The New Normal - On the road during Coronavirus pandemic: Life at ground level for the solo backpacker
November 6 2020
As countries go into lockdown again in the wake of this fucking Coronavirus pandemic, where travel was or maybe still is considered irresponsible and in some places, actually impossible, spare a thought for those who are still on the road.
Of course, my being away is of my own doing but it is not always a barrel of laughs, just in case your thinking, "that Trevor, he's on permanent vacation, having fun and we are on lockdown, again".
I spent 105 days on lockdown in Kenya and 14 days on isolation in Skopje, I have served my time thank you very much and in a countries that I don't have a passport for and of course alone.
Travelling now means going where you can go as opposed to going where you want to go.
The number one requirement of a low budget traveller in the absence of any regular income is being somewhere where daily costs won't leave you bankrupt.
Having escaped from Kenya, I went to Serbia, purely as it was one of the very few places that established very early on, after 12 weeks of hard lockdown, that they were again open for business. I was just fortunate in that Serbia and then Kosovo, Albania and North Macedonia were very affordable.
I am now in Istanbul and Turkey is, thanks to a crap economy, very affordable. I'm taking private rooms for around 8 USD a night. I could take a dorm bed for around 4 USD a night but after Skopje, am reluctant to opt for this arrangement (for those unaware, I was in contact with a Covid+ and thus required by law to isolate for quite a considerable expense).
In 2010 the Turkish Lira was 1.5 to the dollar. Now, it's an incredible 8.5. Obviously, many things have moved in line with the Euro but where things cater to the local market, essential items are super cheap.
Examples of the super low prices here (10TL is 1€): Coffee at Burger King: 1.50TL, Fish sandwich: 15TL, 1.5l of water: 1TL, lentil soup with bread: 5TL. Obviously, prices will vary depending on where you shop but man is it cheap.
Turkey as a place to be is a good a place as any. And I have to be somewhere eh! But is it where I'd want to be if the world was still my oyster? No. It's not bad but you know..
I always have this desire to be somewhere else. Right now I miss the sticky heat of Southeast Asia, I miss the mountains of Nepal and long walks on Goan beaches. I might as well be dreaming of the moon.
Aside from Turkey being affordable, the climate right now is ideal, and there are places still to be discovered but I feel a sadness that it's wasting time and money being somewhere where I have been quite a few times.
I have been staying in backpacker hostels since 1992 and having to switch to hotel rooms is quite a lonely experience. The social aspect associated with backpacking is now mostly gone.
Though as the years go by or take their toll, I need this scene less but it is there, or was there, if I needed it.
In much of Africa where the backpacker hostel scene is rather more thin on the ground or even non-existent in a lot of places, hotels in Morocco, for example, cater for travellers and even though you take a room for yourself, you met up at mealtimes in the attached cafe and in many other places on the road less travelled, there were cafes where travellers used to make a beeline for.
In Turkey, there are hundreds of cheap places for the traveller to go and eat and hang out and there are almost no travellers left so meeting them isn't going to happen.
And the only locals who talk are the ones who are trying to sell you something like a carpet. It starts with a comment like "nice hat/bag/earing" and if you respond they've hooked you and before you know it you are drinking tea and looking at carpets. And annoyingly they get angry if you ignore them.
I spent 105 days on lockdown in Kenya and 14 days on isolation in Skopje, I have served my time thank you very much and in a countries that I don't have a passport for and of course alone.
Travelling now means going where you can go as opposed to going where you want to go.
The number one requirement of a low budget traveller in the absence of any regular income is being somewhere where daily costs won't leave you bankrupt.
Having escaped from Kenya, I went to Serbia, purely as it was one of the very few places that established very early on, after 12 weeks of hard lockdown, that they were again open for business. I was just fortunate in that Serbia and then Kosovo, Albania and North Macedonia were very affordable.
I am now in Istanbul and Turkey is, thanks to a crap economy, very affordable. I'm taking private rooms for around 8 USD a night. I could take a dorm bed for around 4 USD a night but after Skopje, am reluctant to opt for this arrangement (for those unaware, I was in contact with a Covid+ and thus required by law to isolate for quite a considerable expense).
In 2010 the Turkish Lira was 1.5 to the dollar. Now, it's an incredible 8.5. Obviously, many things have moved in line with the Euro but where things cater to the local market, essential items are super cheap.
Examples of the super low prices here (10TL is 1€): Coffee at Burger King: 1.50TL, Fish sandwich: 15TL, 1.5l of water: 1TL, lentil soup with bread: 5TL. Obviously, prices will vary depending on where you shop but man is it cheap.
Turkey as a place to be is a good a place as any. And I have to be somewhere eh! But is it where I'd want to be if the world was still my oyster? No. It's not bad but you know..
I always have this desire to be somewhere else. Right now I miss the sticky heat of Southeast Asia, I miss the mountains of Nepal and long walks on Goan beaches. I might as well be dreaming of the moon.
Aside from Turkey being affordable, the climate right now is ideal, and there are places still to be discovered but I feel a sadness that it's wasting time and money being somewhere where I have been quite a few times.
I have been staying in backpacker hostels since 1992 and having to switch to hotel rooms is quite a lonely experience. The social aspect associated with backpacking is now mostly gone.
Though as the years go by or take their toll, I need this scene less but it is there, or was there, if I needed it.
In much of Africa where the backpacker hostel scene is rather more thin on the ground or even non-existent in a lot of places, hotels in Morocco, for example, cater for travellers and even though you take a room for yourself, you met up at mealtimes in the attached cafe and in many other places on the road less travelled, there were cafes where travellers used to make a beeline for.
