What It’s Like doing International Travel during Covid-19 Pandemic

I arrived in Istanbul, Turkey on February 6^th on a flight from neighboring Cyprus Republic (a small Mediterranean island nation). I had a 90-day tourist e-visa, which meant I could stay in Turkey until May 5^th.

It was right about that time in early February that I first started hearing whispers of the Corona Virus epidemic far over in Wuhan, China. Like many people, I suspect, I didn’t think it was of imminent personal concern, but was a horrible disease spreading in far-off China.

Of course, it wasn’t long before I started to hear that Corona was spreading to other countries like Japan and South Korea. Still far away from Turkey. When I heard about it spreading to Iran and Italy and then rapidly exploding exponentially in both countries, that’s when I first started feeling slightly nervous. Iran borders Turkey on its far eastern edge and Italy is just a short flight across the Mediterranean Sea. Both countries very close indeed.

Istanbul 

There I was in Istanbul. It’s one of the world’s largest cities with a staggering population of 20 Million people. It’s also a major tourist destination for people from all around the world, including large groups of Chinese, Koreans, Japanese and individual travelers from every country in Europe. Istanbul is also extremely popular with Middle Easterners for both vacations and business trips.

I spent more than one month in Istanbul, exploring the city extensively and also on assignment to visit 22 large international hotels, plus update an Istanbul Guide for the same company.

As the Corona Virus epidemic slowly unfolded during the four + weeks I was in the city, I started paying more attention to the people around me out on the streets. There were still large groups of Asian tourists unloading from big buses to visit Istanbul’s major attractions. I didn’t get close enough to hear which language they were speaking to figure out which countries they hailed from. In fact, I started staying away from them.

As I heard more and more reports from around the world and the virus continued spreading and escalating, while there in Istanbul I kept seeing tourists from all over the world walking around the crowded city, visiting the main tourist sites, riding ferries and buses and trams, I started saying to myself, “hmm…” The city seemed like it must be a perfect hot-bed for the disease, which could easily be being brought in and passed around by people from every country in the world, right in front of my eyes.

Then I took into account that I myself was going out day after day to visit huge luxury hotels for two full weeks in mid-February. I met with hotel staff, including security men, doormen, receptionists, concierge, restaurant & cafe staff and the sales staff who took me on tours of the hotels’ facilities and guest rooms.

During my visits, hotel guests from around the world were inside walking around, sitting in lobbies, dining, having business meetings, enjoy spa facilities, working out in the gyms. I was mingling with all of them. On a daily basis. For more than two weeks.

Of course, that was all before the big lock-downs around the world. Before flights to/from China, Italy, Iran were cancelled in Turkey. It was before Turkey realized Covid-19 was going to be a problem in Turkey, too.

As the international situation escalated outside Turkey, it gradually dawned on me that my job was pretty darn risky. Never the less, I continued and completed visiting all 22 hotels. To that point there had been no reported cases in Istanbul or Turkey.

But I was looking around at the crowded streets in a city of 20 million people, and all the international tourists, who I knew had just flown in from other cities around the world…and I was thinking, “There’s gotta be Corona Virus here already.”

Considering all the contact I’d had with hotel staff and guests from all over the globe, I was also thinking, “Who knows? I could already have Corona Virus.” But if so, I had no symptoms. That could well have been. Who knows?

Meanwhile, I had already booked a flight from Istanbul to Cappadocia in central Turkey for March 9^th. I think at that point flights to/from Turkey and certain key countries like China, Korea, Iran and Italy had been stopped to/from Istanbul. But domestic flights were still on.

I think it was the day before I left Istanbul on March 9^th that the first case was confirmed in that city. At that point I wasn’t particularly concerned about traveling within Turkey.

But I was certainly glad I was leaving Istanbul and I’m sure I would have decided to leave quickly if I didn’t already have a flight out. It was just too massive of a city, and an international city, to not turn into a disaster zone. But I figured central Turkey would be ok.

On my flight there was a large tour group of Indonesians, hailing from nearly every island in that nation. Since I ‘used to’ speak Indonesian, I said hello and spoke with them. There were people from Bali, Java, Sumatra and Sulawesi, and probably other isalnds as well.

A few were wearing masks, but most were not. I wasn’t either, nor were most of the other passengers or flight attendants. Nobody knew at that point how risky it was to conduct a flight filled with passengers from at least a dozen different countries. We all arrived in Cappadocia unscathed…as far as we knew.

Cappadocia 

In Cappadocia, I stayed at a small hostel, in a small female dorm with just four beds. My room was set inside a cave, as was the main dorm room with 12 beds. The rest of the hostel had a reception room, private rooms and a great rooftop restaurant with indoor seating and a large outdoor terrace, with amazing views over the tiny town of Goreme.

Cappadocia is famous for its spectacular scenery filled with stunning rock canyons and centuries-old cave homes carved into the canyons, cliffs and rock pillars. It’s also one of the world’ most famous and stunning places for hot-air ballooning.

