Thoughts about being COVID-free in Taiwan, but feeling stuck

 

The Year of the Ox is here in Taiwan, and it feels like everybody is finally letting out a big sigh of release. We just had the first domestic COVID cluster in a hospital here after many months of no local infections. The government put several thousand people in quarantine and the strategy seemed to have paid off. Only 20 people were infected so far, and it seems we avoided a bigger outbreak. Of course a big test will be the current Lunar New Year holidays. We need to see if two weeks from now there's a new outbreak, but I hope not. It's been a very weird year for us here, being stuck on this island but basically COVID free for a year now.

We do get cases from abroad, but all these people are put in quarantine, so they get caught, they get treated, and then they become healthy and don't spread the virus locally. Taiwan is one of the best places to be during this pandemic, and I appreciate everything that I am enjoying here: No fear of contracting the virus, no lockdowns and work from home, no home schooling. Seeing kids play outside running and laughing makes me so happy, yet also very sad when I remember how things are back at home. With that said, I do have the luxury to forget that Covid exists, and just live my life normally like before, but wearing mask pretty much all the time when I step outside of my house. The temperature checks have also become so common that I hardly notice them. But there is one caviat: I cannot travel outside of Taiwan. I am basically stuck here, and that's a huge contrast to before. I used to be a frequent flyier. I had 3 to 4 trips per year, often long cross-continental trips. Traveling was my job and my passion, where I was able to take some amazing photographs. I still cherish that time, actually so much more than I used to in the moment. I'm re-editing some old photos, and they look so much better now, because my skills have improved over the years. Or maybe I just have a different look or style now, I don't know. And yeah, I could be traveling more around Taiwan, but to be honest, in my near decade here I have visited almost every place, some parts several times. Secondly, Taiwan is not cheap. Average hotels start at 100 USD per night, if you want something better, you need to easily pay 150 to 200 USD per night. Food and transportation are also not that cheap once you are outside of Taipei. All this plus the fear of another outbreak keeps me a little bit stuck at home or within Taipei these days. I just can't wait to see things open up again, and I can travel worry free to Japan, my dream destination. We might need to wait a few more years, and go through the global vaccination roll-out which is still super slow. I don't want to think too much about how many years I'll be stuck on this island, I just want to cherish every day that me and my family are healthy, and hope for the best. 

Happy year of the Ox to my readers! I know I've been slow to update this blog, but I might post more in the upcoming days and weeks, as I have a bit more time now.