No Need for Social Distance, But Keep Your Distance is part of the Punxsutawney TPOL Trip Report.

When this all began, the mantra was “We’re all in this together” (see From Your Grade School Principal: Regarding COVID-19).

Today, it is clear that the only part of “we’re all in this together” is the enjoyment that others project at the sight of everyone being grounded. “Remember when you used to post photos of champagne?” is not a nostalgic reference to the glory days but more of a “How are you enjoying being stuck at home?” jab. Somehow these people don’t realize that the points game is not a zero-sum game i.e., my jet setting doesn’t preclude them from doing the same. Quite the opposite, this blog and my book, Everyone’s Advice Is Wrong .  . .  Including Mine, encourages everyone to get after life. While social distancing may have kept them away from me physically, I find that people are more invasive than ever before. I’m not talking about the blog trolls whose candor I appreciate (see Cancelled! Festivus 2020). I’m talking about people I speak to text on a regular basis who have used my inability to travel to foolishly think that we are on the same level, that their opinion now matters.

Now that I am leaving the basement (see Miami Booked! American Airlines Reinstates My Voucher), the reaction is not one of celebration. It’s more negativity. “After all this, your first trip is to Miami?” “I don’t know why you’re going there, you’re still going to wear a mask.” Or, my favorite, “We’re all going to have to wear a mask for a long time.”

After not traveling since January of 2020 (see NYC Twice: A Recap of My 2020 Travels), Miami is definitely not the coming-out party that I had envisioned. I wanted to go to Monaco and pop bottles on my yacht. Unfortunately, Monaco is closed to tourists and I still can’t afford a yacht, yet (see COVID 2020: TPOL’s Most Productive Year). And as far as the mask topic, over a year later too many people still don’t understand the point of a mask. If I am vaccinated, I should not have to wear a mask. I only wear one because I haven’t received the Moderna tattoo on my chest letting the world know that I am COVID free. If more people received vaccinations, then it would spare me the ink appointment as the presumption is that more people are COVID free.

Apply this strategy on a world scale, where rich countries help poor countries eradicate infections, and the “We’re all going to have to wear a mask for a long time,” doom and gloom outlook can end for everyone. But that’s not what everyone wants. Much of the world doesn’t want this pandemic to end. On a micro-scale, those who were miserable before would like things to remain shut down, citing, “At least I don’t have to see your douchey photos on IG.” On a macro-scale, the rich countries are too focused on their own population, inexplicably ignoring that the ‘pan’ in pandemic means ‘all’. This short-sighted approach is of little consequence to wealthy nations whose economies will rebound while poor countries will continue to suffer (see North Korea – Level 4: Do Not Travel).

“We’re all in this together,” just not the way that they mean it.

Do Not Travel is part of Punxsutawney TPOL Trip Report.

The U.S. State Department has declared that 80% of the world is not safe for travel. The explanation for this drastic increase is the level of COVID in each country. Right now, the only place with “Level 1: Exercise Normal Precautions” is Bhutan, my happy place (see Guns & Butter: Bhutan Travel Guide). “Level 2: Exercise Increased Caution” includes the following:

• Belize
• Benin
• Fiji Travel
• Grenada
• Palau
• Saint Kitts
• Singapore
• South Korea
• Thailand
• Vietnam
• Liberia
• Mauritania
• Montserrat
• Rwanda
• Sri Lanka 
• Zimbabwe

If I were heeding the State Department’s advice, the good news is that I can still increase my country count (see Where I’ve Been) since I have not been to nine countries on the list including St. Kitts. The bad news is that the Park Hyatt St. Kitts is 30,000 points a night. Besides St. Kitts, the only place on the list that doesn’t run completely afoul to the 11 Reasons Why I Still Don’t Want to Travel is Belize.

Adding Belize won’t get me closer to hitting 2020’s goal of 100 UN countries. That’s why I will follow the State Department’s advice and look to the 40 countries in “Level 3: Reconsider Travel.” For me, reconsider travel now means maybe I should go there since, per the State Department’s guidelines, those countries aren’t on the “Level 4: Do Not Travel list.” That list used to be reserved for the ‘dangerous’ countries that everyone should avoid e.g., North Korea. Now it is compromised of 137 countries or 80% of the world including careful Canada and inoculated Israel.

In case you have not picked up on my sarcasm, let me be clear: I am lost when it comes to assessing where is ‘safe’ to go and where is not. Prior to the pandemic, if you said, “TPOL would you go to Afghanistan?” I would say, “No, it’s not safe.” Prior to the pandemic, had you asked, “TPOL would you go to Baghdad?” I would say, “It’s not safe but I would like to go to my parent’s homeland.”

Today, if I used the State Department’s guidelines for making a determination as to whether a country is safe, I would not travel to the United States which has the highest number of COVID-related deaths. However, that same State Department’s directive says that people who have been vaccinated can travel domestically.

I may be tired of being in my basement, but I’m more exhausted by the helter skelter messaging of what I should and should not do. Tomorrow there’s going to be an announcement of a variant that attacks golfers. The next day there’s going to be a variant that kills bloggers and on and on.

As a result of this schizophrenic approach to issuing travel advisories, I’m going back to the days of Alexander in 2009. While on my New Year’s trip in Bali to ring in 2010 (see Where to Party? New Year’s Eve), the State Department issued a terrorist attack warning which said, “There is an indication of an attack to Bali tonight.” In reaction to this imminent threat, I did what was sensible: I jumped on the back of a stranger’s motorbike and went bar hopping through Kuta.

What will I do this time?