2020 – an eventful year no one expected. It was a year that challenged the world’s normalcy, every country’s government & health system, every business & every person’s daily life. Things changed in a blink of an eye – natural disasters here & there, global pandemic, ‘environmental reset’ for a while & now, the new normal with strict health protocols.
The past travel years have been very memorable for me – 2016 was all about travelling solo, 2017 was about discovering new places & revisiting the old ones, 2018 was about reuniting & travelling with friends & 2019 was all about crossing borders & making travel dreams come true. 2020 was different – it was a year where I had big travel plans but nothing came to fruition. It was a grounded year full of refunds, flight credits & cancelled trips.
Let me share with you what were my plans for 2020, what actually happened & what the future holds.
2020 Plans
I started 2020 with a high note; I had big plans for this year. I booked tickets to old & new destinations, planned to reunite with friends in Davao, Palawan, Shanghai, Kuala Lumpur & Bangkok, travel with my mom to Australia, take my colleagues to Vietnam & revisit Europe for the 2nd year & Japan for the 6th year in a row.
I also had plans of trying new airlines (Emirates, Qantas, Virgin Australia, Thai Airways), flying different aircraft types (Boeing 777-300ER, Boeing 747-8 & Airbus A380 (thrice!!)) & staying in new boutique hostels around Asia, Australia & Europe. I had a long list of new things to try & planned contents (old & new destinations, thrift hacks) to share in this blog.
All these plans got postponed or cancelled because of the coronavirus pandemic.
What Actually Happened
The deadly virus believed to have started in China before Christmas 2019 – just days before I got my Chinese tourist visa. Its effects were not widely talked about until the country imposed a lockdown for the Chinese New Year holidays. Flights to & from China were cancelled; borders in various countries were closed for people coming from China. People all over the world started to become cautious about everything.
Our Shanghai weekend trip got cancelled for obvious reasons. Everyone lived normal lives except that people wear masks. We booked tickets for the rest of 2020 trips; we even got our Australian tourist visas for the April trip. Little did we know, the virus started to spread in Europe, particularly in Italy in February & the rest of the world in March.
Here in the Philippines, the government imposed a community quarantine effective 16 March but was later changed to the strictest form of lockdown from 17 March. The country closed its borders with all domestic & international flights suspended. Everyone was forced to stay & work from home. Malls & offices were closed, public transportation systems were shut down & streets were empty. Only limited essential movements were allowed; only 1 person was allowed to go out per household. All countries around the world also closed their borders, imposed strict lockdown & limited movement protocols.
Our Saigon weekend trip, Davao weekend trip & Australia Holy Week trips got cancelled one after the other. We applied for a refund for the Saigon trip & opted for travel fund / travel credits for all Davao & Australia tickets. All accommodation bookings & trips were also cancelled. Airlines were forced to suspend commercial operations. The world’s travel industry paused.
Restrictions were somewhat eased in June. The government was forced to open the economy but the number of cases continued to rise until the end of the year. With the level of uncertainty happening around the world & with all borders closed, I was forced to cancel the planned trips to Malaysia, Thailand & Europe. Again, these tickets were either refunded or kept as travel credits.
I didn’t take any trip in 2020; I’ve been on the ground for the whole year. On a lighter note, I caught up with my Europe blogs. I also continued posting about hostel of the day features, flight reports & even the ‘hit’ Tuesday tips. I also introduced new sections namely P’s List & Flying 101.
Towards the end of the year, I almost ran out of content to share & completely lost motivation to write. It felt like the pandemic is here to stay for a while. I stopped looking at airline websites & booking air tickets, stopped reading about & looking for new destinations & even stopped watching travel vlogs. I stopped everything I was doing for travelling & turned away from this website for a bit. That is the main reason why you are reading this 2020 recap in July 2021.
The Future
It’s now mid-2021 but the pandemic is still here. Vaccines have arrived but new virus variants threat the effectivity of these brilliant works of science. What does the future hold of us? No one knows. I am very positive that this pandemic will end & that we will all go back to the normal lives we were used to.
As for this site – it’s not going anywhere. I will start posting in the coming weeks & months. I will also start planning my future trips; I have so much travel credit to use! I also plan to travel domestically as soon as it’s relatively safer outside. I guess we have to learn to live with the virus for a while!
I know it’s too late to ask but I was wondering how your 2020 went? What happened to your travel plans? Did you push through with some of them? How was it travelling during the pandemic? Feel free to share your cancelled 2020 trips, pandemic travel experiences & plans for the future in the comments section below.
I will end this recap here but I hope that you are all healthy & sound. Please always wear a mask & observe minimum health protocols when going out. Also, please get vaccinated when you can! Let’s do our part in helping the country achieve herd immunity & in helping the world end this pandemic. Stay safe!