Nick Kor set off last September to spend 10 months traveling Asia exploring grassroots leadership and community organizing in China, Japan, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Korea and elsewhere.
His trip — funded by a fellowship from the St. Paul-based Bush Foundation — was cut short by the coronavirus outbreak.
Months earlier than expected, the Minneapolis resident met up with longtime friend and fellow traveler Oskar Ly to prepare to leave. Ly, of St. Paul, was in Thailand studying Hmong crafts through a fellowship from the St. Paul-based Jerome Hill Foundation.
In early April, the two took separate flights back to Minnesota. They are renting an apartment together in Minneapolis for a 14-day voluntary self-quarantine.
CONTRASTS IN RESPONSE IN ASIA, U.S.
They say their experience watching Asian countries close borders and impose strict, if uneven, rules in response to the novel coronavirus stands in stark contrast to the relatively relaxed attitude they discovered upon returning to the U.S.
Both were taken aback by the differences they saw on either side of the world — especially in airports.
On his flight into the U.S., Kor received a “health alert” slip from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention encouraging him to self-quarantine for 14 days, but that was all.
“When I flew into John F. Kennedy Airport in New York, I gave the customs person my passport, and he asked me one question — where did you come from? — and that was it,” Kor said. “From there, I was free.”
In Asia, “every hotel I would stay at would check you for your temperature,” Kor said. “Some stores would, too. If you declined it, they probably wouldn’t let you into that store. Some stores would require you to wear a mask to come in.”
His temperature was scanned at airports in Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia, and Korean officials required a face-to-face health interview. Thailand required travelers to download a smartphone app that would reportedly track their whereabouts, helping the government determine if those ordered to self-quarantine were doing so.
FINES, JAIL TIME FOR THOSE NOT WEARING MASKS
Ly flew home through Seoul, South Korea, and then Atlanta.
In America, “they didn’t interview me at all,” she said. “There were no scans, no temperature, no health questionnaire. When we went through Korea, all the flight attendants were wearing masks and gloves. In the U.S. flights, they didn’t wear gloves or masks. When I arrived in Atlanta, there was no one covered up.”
Vietnam, where she had spent a significant part of her fellowship, was a different story.
“As I was leaving Vietnam, there were going to be fines and jail time imposed on people who were not wearing a mask, and if you congregate with two people or more, they can arrest you,” Ly said. “I started seeing airports shutting down, and crossing across different provinces was discouraged.”
EARLY DAYS OF OUTBREAK IN ASIA
Kor was in Hong Kong in January as the virus spread in China, which had already felt the impact of SARS and avian flu in the early 2000s.
“I think people were generally more attuned to the dangers that a virus could pose to you or your community,” Kor said. “A lot of the activists will send mask airdrops to people in the subway, so I got one. And just a few days later, that’s when everything started happening. In Hong Kong, people were pretty scared.”
He recalled sitting on the tarmac before a flight to Vietnam when the airline announced the country had closed its borders to travelers from China. The restrictions, however, were loosened to travelers from Hong Kong and the autonomous region of Macau overnight, and he was able to complete his trip the next day.
“In Vietnam, it seemed like people were pretty relaxed, but you could tell there were just less people around — China makes up a huge percentage of tourists — and I saw one sign that said, ‘If you are from China, you cannot enter,’ Kor said. “But (the atmosphere) wasn’t as serious — half the people I saw on the street were not wearing masks.”
In mid-February, as the virus spread through Asia, Ly was in Thailand but heading to Vietnam for Tet, which is Lunar New Year. Suddenly, China announced they were canceling their Lunar New Year celebrations.
“I think at the time, I was cautious, but I also felt it was far enough away,” she recalled. “When I checked into my (Vietnamese) hostel, they told me if I had a Chinese passport, they would have denied me and they would have turned me away. There were three other women who were staying in the same dorm, they were white, and they had all come from China. It was very inconsistent.”
By the time Ly returned to Thailand, the atmosphere had changed.
“There was a significant difference in the amount of tourists,” she said. “And it just never picked up after that.”
Ly spent a month in Sa Pa, a rural area in northwestern Vietnam near the Chinese border. As she traveled between villages, she saw fewer and fewer people on the street, and store owners and street vendors gradually stopped coming down from the hills to work in the markets.
“The response has been pretty restrictive, but has also had a lot of repercussions,” she said. “(At one point), I debated if I should stay in Vietnam or if I should come back to Thailand. I found out yesterday that the hotel I was staying at shut down just days after I left. There were only two guests left in the hotel, and I was one of them.”
TIME TO COME HOME
In mid-March, Kor was in Cambodia, and national borders had begun closing across Asia. “Or they would require a 14-day quarantine,” Kor said. “Thailand didn’t have a quarantine, and Oskar was there, so I headed there.”
Thailand was still open but things were soon closing down, he said.
“Right when I was leaving, they were implementing a nightly curfew, at least in my area. It was maybe a bit scary. It was more exhausting. I wanted to stay, so I’d make plans, I’ll do this or I’ll do this. And it kept changing. And it just made it harder for me to do my work, too. Once I booked my flight, the flights would change.”
Ly had other concerns.
Through her travel alerts, she realized all of the remaining countries she had planned to visit — Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia — were implementing serious restrictions.
“Australia and New Zealand were one of the first countries to close their borders, and Thailand started requiring health certificates prior to boarding,” she said. “By the time Nick arrived, every day there was a different change.”
Ly’s insurance notified her they would not cover pandemic-related problems. She realized it was time to cut her fellowship short.
“My travel insurance and health insurance was about to expire for any coronavirus-related coverage,” she said. “I was like, ‘OK, it’s time to go home.’ I felt like everybody was going to get coronavirus and there was no way to avoid it, and at some point I might need care.”
Out of an abundance of caution, the friends decided to live together for two weeks at a Minneapolis Airbnb.
“We’re just doing it to be safe,” Kor said. “No one made me do it. I’m going to be staying with my mom, and I want to make sure that if I got sick somehow, I won’t be contaminating her.”