International Travel and the State of Covid: December 2022
Are you Planning a Trip Somewhere? My Observations of Masks, Jab Rules and Testing from three Different Countries and 5 different airports
In 2021 I was having recurring nightmares about flights gone wrong, which discouraged me from travelling. Mask mandates had done extreme damage as I can not wear one covering my nose for longer than I can hold my breathe. One of my more persistent nightmares was that my flight to the USA would get rerouted to somewhere where I would be stuck in mandatory quarantine and forced to mask: in one dream in India, in another in China.
Now that masking is not as rigidly enforced I decided to venture out for Christmas. And almost immediately got put into the kidnapping situation in a country that still rigidly enforces rules. What a long strange trip it has been.
I used the last of my American Airlines miles to make a booking for me and my daughter, but because the flight I wanted would not process, I changed it to something else at the last minute. I knew that this new flight was leaving from Bangkok, not Phuket, but other than that I barely remembered the flight details. I thought my layover was in Seoul, South Korea, but that was for the flight that I wasn’t able to get. My layover was in Tokyo, Japan instead.
That normally would be fine. I’ve had a few layovers in Haneda over the years just like Incheon the airport has a dedicated area for transiting passengers so normal entry requirements do not apply. Except somehow my booking was epically effed up.
So from December 12, 2022. Note: neither me or my daughter wore a facemask, even under our nose and/or chin, anywhere on this journey
Thailand:
Phuket and Bangkok: There are signs up still saying face coverings are required in Phuket’s airport, but about 70% of the people in line did not wear them. The compliance percentage is higher when it is Asians, where the rate is 70% or 80% of facemask use, whereas on some flights heading to Qatar, say, nobody wore a facemask in line. About 90% of the people behind the counter were masked, though I saw one man who did not wear one and baggage handlers were quite lax about their facemask use. Nobody bothered me about wearing a facemask at immigration or any security checkpoint, though I was reminded that I should use my daughter’s Thailand passport at the exit control.
My big problem came up in Bangkok when I tried to check in for my flight to Tokyo. The woman behind the counter immediately asked me if I had had the Covid vaccine. No, I have not had even one of them. I tried to explain to her that I didn’t need the jabs as I was a transiting passenger through Japan and a US citizen who likewise didn’t need it for US entry. She frantically explained that I DID need the Covid jabs, because my incoming flight to Japan was booked through a different airport in Tokyo than the one that my outgoing flight was leaving from. What?
There was a negative Covid testing option, but it was expensive as both me and my daughter would need it and it was 2900 baht each. Of course I was already stuck in Bangkok. I tried to call American Airlines for a new booking but my phone went dead. My daughter begged me to pony up the money for the stupid pcr test.
Long story short there was a rapid Covid testing booth downstairs at Suvarnibum airport for the countries in Asia that still want those from usually unjabbed travelers. I hope this byzantine system goes away soon because it seems like a good money making scheme and nothing more. About half of the people in line for testing had no idea before the flight booking counter that they needed a negative pcr test. One woman in line was freaking out about being late for her flight: she had been double jabbed but didn’t know her destination country also required a booster jab to waive testing requirements. I barely made it on the flight myself after poneying up close to $200 for the negative tests. China or whomever has more of our DNA.
Japan:
Japan scared the hell out of me. I wanted nothing to do with being in a country where I had heard that mask mandates were rigidly enforced. I figured the transiting area of the airport would be fine. Only one person, a young Japanese flight attendant, handed me and my daughter facemasks (I had none on me) on our Tokyo flight. I put them in my purse.
Oddly despite me and my daughter being the only non facemask wearing persons in a sea of masks in Japan, not a single person directly asked either of us to wear one. In fact when going through immigration I had several who wished me merry Christmas because of my Santa hat. All were very friendly. They had to help me generate a QR code and print it out since my smartphone battery had long before went dead and my tablet was not able to access their landing page. Don’t get me started on the sheer absurdity of the I-Can type mandatory smartphone systems on international travel: from dead batteries to internet inaccessible to unreadable apps, it’s a total nightmare.
