My initial plan to travel come to halt when COVID 19 become pandemic across the world. Within a short period, things change too fast. Sometime, it will make us wonder... Life is really short. You can be proud of yourself, at the end, nature will take over. Singapore in March 2019 and Singapore in March 2020. It is like I had return to a strange land, a Singapore without it vibrant vibe.
November 2019, I was in the midst of my travel in Kazakhstan, trying to survive under the cold weather when I heard of a mystery virus started to cause havoc in Chinese city of Wuhan. Within 2 months, the whole China went into lockdown. I was surprise. I was in China in less than 2 months ago and it was business as usual there.
“Life is unpredictable game. No one know how it will go and where it will end - Anonymous”
I receive numerous calls from my aging mom in Dec when the situation in China is getting worse. She had requested me to halt my travel. However, knowing me, she never say it out directly. Instead, she had ask me to remain safe.
The City of the Begining and Ending
January 2020, I was at city of the begining and ending in India. A sacred town near the river bank of Ganges. The holiest site for the Hindu in India where life started and end. Here, you can see the local seeking blessing from the holy river from birth and marriage to death. Hindu believe cremation by the mean of fire will enable them to achieve moksha - liberation from reincarnation. Rather than enduring rebirth, you will achieve nirvana. Most of us have never saw burned bodies before. I saw it for the first time in my life here. The corpse had become blackish with the limb and legs frozen. All the muscle had been tensed. Seeing this scenario make me felt, no matter how rich you are or how powerful you are, death is inevitable.
During my stay in India, I have opportunities to travel with a few Chinese from mainland China and a lot of them are doing panic buying of mask to be sent back to China. Panic buying here mean buying in bulk. Some of them are doing it for profit while some are doing it for their beloved family who are not able to buy it at mainland China due to shortage of mask at that time. Here, you can witness 2 different faces of mankind. The 1st is those opportunist who take advantages to earn extra money and the other who really care for the beloved back in their hometown.
During the travel, I always complain. All these attraction were full of people as shown in photo taken above by me in Dec 2019. In a span of 2 months, all the tourist vans had dissapear and replace by an army of sanitizing workers (photo from Google).
The Two Faces of Mankind
Before the pandemic, I had not face any problem due to my East Asian ancestry. I was welcome as part of local community in countries i visited. We share laughter, food and drink together. While the local are friendly, during this period, it was those from East Asian that are prejudies with each other. They ll try to avoid those with same skin color with them. East Asian had been precive as virus carrier by their fellow East Asian. How sad it is....
From the news i read recently, it seem that the local had started to shoo away those from East Asian and Italian as the virus started to spread. We become unwelcome the moment our countries started to be hit by disaster. We had become outcast.
The Turning Point
The main purpose of my journey is to discover myself again after i lost everything in my life. I become soulless. Just like a walking corpse.
“If i am not dead, I am certainly not living. I am like a walking corpse that hums every time looks like testing myself to see if I am still alive - Anonymous”From the poor and homeless in the street of Delhi to the nomad in Mongolian's outback, it make me realise, how lucky i am to still be healthy and to be able to travel the world.
For the 10 years I spend chasing my dream, i seldom turn my head back to have a look at my aging parent. The moment I lost everything, I turn my head back to them for comfort. At that time, I just saw how much changes happen to them in the years that i neglected them.
From the muscular tall man, he had become fragile with slightly humpback. The once that used to be scolding me with thundering voice had turn soft. Her beautiful black hair had now started to turn white. It really break my heart when i received call from them asking me to go HOME.
The World after COVID
I have no idea how long it will take for mankind to finally eradicate this pandemic. Some say, it was man-made disaster while some said this is the way nature repair itself after being neglected and damaged by mankind's greed.
Will mankind ever win this world against natural rebellion? If yes, sincerely hoping from this whole episode, it will change mankind to be a better. A BETTER FOR EVERYONE TO LIVE and to TRAVEL.
It finally times to go back.