Travel Bits: August 2021

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Leisure travel....... soon?

Sunday morning. As usual, I woke up late, preferring to sleep in on weekend mornings, just so to differentiate between the weekend and weekday mornings of my new work-from-home lifestyle.

As I went through the motion of eating my quotidian breakfast of cereal, oats and eggs while browsing the news websites on my laptop, with a little check on the current Olympic medal tally (today, 8 August 2021, is the last day of the Tokyo "2020" Olympics), it suddenly dawned upon me that leisure travel may soon be possible again in this part of the world. Of course, a lot still depend on the "ifs" and "buts" but there is now a small glimmer of hope that folks looking to travel for leisure may be permitted to do so, subject to some minor inconveniences such as swabbing, re-swabbing and more re-swabbing for viral particles that may be hiding somewhere up in the deep recesses of the travellers' nostrils.

Meanwhile airports, airlines and other businesses associated with the travel industry are trying to come to grips with all the myriad new rules and regulations governing travel. Despite these good intentions, I am sure those who are lucky enough to be amongst the firsts to start travelling again will inevitably bear witness to the pantomimes that are likely to be unintentionally staged at both the departure and arrival phases of their travel itineraries. A small inconvenience I must say, for the privilege of being allowed to once again, savour the joys of travelling. 

Singapore Airlines plane at the Gate, Terminal 3, Changi International Airport, Changi, Singapore (2019)


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