatsApp message from South Africa.  What is going on – I don’t know – the call centre seems to know nothing – they have now gone offline.

Then a Whatsapp – Emirates Airline has retracted the blanket suspension.  After pressure from governments.  They will still fly from and to certain countries – Thailand and South Africa amongst them – if the borders remain open.  Relief!  There is no ways South Africa would close its borders to its own citizens – we are flying home in two days!  I send out messages to friends and family – we’re going to be OK.  We go to sleep.

22 March

Thailand has reported 188 new Covid-19 infections bringing the total infections to 599.  Although most are in and around Bangkok, Phuket has 13 confirmed cases, one of which is a celebrity DJ from Bangla Road.  He calls on everyone in Phuket to self-quarantine and not wait for the government to instruct them.

Our hotel has 40 of its 600 rooms occupied.  We spend a few hours a day at the pool – today we are the only guests there.  We chat to the two Thai girls at the bar. Se and Pe.  Pe does not speak any English, Se speaks a little.  She says the hotel will shut in the next month.  She needs to decide is she going back to her parents or will she look for another job.

There are still a few people on the beach and at night the few venues still open to serve food are dotted with customers.  Sunset on the beach is peaceful and beautiful.

Since yesterday it is virtually impossible for foreigners to enter Thailand having to produce prove of negative Covid-19 test before entering.  Even Thai citizens need special travel papers from their embassy in the country where they are travelling from.  This means the flights will soon dry up as demand drop first to fly in then to fly out.  We are still on schedule to fly out in just over 48 hours.  We are still healthy and to get to Cape Town international by Wednesday afternoon we’ll have to pass temperature tests boarding each of our two flights.

I WhatsApp my sister in Brisbane – its her birthday today – wishing that, as weird as this year seems to be, it will be prosperous.  She responds: “Yes I thought this would be a good year, maybe can still be, it will open everyone’s eyes to how well work from home can work”.  And that to me is true – with challenges come mind shifts, and with mind shifts come opportunities.  Work from home going mainstream will be one of them.

21 March 2020

My biggest concern setting off to India 5 March, was picking up the notorious “Delli Belly” – a runny tummy foreigners develop when exposed to bacteria their bodies are not familiar with. How the world have changed in a little over 2 weeks time !

Avoiding Delli Belly meant not drinking the tap water – not even to brush my teeth.  In Mumbai my hotel gave me 2 x 250ml bottles a day.  I drink more water than that doing a desk job back in SA !  So on my second day I bought a 5 liter bottle on the corner shop, making sure it is properly sealed (I saw “Slum Dog Millionaire”!) before lugging it back to my hotel.  That evening I made some rooibos tea (tea bags brought from SA) and rebottled the water into smaller 250 ml ‘day’ bottles to carry in my backpack the next day.  That afternoon coming back from my trip to the Mumbai slums, I found 5 new bottles of 250 ml water with the hotel label in my room.  I tried my best to finish the free bottles of water – only to find another 5 the next day.

Another precaution was not eating any Indian street food.  This was a little more difficult to stick to – spicy flavours infuse the markets and the streets or dotted with little street cars selling lassie – a drink made from sugar cane while you watch.  I stuck to eating the curries at the hotel – reasonably priced and very, very good and with room service easier for a lonesome traveller.  I was surprised to learn Indian curries – at least not the ones I got served in India– is not nearly as hot as the Indian curries I’ve eaten in other countries!

Lastly, I made sure my hands were clean before eating anything.  I am happy to report I successfully sidestepped the infamous “Delli Belly”.

Once in Thailand I stuck to the bottled water rule but happily relaxed the street food rule.  What a feast – fresh mango juice made on the spot, pancakes with Nutella and fresh fruit, Sirian beef kebabs, Thai red curry.  The best and freshest food at Thai smile prices.

20 March

Despite the closure of all bars, clubs and massage shops in Phuket, restaurants, tourist shops and even the travel booths are still serving the trickle of tourists on Patong beach.  The beach massage beds are still open for business – not very busy though. I found this group playing some numbers games involving exchanges of colourful Thai bart notes – did not want to get to close, suspect they would not like to be photographed playing.

Tuning in to BBC World News in the hotel room, I can’t help but contrast what I am hearing and seeing as the world goes into lockdown with the seemingly absence of the sense of doom in Patong.  Maybe because people can still freely move around.  Maybe it is because they can still enjoy the beautiful sunshine and sea air.  Maybe because they’ve seen, and survived disaster in recent times.  So this too will pass.

