The “Joys” of Travelling
There was a time when travelling was exciting. In those long ago days, not many people got to travel but tour packages soon made travelling possible for them. A tour package would comprise a set number of days, usually through more than one country, with airfare, accommodation and some meals included.
Positive stories about such packages included how one got to see and experience a few countries at one time. Negative stories included how one got herded around with limited time to see and experiences those countries – get up in the morning, meet at lobby, get on bus, go to first place on that day’s schedule, get off bus, walk around, take pictures, back on bus, on to next place, etc.
Still, people went on such packages, mainly because of limited budgets and limited free time (aka annual leave).
Now, in the wake of the H1N1 flu pandemic, there is a new story to add to all these travelling stories.
I was in China between 8 and 18 May 2009 to visit my beloved bears in Bifengxia and Fuzhou. About a week or 10 days before the trip, the outbreak began. My brother advised against the trip. I was quite determined to go on it, but told him I would monitor the situation closely. A day before my trip, he emailed to ask if I was still going. I replied yes. He told me to be careful.
At that time, China had not reported any cases. Still, the airlines were taking precautions. I, too, took precautions. I went to the pharmacy and bought five N95 masks. I’d called in advance to ask if they had the masks, and told the man over the phone I needed five, to which he’d replied “Ha?” (the Chinese equivalent of “What?”). He said at most, people would need two – one for the flight going, and the other for the returning flight. But I was taking internal flights while in China – three, to be exact – so I needed a total of five. In the end, I didn’t use any of them.
On 8 May 2009, the H1N1 situation seemed to have stabilised, and the scene at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport seemed normal – not a mask in sight.
On board, the usual announcements were made about safety and what to do in the event of an evacuation. Then came a new health announcement. It went something like this:
“Will passengers who have travelled to the following countries (list of countries on the H1N1 alert) or felt unwell in the past seven days please identify yourself to members of the cabin crew … ”
Wtf? Couldn’t they have done this before we boarded the plane? I’ll bet you no one identified themselves to any member of the cabin crew that flight, or any other flight with a similar health announcement.
On 12 May, my fourth day in Bifengxia, we heard of the first case in China – a Chinese man travelling in from the States had been found with suspected H1N1 on a flight coming into Chengdu. From then on, we started feeling a little uneasy, especially for those of us who would be travelling later on.
After Bifengxia, I’d gone on to Fuzhou with two other friends. We took a flight from Chengdu to Fuzhou. Suddenly, every cough heard on board seemed ominous. We started to look around to see how far we were from this or that cough.
Upon arrival in Fuzhou, we’d taken an airport shuttle bus to our hotel. My two friends sat a few rows behind me. During the ride, I would glance over at them to see how they were doing, and saw that they’d fallen asleep. I also saw they were wearing masks. I wasn’t. I didn’t think of it. But the bus was an even smaller enclosed space that the plane had been. Upon arrival, both of them told of a passenger just behind them who was coughing so they decided to put on a mask.
On the flight home to KL at the end of my 10-day trip, there was the same health announcement asking passenngers to identify themselves to the cabin crew, etc. I looked over to the guy sitting next to me and made a comment about how this should’ve been done before we boarded the plane. He agreed.
Upon arrival, we were told we would be given health declaration forms to fill before we get off the plane. There was a delay as we waited for officials to come on board with the forms. For the first flight at the start of the trip, health forms had been given out during the flight, along with the usual disembarkation forms. Why couldn’t it have be done this way for the return flight?
So we made our way to the exit of the plane where we were each handed a pink form. All the while, I wondered how we would get to fill in the forms before getting off the plane.
As it turned out, we left the plane and were ushered single file through a door to a room with a group of people that included a camera man pointing a video camera at us. Every now and then, a few would be let through, then we were told to hold on and then another few let through. When it was my turn, the camera man pointed to a guy behind me and told a woman in uniform to take him out. The rest of us went on to a waiting area where we filled in the forms. I wasn’t sure about the question asking if I’d been to a H1N1 identified country seven days before returning to Malaysia so I left that blank and went to ask on my way to submitting the form. The answer to my question was “of course, that’s why we’re screening this flight.” Of course. The H1N1 identified country that I’d returned from was China. Major duh, Chet.
This trip has been quite an experience, and not just because of my beloved bears. I’m not sure if it’s a travel story I will remember to tell, except maybe for how they should’ve screened passengers before allowing us on board. But for those passengers who were identified and “taken out”, I’m sure this is one travel story they will be telling for a while to come. Or maybe not.
