Travels after the crisis

D

DownUnder

awol (temporarily I hope)
Local time
5:53 AM
Joined
Feb 18, 2008
Messages
1,809
Location
Universal
View My Gallery
I'm on my soapbox today. It's a cold day out here in southwestern rural Victoria (Australia), I'm in the mood to muse and write a bit. And why not??

I retired in 2012 and have since traveled often, usually for a few months at a time, mostly in Southeast Asia. By nature a 'revisitor', I tend to return to places I first saw in my young days, to see what has changed and redo my past treks - notably to Bali (1970, 1974, 1976, 1985, every 2-3 years since), east and Central Java (the same, an easy trip from Bali via Surabaya or Malang with maybe a stopover in Bromo to sweeten the journey), Madura (a most incredible culture, deeply rooted to its traditions, sadly nowadays less friendly to foreign visitors due to cultural and religious factors) Sumatra, Kalimantan, peninsular Malaysia, Sabah, Sawarak, mostly but also many other Asian destinations. Mid-'70s I worked in Saigon and Bangkok for a year before moving to Australia and settling into the first of my three careers. Also a few return journeys to my roots (Canada, New Mexico and Arizona, Hawaii) to indulge in enjoyable nostalgia.

Early this year and the first Covid crisis warnings found me in Sarawak on the first part of a journey of several months. I had intended to revisit old haunts - Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, possibly Hongkong and the Philippines if time and my budget allowed). Of course I had to return home, to self-imposed lockdown since mid-March, now I hope, about to end, at which time I will plan yet another escape to continue my Asian journey, if on a more reduced (okay, sensible) scale allowing for the slower pace of my almost 73 years and my reluctance to travel too far in one day or carry too much photo gear with me.

I'm conscious of the passing of time and while my health is still good, I'm slowing down and tending to take more cautious approaches to things I not so long ago took for granted and did without giving them a second thought, like will I climb those distant hills before breakfast or later today??

I'm struggling to stay positive about future travel prospects - I dislike the terms 'tourism' and 'tourist' but in writing this I'm aware of the double standard inherent in the old cliche, "you're a tourist, I'm a traveler" - but I believe that the time to travel is when the going is good, and that means now. In the not-too-distant future we may not be able to get out and about in foreign lands as easily as we could until February this year, and I fondly hope, still can for some time yet. Now is the time, before the going gets too difficult or too expensive.

What plans did you have but found yourself forced to put on the shelf due to the current crisis?? Have you rethought your travels and if so, when will you go and what will you do and change??

As well, feel free to tell us which cameras and lenses you will take with you, as an added 'plus' (= secondary aside) to the basic discussion, please. Maybe as follows -

Me: in order of preference - digital, Nikon D800, lenses 20/28/85; analog, Contax G1, 28/45/90; MF, Rolleicord Vb, lens hood, UV filter, lots of 120!! Portability is important, it has to fit into a (well padded) backpack or it's no go.

Over to you lot now.
 
Last edited:
I had made reservations for a stay in Sedona, central Arizona, for early summer this year, and have now put it off until May next year. I also deposited our timeshare weeks in Maui again for this Fall, put in the "bank" for future exchange. The Sedona time is last year's Maui timeshare exchanged... So, no travel plans for this year. I am in a vulnerable demographic, so more concerned than most about the virus. Shorter day-trips are likely. At some point I'd like to visit again in Crete, and Puerto Rico. Ozmoose I admire your bravery!
 
I spent four months diving in the Philippines earlier this year and returned to the US in early March just before the lockdown started. I had planned to travel around the US in April on my motorcycle and then planned to work my way to Alaska in May and June camping along the way (again by motorcycle). I am still hoping to do that (have a new 2020 Harley with 140 miles on it) but in June/July. Then I would like to get back to SE Asia in October.

I broke my hand in a fall in March and it is has two more weeks before the cast comes off so between the lockdown and broken hand, my Harley has been sitting in my garage and since it was my right hand, the cameras have been sitting on the shelves. Motorcycling is the perfect way to travel if social distancing is a concern.
 
I'm retired too. I did a Caribbean cruise in January, and then had a bunch of events and travel planned for March through July, preliminary plans for later in the year, all of which are now cancelled.

When it is feasible to travel again, I'll go visiting: my family and many of my friends are in the NY to Massachusetts corridor, and I have very close friends in the UK as well that I want to see. I'm not a tourist: I travel to visit friends and enjoy doing things with them. I have no worries that this will not be possible, it just may take some time to happen.

