- Three weeks into a two-month trip throughout Asia, it has been impossible not to have travel plans disrupted by the deadly coronavirus COVID-19.
- With a relatively low rate of confirmed cases outside of China, fears about actually catching the coronavirus are not keeping me up at night.
- Instead, concerns about quarantines, travel bans, and racist backlash have forced me to be more flexible as I travel around Asia.
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HO CHI MINH CITY, Vietnam - COVID-19 is the first thing that most people want to talk about if you're an American traveling in Asia right now.
When hailing a taxi driver in Seoul or calling a Grab rideshare in Ho Chi Minh City, the coronavirus is the go-to conversation starter. Heading to the airport as I $4 my driver apologized that my first trip to the country happened during the outbreak. Arriving in Vietnam six hours later, my new driver pointed to his surgical mask and blamed Chinese visitors for spreading the coronavirus.
As of Monday, there are more than 71,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in 26 countries and more than 1,770 deaths. The vast majority of those cases have been in China. South Korea has $4 30 cases and Vietnam has reported 16.
I was recently in South Korea for two weeks and am currently in Vietnam. In the coming weeks, I plan to visit Cambodia, Thailand, and Singapore - all countries with one or more confirmed cases.
Statistically, it is still extremely unlikely that I will catch the coronavirus. But, the outbreak has fundamentally changed my trip, creating new problems beyond the possibility of catching the disease.
Five flights, two countries, and innumerable subway, bus, taxi, and Grab rides into my trip, here is what it is like to travel in Asia during the coronavirus outbreak.