TRAVEL IN THE TIME OF COVID by Geraldine Limpo Time was when a three-day weekend provided enough stimulus for us, Singaporeans, to book discounted travel tickets during the National Association of Travel Agents Singapore (NATAS) fairs. Our passport allowed entry into almost every country in the world without the requirement of visas. Scoring good deals for accommodations were a cinch given online platforms such as booking.com that allowed a traveller to select a place to stay within one’s budget and needs. Besides hotels, there were bed & breakfast venues, rooms for rent, apartments to co-share (and couch surfing for the real adventurers). Checking-in took mere seconds online, and baggage drop at the check-in counters in Changi Airport was often quick because one could print out boarding passes and luggage tags at home. This left plenty of time to gleefully wade through the Duty-Free shops or enjoy a meal or snack in the various cafes after clearing immigrations and customs check. At the boarding gates, I simply flashed the passport photo page and boarding card. Once I located my seat on the plane, I propped my cabin bag into the overhead luggage compartment, put on my earphones to listen to music previously saved on my playlist, switched my handphone to airplane mode, and closed my eyes.
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No thanks to COVID-19, my travel rituals have changed. In November 2020 and April 2022, I could travel to Japan only with a single-entry business visa. This required my husband’s and Japanese business partner’s support and cooperation in preparing documents that were filed at the Japan Embassy along Nassim Hill. Unlike travels made before the pandemic, our Japanese business partner had to first apply for eligibility to invite a foreign guest. Written proof of this eligibility was one item in a dossier of documents submitted; another complicated paper itemized how each day is to be spent in meetings, trainings and what-not (the rules in November 2020 required the sponsoring Japanese company to always accompany their foreign visitor). Naturally, there were papers pertaining to each business entity too. Furthermore, there were notarized vaccination certificates, application form for a single-entry visa, round trip air tickets to print out. And of course, a processing fee to pay.
Furthermore, there was a PCR test to take 48 hours before departure date. This had to be booked online, paid for, taken with results picked up the next day. To make sure, I took a rapid antigen test hours before reporting to the clinic that administered the PCR test. There was no way that I was going to pay for a $136 test that I was going to fail! Online check-in was no longer sufficient. I had to queue with all the other travellers at Changi on counters that demanded to see the government-notarized certificate of mRNA vaccinations and boosters. The Duty-Free shopping experience is no longer as fun now that most stores have closed, and those fragrance and skincare shops that remained opened no longer offered product testing before purchase. I also lost count of how many times I sanitized my hands upon entering each outlet. Because of this, a new must-have is a tube of a good hand cream to counter the drying effects of alcohol-based sanitizing liquids and gels.
May - June 2022