Other travel, other events ... Sure, when the time comes. I plan to be ready at that time, just have to be patient and do things when the time is right.

G
 
I imagine international travel for tourism is quite a long way out. To make it feasible any sort of quarantine would have to be gone. Right now you're looking at 14 days when you arrive and then 14 days when you get back. Seems a good time to check out local areas that may have been skipped previously.
 
Both retired and extensive travellers, home and abroad, my wife and I remain positive during lockdown but basically we have kissed goodbye to any foreign travel this year; if anything is possible, it will be a wonderful bonus.

This year was full of trips organised and arranged, six home and abroad - Italy (twice; the north and south), France, Uzbekistan, Hungary, two drive touring trips in the UK, European city breaks to Lisbon and Berlin. We did manage to get way to Lanzarote in late February, getting caught up in the well publicised sand storm debacle, when flight schedules went into meltdown… for a three days it was akin to being on Mars but it was great for photography!

Perhaps oddly, for two that enjoy travelling so much, we don’t feel put out or inconvenienced by Covid-19 curtailing our plans. There isn’t anything we can do about it the situation, so we are just getting on keeping active and making the most of what we have got.

In a good way, Covid-19 has forced us to reappraised our future plans. Up to this point, with the exception of health, we pretty much took every year for granted with regard to travel; research, plan, book flights and hotels, go. Now all of this has come to a complete stop.

Despite being optimistic, we can’t see how flying to foreign destinations will be feasible in the foreseeable future; as Benlees points out (post #6), lengthy quarantines will be necessary, and reading some of the airline’s proposals for a safe return to flying strike us as laughable, and certainly we’re not prepared to get on a plane under such plans.

Until an effective vaccine is developed Covid-19 is going to be always with us and, frankly, foreign travel is the least of our concerns.

As for gear: X-Pro3 (previously X-Pro2), 16-55mm, spare cards and batteries, Millican Fujifilm bag, iPhone 10. Er, that's it.
 
I was aiming to visit Hong Kong in 2019, but the riots made me shelve those plans. Things seemed to calm down by the end of the year, but then coronavirus hit, and that's banjaxed international travel from Australia until the end of this year.

Work trips had been planned for Canberra in January, but the bushfires put paid to that. Then coronavirus closed the state borders and I've been working through the backlog at a decent rate.

When border crossing is permitted, the Canberra trip should on again. I'll take the M9 with 28 Elmarit and 50 Cron, 5D Mark II with 35L, 70-200 f4 IS L, and the GH4 and G9 with Panasonic 12-35, 35-100, Voigtlander 17.5, 25 and 42.5. I don't travel light for work unless I have to.

If I get on a plane, I have to pare everything down, so it will be G9 + 12-35, 35-100, and Panasonic GM1 + Olympus 12, 17 and 25. This combination acts as a work camera and pocket camera, with the opportunity to share lenses across cameras, giving me a lot of flexibility.
 
I'd started the exploration of my new home area of the far south west of England. I'd visited deep Cornwall in mid March to escape the summer hordes that make the roads gridlocked. Now of course I might be able to get to far more without the numbers!

When, if, I ever sell my house near London I plan to buy a small camper van and explore Norway at leisure (and with plentiful supplies of tinned foods and beers to avoid the insane prices of that country). As that's already in the lap of the gods when it happens is moot, but it will happen!

Flying anywhere lost its appeal when I stopped working in finance. I couldn't stand 14 hour flights then, in business and paid for, and now even less so.
 
This thread hurts me...

Lockdown meant I had to cancel a weekend in late March and a week a little later. Last night we remembered we'd be in the south for an overnight stop before catching the ferry for France in about an hour's time (sigh).

Skin cancer means I have to avoid the UV and so nothing more is planned but I do look forward to late September and October when the sun will shine and I can go out during the day.

Alas, the Govt. may have other plans for me.

Regards, David
 
I don't know what the future holds for travel for me. I've spent the last several years going to places I know well (France, Japan, Taiwan, New York) and I had planned several trips to all those places this year. I was in Japan as the outbreak began and returned to the US pretty quickly.

What the future will hold I don't know. At the moment my spouse and I just staying at home and enjoying it. We have effectively canceled all travel for the rest of the year. I wonder what a return to travel will look like as the crisis lifts, and what my goals will be after that as well.

I was fortunate in that I lost no money on any of these trips that had to be canceled. COVID has gotten me thinking seriously, for the first time in years, about moving after things have cleared up. I don't know where yet, or even if, but it's back in my mind as an option.
 