19 March

“PHUKET: Phuket Governor Phakaphong Tavipatana has given the order for all entertainment venues in Phuket, including bars, to close for 14 days.”

The order came into effect 18 March as a direct result of the sudden rise in Covid-19 infections in Thailand.  Effectively all the bars, clubs and massage venues in Patong Beach have closed.  Bangla Road, for the first time since the 2004 boxing day tsunami, is quiet.   N trucks with boxers at the back advertising Thai Boxing Toniiiite.  No Thai girls calling out in a nasal english – Thai Masaaaaaage.

I search the Emirates site for options to fly back to South Africa earlier than 25 March – unless we plan to spend a small fortune on upgrades to business class, were here for another 6 days.  In some way it is re-assuring that seats aren’t readily available meaning the flights are still in demand and won’t get cancelled unless South Africa or Thailand shuts its borders.

We’ve moved into to beautiful SwissOtel with a roof top pool and view over the island.  Not a bad place to be spending the next few days.  Our favourite Pinang Curry spot is still operating, serving Singha beer and blue berry smoothies.  The weather is warm and soothing.  We plan to enjoy while staying healthy – and trust Covis-19 don’t like heat and chlorine.

15/16/17/18 March

My flight from Bangkok to Phuket is about 90% full.  A group of six French tourists wears surgical masks.  Thai locals on the flights and the flight attendants wears surgical masks.  We land and I get to the money change booth to buy Thai bart but a sign tells me the exchange is closed due to Covid-19, please use the machine.  Thanks to my unplanned departure from India, I had some Indian rupees to change to bart on Jaipur airport, enough to cover my taxi to Patong beach.

Its great to see Shiloh – somehow doom seams less threatening when shared.  In SA I packed my holiday gear for Thailand, but these are still on at an extended Delhi visit at Mabet’s house. I’m eager to get into some cool Island clothes.  We go shopping – between the Jungceylon shopping center and markets in Patong I get sorted. Love Thai dresses.

All the shopping assistants are wearing masks, there is hand sanitiser at every entrance to a shop or restaurant.  When we sit down for brunch, we first get a squirt of hand sanitiser before our eggs arrive.

Shiloh tells me in the first few days he was here a cruise ship arrived in the bay.  No-one was allowed to disembark, and military vehicles blocked the jetty.  I suspect they just restocked and left.  So -flights still welcome, cruise ships not.

We’ve been to Phuket a few times before and I’ve never seen it this quiet.  Ironically this make it quite easy to keep a safe distance from people.  I sit in a coffee shop.  A few tables away a group of young English tourist – 4 girls and 2 guys – are working out how they’ll get back to the UK.  They can get to Dubai but not sure if there will be flights from there.  We meet two American girls on the beach – they are flying home that night via Japan.  An Ausie couple says they are continuing their holiday as planned and preparing for 2 weeks quarantine imposed on ALL persons entering Australia when they return.

Shiloh had planned for us to hire a long boat to one of the small beaches for a day, snorkelling and eating fresh fruit – which sounded great until we thought about the practicality – putting our mouths on a mouth piece and breathing through a snorker that has been used by how many other people from all corners of the world – not going to happen.  Pre-Covid-19 I would have simply rinsed the snorkel in the fresh sea water and be done with it.  Now a bath of Dettol will not make me use it.

Mother nature – as if enjoying the break she is getting from years of humans spewing out pollutants of all kinds – is gifting us the most incredible weather.  Blue skies every day, warm weather with a slight breeze to cool down, no rain.  We’re enjoying a simple daily routine.  We’re currently staying the cheapy hotel Shiloh had booked in – on the beach, aircon, TV, fridge and warm shower – having breakfast at The Coffee House (free wifi).  I spend a few hours every day on my laptop looking over the blue ocean and join Shiloh on the beach late afternoon.  The water is luke warm, clear blue and tranquil.  In the evening we drink local wiskey on our balcony – (Hong Thong wiskey bought from the Seven Eleven) and go out for Tomyum soup or Penang curry with spring rolls for starters.

Tomorrow we are due to book in at the more upmarket hotel where I was meant to join Shiloh for 6 days per our original itinerary.

We’re monitoring news from home and around the world and for now our flights continue to be available.  I’ll would be lying if I say I don’t imagine a dry cough or tight chest at least once a day.