We almost missed our next flight, despite our near six hour layover. Navigating Japanese immigration, then baggage check, then customs, and getting laughed at by several people when I told them the crazy story of my insane booking on AA, took over two hours. Why do I need to spend time in Tokyo? Apparently to get to another airport in Tokyo! Normally when you have a layover in Seoul, or Hong Kong, or Los Angeles, you assume that it is at that same airport. Maybe it’s in a different terminal in the airport, but it’s still very close and the airline you booked through puts you on the shuttlebus or whatever.
We took the skytrain after grabbing some Japanese yen from the ATM to pay for our journey from Narito to Haneda airport, which took almost two hours itself. The cost was 1600 Japanese yen each. On the entire journey hundreds of people shuffled on and off the mass transit. I only saw two people who were not wearing facemasks besides us: one was a girl of about three years old who was eating something, and another was a Japanese businessman who appeared to be in a hurry. Bold and different seemed to be a good strategy for me in Japan though: once I was away from the airport I didn’t see a single person who did not appear to be ethnically Japanese. Not a single person bothered me or even gave me a mean spirited look. They almost seemed encouraged that somebody wasn’t wearing a facemask and on a crowded subway of all things. Hey we just tested negative for covid!
In the international terminal at Haneda airport maybe 20% of people, almost always westerners, were facemask free. Long story short: they are still facemask crazy in Japan, but they aren’t facemask nazis. Nobody was holding me down and forcibly strapping anything to my face there. It was a friendly, interesting experience and nobody tried to force abduct and quarantine me.
We earned that immigration stamp:
USA:
LAX terminal was about 20% to 30% in facemasks in crowded areas like waiting in line for food. There were still some virtue signalers, but perhaps like me in Japan in the opposite way, they looked a little nervous and overwhelmed that they were in the minority. I sometimes think those hard core facemask wearers want mandates back so that they don’t feel alone and can have back that sense of moral superiority. Maybe they should move to Japan.
The official announcement on my American Airlines flights was this: “Please note that facemask use on American Airlines flights is optional. We ask that you respect the personal choices of others regarding facial coverings.”
At immigration in the USA the black gentleman behind the counter seemed fascinated by us. “According to our records neither you nor your daughter have had any movement activity in over 24 months.” I was glad he was blunt for why I was being flagged often they make you guess so they can catch you in a lie. “You have both been just in Thailand this whole time?”
Yes we had. Here’s hoping the madness continues to wane. Or is this just the calm phase before the worst dystopian measures are ramped up again?
Do you have any travel adventures lately? I’m winding down on my 39 hour long day of 12/12/2022. At midnight I was in Bangkok waiting on last minute results on a Covid test. At 9 Am I was on a subway in Tokyo. We got our time back and I arrived at noon in Las Vegas. And it’s getting to be my bedtime. Merry Christmas I suppose…we made it here somehow.
My pronouns are Don't/Travel. I think the last time I travelled by plane was to go to Hawaii more than 15 years ago. Once I realized a plane had to land on a little spot of land in the middle of an ocean to get me back home, it really freaked me out. That was the last time I bothered to travel by plane, never again. Back and forth across the country on trains a few times, much more my speed. A neighbor became a big plane pilot a few years ago, and now I am wondering how his body is coping with the jabs he inevitably took. I wonder if he is now disqualified from flying, but I am afraid to ask. He seems quite out of sorts. Turtle woman signing off.
When I crossed the border from Tijuana to San Diego, after 6 months in Tijuana, the American border agent pretended to be incredulous that I'd spent 6 months in Mexico. He kept asking me what I was doing in Mexico. I kept repeating my story, which is true: I'm retired and have no reason to live anywhere in particular, so I might as well see the world while saving on rent. He pretended not to believe my story. He finally let me through, and asked me to send my luggage through the scanner, the first time that happened. The other 2 times I crossed the same border, I didn't have to scan my luggage.
Of course, he knew perfectly well that Mexico is practically overrun with old gringos. Blatant hypocrisy. A couple of days ago I was on a bus in Mission Beach, or maybe Pacific Beach, it's hard to tell the difference if you're new, but at one stop 3 obvious recent Mexican fence-jumpers got on the bus, didn't pay, which was fine with the driver, got off a few stops later and said gracias. They all looked like they'd jumped the fence earlier that day, backpacks, tired looking, big water bottles, etc. Apparently the bus drivers have been instructed that illegal aliens don't have to pay. And the Mexican guys knew where to go, like there was free housing for them in very upscale Pacific Beach or wherever I live now.