Oh yeah: gear. LOL!

I'll have my bicycle as primary luggage when next I can travel. Everything else has to fit in a carry-on.

So beyond clothes, bike gear, and toiletries (I really don't need/carry much of those), I'll bring one of the many cameras I have floating about the cabinet. The iPhone 11 Pro is always with me, that's a given. The PD travel tripod proved a boon on the last cruise, I'll carry it. The Hassy*907x deserves a trip, and fits with its two lenses, batteries, and such fit into my Billy L2 bag tidily, o into my shoulder satchel as well. The Leica CL does similarly.

A Polaroid SX-70 or the Perkeo II or the InstaKon RF70 or the Minox 35 or the Minox C or ... well, let's just say, there are a lot of possibles. I usually figure out what I want to carry for a given trip the day I'm packing.

G
 
Really glad we didn't put off traveling the past few years. I remember saying we should go on some bigger trips before any politics, violence or our own poor health might make it impossible.

Just got (partially) refunded on tickets Toronto to Europe for July. Our youngest's international school Summer program is finally officially canceled so she can get funds back as well. I'm retired and immune compromised while my wife is a family physician who is very over worked. American health care companies are asking for more work at less pay, tele-medicine is compensated less than in-person visits anyway. The ethanol business is making sanitizer, that's been good since fuel has taken quite a dive. We're quite fortunate here and I'm optimistic that things will recover as this virus peters out. The only real complaint is that my wife won't be able to take more than a day or two off until things stabilize.

Of course I'm also skeptical of everything and this virus is constantly mutating. Then when all these people who have isolated themselves for several months come out, weaker and with less immunity than ever... but then I wonder if the entire thing hasn't been over-hyped? I have no faith in the media or government to be truthful or competent. And I don't understand why developing a vaccine for this is somehow a surefire bet? It's not like they ever figured out a "Cold" vaccine and what we consider our annual Flu vaccine is a moving target guesstimate of which strains may be most popular. They don't always guess right.

Seems prudent to spend the Summer gardening, working around the house, photographing within walking or bicycling distance, going to the range to shoot my (air) guns.

You first knew me as the large format shooter who thought nothing of spending the day with an 8x10 Sinar Norma and a Gitzo Giantluxe. Last year I was using three Nikon bodies with heavy pro or Zeiss lenses... the backpack was 45-pounds. This year I'm down to one DSLR, one Nikon Z, and two screw mount Leicas, one lens per body. I usually only carry one or two in a small satchel. I'm still a big guy and don't like to think of myself as frail but the weight, the weight! Finally broke me! (Or maybe a 47-mp file from a hand camera that's better than what I could get from my Epson scanner was the real fulcrum?)

I think the days of cheap commercial air travel are over and the next generation will be much more comfortable doing business via remote devices and more business will return to regional rather than global areas. We're going to lose large tracts of the tourism economy, shopping centers, bars, gyms, restaurants, movie theaters, concerts, live sporting events and festivals. Americans will be gardening, working on their nests, and doing more outdoor activities like simply hiking. Good time to be into home goods, hobbies and such.
 
ozmoose said:
What plans did you have but found yourself forced to 'shelf' due to the current crisis?? Have you rethought your travels and if so, when will you go and what will you do and change??
Click to expand...

My wife and I were supposed to be doing an extended trip this winter (July). Vancouver Island for a wedding, then Finland and Malaysia to visit family. All shelved now, we were just lucky that we hadn't booked anything when it all started to shut down, so no lost fares etc...

Travel is a bit more than just sightseeing for us. Half my family live in Helsinki, and all of my wife's family live in Kuala Lumpur. It's looking likely that this will be the first Chinese New Year Reunion Dinner my wife will miss (ever).

When will we go? As soon as we can. Buggered if I know when that will be...
 
Had two holidays cancelled. Sorrento and Bulgaria. Next holidays will probably be in UK whenever that will be. My daughter will be 40 in around 18 months and she would like to visit Ukraine where my dad, her grandfather was born. Never been myself so we will go as a family.
 
Heading down to Alabama Shores in July. We’ve rented a large multistory home to have a family gathering. That should be fun!

Then off to the 80th Sturgis Rally in August.

Might try to get up to Isle Royale before it gets cold.

Of course a ton of weekend trips in between.

My plans have not really been interrupted by COVID and as a “essential worker” my life has more or less been the same as always day to day. Just add masks and signs on businesses doors. I am really missing the Chinese Buffet tho!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom