Admittedly, it’s becoming silly to write about trips that I won’t be taking (see No Vegas for TPOL). Yesterday, while feeling the confines of my incarceration and the effects of my Manhattan, I let my mind dream about an exodus from this island. I had my sights set on the ‘Stans of the world. Sober, I decided to check the travel restrictions to Uzbekistan. I saw contradictory information and almost gave up. That’s when I came across Kayak’s Can I Travel to page. It looks like an infected version of TPOL’s Where I’ve Been page. Based on the information provided, I can transit through UAE or Turkey and need a negative PCR test taken 72 hours before arrival. From there, the trail went cold. Searching for Kazakhstan as the destination, I could not find any information. I could only find restrictions if Kazakhstan was my origin. Old TPOL may have pressed forward but at this point, I gave up for three reasons: 1) Assume that each of the ‘Stans, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan, requires a PCR test. Who wants to coordinate or do that at least 5 times? 2) In normal times, visa restrictions would be a pain for a few of those countries. Imagine going through the hassle of getting a visa now only to be denied entry because of a new COVID requirement. 3) Assuming I avoided past visa pitfalls that have befallen me (see Visas), what if I tested positive, despite receiving the vaccine, in the middle of my journey? I could only imagine the hassle it would be to accommodate what would otherwise be a great adventure.
My tea’s gone cold I’m wondering why I
Got out of bed at all
The morning rain clouds up my window
And I can’t see at all
And even if I could it’ll all be gray
Put your picture on my wall
It reminds me, that it’s not so bad
It’s not so bad
Maps like this are minimally helpful because they have wide swathes of “yellow” countries where Americans can enter with a wide variety of conditions which range from minimal to practically impossible. For example Italy and Sri Lanka are both “Yellow” countries but all I need to enter Italy is a vaccination and Sri Lanka I need to quarantine which is effectively a bar to entry for most people.
I would much prefer a map which shows me which countries are open without a quarantine to vaccinated people, and be able to determine at a glance whether or not I can actually travel there for pleasure, without having to read the details of every country in the world.