Travel will never be the same again.
I was scrolling through my Instagram news feed today and saw that I was tagged in a photo taken by Takuya, a Japanese friend of mine. It was April 2017 in Croatia and I was one month into my one-year round-the-world backpacking journey. Takuya, Ezequiel (a traveler from Argentina), and I stayed at the same hostel and the three of us decided to visit a national park. That night when we came back, we played a few rounds of UNO at the hostel with a couple other travelers from Brazil – This was a common scene in the backpacking world, where travelers from different continents briefly cross path and share experience together.
Fast-forward three years later, Takuya has now returned to Japan after traveling to 100+ countries, publishing a book, and has been doing charity work in Sri Lanka in his spare time; I, on the other hand, have resumed my career and am fortunate enough to have a job that occasionally takes me internationally for projects so my travel bug lives on. But like other pandemics in the past, COVID-19 has permanently changed the world and has put international travel to a halt: I have not left the country since February. My backpacking trip to Pakistan in May was postponed to next year, and as time goes by it is becoming more clear that my November trip to Saudi Arabia will likely share the same fate. COVID-19 is here to stay and this devastates the hostel industry around the world as many have closed their doors permanently – Staying at a hostel and sharing experience with other travelers have become an unachievable goal in the foreseeable future.
But it is not all doom and gloom! As hostels reinvent themselves to accommodate the current health needs and with the upcoming roll out of vaccines, hopefully international travel will pick up its pace shortly – Travel may never be the same again, but the desire to travel never fades and we will for sure start to venture out as soon as it is safe to do so.
旅行從此不再一樣。
今天在 Instagram 看到日本朋友 Takuya 上載了一張我在其中的照片，攝於2017年4月克羅地亞。當時我開始了為期一年的環球背包之旅只有一個月，Ezequiel (來自阿根廷)、Takuya、和我住在同一家民宿，我們三人決定翌日參觀國家公園。當天晚上回來後，我們與另外兩名來自巴西的背包客在民宿玩了幾輪 UNO 紙牌遊戲 – 這是背包世界中的常見場景：來自不同地方的背包客在旅途中短暫相遇，分享時光。
三年後的今天，Takuya 已經走遍過百國家、返回日本、出版了一本書、並在工餘時間在斯里蘭卡從事慈善活動。而我亦早已回美繼續工作，並幸運地有機會偶爾參與國外項目，使我的旅行夢得以延續。但新冠病毒像過去其他流行病一樣，徹底改變了世界，國際航線頓時停止：我自二月以來已沒出國，五月的巴基斯坦背包之旅被推遲到明年，十一月的沙特阿拉伯行程亦勢將遇同樣命運。新冠病毒改變了世界各地的旅館業，很多民宿永久倒閉，在可預見的將來，背包民宿已成為不可實現的目標。
但也不是只有壞消息！隨著各地民宿自我改造以適應當前需求以及即將推出的疫苗，國際旅行希望可在不久將來恢復。旅行也許不再一樣，但是旅行的欲望仍在，疫情好轉後將可出行！