Winter is the low season in Cappadocia both because it’s cold & often snowy, and because there’s usually too much wind for ballooning. In February, a majority of balloon flights get cancelled because of strong wind. March is a bit better, but many flights get cancelled then, too.

So the whole region, including Goreme town, was fairly quiet when I arrived at the beginning of the week. There were a handful of guests in my hostel, including one French woman in my female dorm for one night.

The town of Goreme also had a handful of visitors wandering around, taking various tours, dining at the restaurants and exploring.

I took a fantastic tour with about 10 guests, who came from the USA, India and South Africa. We visited several fantastic major sites, including a massive underground historic city, a beautiful river valley, a large cave monastery and a small crater lake.

The next day, on March 11^th, I went ballooning for the first time in my life. It was an amazing experience that I wrote about here. I was crammed into a large balloon basket with about 25 travelers from many different countries. We all had a great time.

I also had to visit four luxury cave hotels while there. The hotels were all practically empty and one receptionist told me that just on the day I visited he had 10 group cancellations for upcoming stays. The hotels and trips to Cappadocia were being abandoned due to the expanding global crisis.

As the week progressed, I sensed that the town was emptying out, getting quieter and quieter. By the end of the week, it was practically a ghost town. Apparently the travelers who were already there left (most only stay two nights), but no new visitors arrived. So at week’s end it was just me, the hostel staff and an Australian couple who’d arrived mid-week.

I went hiking in the stunning canyons during two days of beautiful spring weather before the temperatures plummeted and heavy snow suddenly set in for more than a week.

I busied myself writing up hotel reviews for a few snow-laden days. And then I continued my planned travel route through Turkey. That was March 19^th.

By that time, Iran and Italy were disaster zones. Spain was getting bad, and most countries in Europe were seeing Corona cases blossom. I think it was also then, in mid-March, that most international flights started being shut down, European countries started closing their borders, the virus finally hit the USA in a growing way, and the big lock-downs and obligatory quarantines started around the world outside of China.

I heard that flights in & out of Turkey were stopped at that point and that Turkey closed its borders. But still all domestic flights, buses and trains were running. There was no lock-down or closures.

Konya 

I took a 4-hour bus across snowed-in countryside to the small city of Konya, home of the famous Whirling Dervishes. I was excited to visit the Whirling Dervish Museum and watch their weekly Saturday evening dance performance. I also wanted to visit several other small museums, beautiful mosques and the historic town in the city center.

My first day in Konya everything seemed pretty normal. Most of the stores and restaurants were open. Plenty of buses, trams, private cars, taxis and mini-vans filled the streets, and lots of people were walking around. But, to my great dismay, the museums were all closed. And the dance performance had been cancelled.

I found out that the Turkish government had announced closure of all museums, cultural sites & activities; entertainment, sports & leisure facilities and events; cafes and bars until the end of March. A two-week shut-down, from March 17^th to March 31^st.

Over the weekend of March 19-21^st I saw things shut down more and more each day. Soon nearly every shop and restaurant was closed. Mosque services were canceled, but individuals were allowed to go inside. Citizens were recommended to practice social distancing, to wash their hands regularly and to use disinfectants liberally.

I heard that the Turkish government issued free gloves and disinfectants all over the country. Out in the streets there were a handful of people walking around, taking buses, driving cars, eating at restaurants. I was one of them.

Some people wore masks, some not. The handful of shops and restaurants that were open all had bottles of disinfectant that they liberally poured on customers’ hands. But nobody was really paying much attention to social distancing at that point.

At that point, I could see the situation was serious in Turkey, too, and that the government & citizens were taking loosely-strict measures to prevent the spread and protect themselves.

I did consider whether it was risky to continue traveling domestically, taking another bus cross-country. But it certainly wasn’t prohibited. Buses were still running. And I certainly didn’t want to get stuck in cold, land-locked Konya, especially since my next destination was the gorgeous city of Antalya, right on the Mediterranean Coast.

I’d seen plenty of stunning photos of the cliffs, beaches, tall jagged mountains and even a waterfall plunging into the sea from a high cliff.

I had the hotel receptionist in Konya call ahead to a small, inexpensive hotel in Antalya that I’d found online. They were open, had rooms available, and were perfectly happy to take me as a guest.

Overland Bus through Turkey 

So after spending 2 ½ days in Konya, I took a all-day bus trip across more of Turkey to the coast. The bus station was open but nearly empty. Several buses were waiting to depart at 10 am, like my bus, but each bus had very few passengers.

That was good! Fewer passengers meant that the few of us onboard could keep distant from each other and also that there were fewer people to potentially have the virus.

The 7-hour bus trip was fantastic. We passed through absolutely gorgeous scenery practically the entire way to Antalya. I spent much of the trip photographing snow-capped mountains lining flat spring-green fields and small lakes, some crazy rock formations and blossoming spring trees.