In Turkey, there are hundreds of cheap places for the traveller to go and eat and hang out and there are almost no travellers left so meeting them isn't going to happen.
And the only locals who talk are the ones who are trying to sell you something like a carpet. It starts with a comment like "nice hat/bag/earing" and if you respond they've hooked you and before you know it you are drinking tea and looking at carpets. And annoyingly they get angry if you ignore them.
Some places require you to take a Covid test before you travel. You must be fully aware of the ramifications of this simple procedure. For those who don't believe in Covid or think it is nothing more than a bad bout of pneumonia it is such that if you take a test and it comes back +ve you will be required to isolate/quarantine, mostly at your expense and your beliefs stand for shit. I wrote a post on Vagabond Journey about how to travel during the coronavirus pandemic.
This is Turkey's stance on the situation:
This is Turkey's stance on the situation:
Foreign passengers who test positive for COVID-19 on landing flights will be referred to a private hospital by the Ministry of Health – Border Health Unit, whereas Turkish passengers will be referred to a state hospital.
This is likely to be the case when you want to get a test for onward travel too. Nuff said!
Or maybe you think I am being irresponsible by still travelling.
But I have no choice - Maybe it's time to expand on this a little as I have always glossed over it.
I've never had a place to call my own in England. I always lived in the home I was born in with mom and dad and later just dad. There seemed little point in having a base of my own. From the age of 22, I was never there much.
When mom died, it was difficult for my dad as you would imagine after 42 years together, 38 years of them as husband and wife. My dad was and still is, a jack of all trades so managing household stuff was never an issue. He always cooked, ran the accounts, did the gardening, maintained the house. Being without mom was hard.
In the years after, I was working in Switzerland so I would be away for 4 or 5 months then I'd go back and head off to India or Borneo for a month or 2 before going back, repacking my bags and then back to Switzerland. And more recently, my absences got longer. I'd be away for 4 years, go back penniless and stay until I had enough in the bank again.
My dad found this hard. He'd get used to being alone and then I'd turn up again, "disrupt" his life before leaving again.
I call him up on Skype. He seems happier these days than when I was there though he bitches about having to wash the dishes. That's something I always did amongst many other things though mostly on a Sunday when he went out and he didn't see me. But it's not like I was under his feet. I was out the door at 6 am and come home dog tired at 5 pm mostly, have dinner, watch telly and go to bed.
It is was it is and I totally get it, though if I was a parent I'd like to think that I would provide a never-ending refuge for any son or daughter.
So it's just better that I stay away.
And now, of course, fucking Corona, and Boris said he has to live alone. That's what he is doing. Even my sisters are banished to the garden and he doesn't let them inside, not even to use the loo.
Yes, I am entitled to go back to the UK but for what? Finding a place to live, getting a job to pay the rent, all within a month, that's just never gonna happen.
So my safe haven is no longer an option. It's funny that when you know that you can always return home at any stage of the game and to be honest I would say 99% of people on the road do have that place, you don't think about it but when you know the option doesn't exist it does make for an uneasy time.
Mostly I just miss the freedom my alternative lifestyle gave me. To be able to go almost anywhere. Life is restrictive, almost frivolous and there ain't much fun to be had anymore. But I'm trying to make the most of it and finding a way through the maze.
But I have no choice - Maybe it's time to expand on this a little as I have always glossed over it.
I've never had a place to call my own in England. I always lived in the home I was born in with mom and dad and later just dad. There seemed little point in having a base of my own. From the age of 22, I was never there much.
When mom died, it was difficult for my dad as you would imagine after 42 years together, 38 years of them as husband and wife. My dad was and still is, a jack of all trades so managing household stuff was never an issue. He always cooked, ran the accounts, did the gardening, maintained the house. Being without mom was hard.
In the years after, I was working in Switzerland so I would be away for 4 or 5 months then I'd go back and head off to India or Borneo for a month or 2 before going back, repacking my bags and then back to Switzerland. And more recently, my absences got longer. I'd be away for 4 years, go back penniless and stay until I had enough in the bank again.
My dad found this hard. He'd get used to being alone and then I'd turn up again, "disrupt" his life before leaving again.
I call him up on Skype. He seems happier these days than when I was there though he bitches about having to wash the dishes. That's something I always did amongst many other things though mostly on a Sunday when he went out and he didn't see me. But it's not like I was under his feet. I was out the door at 6 am and come home dog tired at 5 pm mostly, have dinner, watch telly and go to bed.
It is was it is and I totally get it, though if I was a parent I'd like to think that I would provide a never-ending refuge for any son or daughter.
So it's just better that I stay away.
And now, of course, fucking Corona, and Boris said he has to live alone. That's what he is doing. Even my sisters are banished to the garden and he doesn't let them inside, not even to use the loo.
Yes, I am entitled to go back to the UK but for what? Finding a place to live, getting a job to pay the rent, all within a month, that's just never gonna happen.
So my safe haven is no longer an option. It's funny that when you know that you can always return home at any stage of the game and to be honest I would say 99% of people on the road do have that place, you don't think about it but when you know the option doesn't exist it does make for an uneasy time.
Mostly I just miss the freedom my alternative lifestyle gave me. To be able to go almost anywhere. Life is restrictive, almost frivolous and there ain't much fun to be had anymore. But I'm trying to make the most of it and finding a way through the maze.