The most beautiful part of the journey involved driving along the shores of a long dammed lake, lined by snow-capped mountains. We drove all the way around Lake Erdigan to the southern end and halfway up the further side before we veered away from the lake and passed through a hilly valley area southward towards the coast.

We finally reached Antalya in early evening. I caught a city bus to my hotel, with directions from the hotel owner, walked the final couple blocks, checked-in and settled in. I got a lovely, spacious room on the second floor Math a queen bed & a twin bed, a large window, nice furniture and a private bathroom. All for under $10 US per night. 

Antalya

Antalya was in the same loose-lockdown situation as Konya. Most stores and businesses of all types were closed, but not all. It looked like all the big chain stores were closed but small, privately-owned shops of all types were allowed to choose to be open or closed.

Essential businesses were open, including grocery stores, small convenience stores, fruit & vegetable shops, nut & dried fruit shops, butchers, bakeries, pharmacies, gas stations, the post office, a few banks and a few local restaurants for take-out only service. Thrown in the mix were a random selection of shops: clothing, shoe stores, printers, stationery, souvenirs, furniture stores and so on.

I spent the first week eagerly exploring beautiful Antalya. Just two blocks from my hotel was a small clifftop park over-looking the sea, Antalya’s famous historic marina, down at the base of the cliffs, the distant spectacular coastline backed by soaring jagged mountains, the highest ones capped by snow.

I walked around the small, charming curved boat harbor; wandered the hilly, cobblestoned streets of the historic town area, which is set on top of cliffs above the marina; discovered more beautiful parks, filled with friendly cats; took photos and got plenty of exercise.

One day I took a bus out to the edge of the city to see the spectacular Duden Waterfall that plunges in to the sea from a high cliff. It’s set in a big seaside park and certainly lived up to my expectations.

Midweek, the temperature got up to 19C / nearly 70F and the sun came out bright & strong. I made a beeline to the 2-km long beach to lay in the sun, at long last. To my great luck, it was just a 30-minute walk from my hotel, mostly through parkland.

It turned out that the beach was made of pebbles, not exactly comfortable for suntanning. But I was so sun and beach starved that I didn’t mind at all! I just laid out my colorful sarong and slept in the beautiful warm sun for two hours. It was fabulous.

WE had a couple days of dense cloud cover and chilly rain, so I stayed in, working. But on the weekend the temperatures rose again and the sun came out. Off I went to the beach.

NOT…. Turned out that by the weekend of March 26th, Antalya had closed its beaches. Parks were still open, though, and I discovered a beautiful 2-km long pakr on the cliffs above the beach. So I enjoyed a walk instead. Sunday as well.

I had planned on staying in Antalya for one week then traveling slowly along the coast, westward. There are some stunning little coves, forest-covered mountains, au naturale beaches, and even a couple of Bohemian communities out there. That’s where I planned to enjoy a 2-3 week work-free vacation.

But… Antalya started closing up tighter and tighter. More and more of the independent stores and restaurants closed. Pubic parks got closed, guarded by police at their entry points. Buses were still running, but they didn’t seem too frequent.

So I got the impression that the Corona situation in Turkey must be escalating and getting worse, not better nor even stabilized. So at long last I started thinking I’d better stay in one place for the moment.

Being ‘stuck’ in Antalya, Turkey 

And so I’m still here in Antalya on April 1^st as I finish up this article. Antalya is certainly not a bad place to be ‘stuck’ for a while. Not at all. In fact, as long as I can continue to go out walking each day, in relatively safety, and get food to eat nearby, then this is a great place to be stuck!

In fact, Turkey is probably the perfect place for me to be during this crisis. It’s inexpensive, so I can afford it. Food is relatively easy to find and inexpensive. My hotel room is great. I discovered the flat roof on top of the hotel, so I can suntan thre on warm sunny days.

There are plenty of beautiful places to walk – through the historic town, around the marina, through small parks that seemed to have slipped through the ‘no go zone’ rules, along the edges of larger parks, some with coastal views.

And so this is where I am for the time being.

Perhaps surprisingly to many, my usual life hasn’t been too terribly disrupted, aside from my travel plans from this point being put on hold for a while. For years my daily life has consisted of spending 2-4 hours working, about half a day exploring the place I’m in, eating meals and having some relaxation time. I’m still doing just that.

Luckily I was given a large hotel & guides assignment for Turkey. And luckily, before the crisis struck here, I had already completed a huge Istanbul Guide update and visited 22 hotels in Istanbul & four hotels in Cappadocia. Now I’m slowly writing up all those hotel reviews and working on a general Turkey Guide update. So I have plenty of work to do for the time being.

And, as I mentioned, as long as I can suntan on the hotel roof and go out for pleasant long walks without endangering myself, I’m pretty much living my life the way I usually do. Let’s see how it continues from this point.

I hope all of you are also in a place you’re happy to be ‘stuck’ at, as well as being careful and staying safe, wherever you are in the world.

More from the road soon. Cheers, Lash

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