How Coronavirus Has Affected Our Travel Plans

Let me preface this by saying, in the scope of things, we know that our travel plans are so trivial during this time but we wanted to shed some light on how this virus has affected us personally.

At the moment, the whole world is at a standstill. We are out of work, our kids are home from school and we have been told to remain indoors. Life as we know it has been totally turned upside down from Covid-19 and it feels like we have been cast in some sort of horror movie.

I don’t like to complain about how this virus has affected us due to the fact that we are healthy, we have enough food in our house and we miraculously were able to get a pack of toilet paper but I’m also SO sad that our upcoming trips had to be canceled. Trips that have been in the works for years and one, which would be our biggest adventure yet, is now totally up in the air.

Our Canceled Trips

First, we were supposed to head out to Colorado over spring break to visit Andy’s parents. They recently moved out there and we were excited to come see their new place. Then in May, we were heading to Europe for the first time! After countless discussions of how cool it would be, my whole family (Andy and I, my parents, all four sisters and their husbands) managed to finally buy tickets for Ireland! We told my dad over Christmas that we were sending him there for his 70th Birthday but then we were going to surprise him by all showing up in one of the pubs (he still doesn’t know about that plan but I’m fairly certain he will never read this). After a week in Ireland, Andy and I were then going to head to Amsterdam.

It breaks my heart canceling those plans and knowing that our kids won’t get to see their Grandparents next week, we won’t get to try a real Guinness, or visit the Cliffs of Moher but I know it’s for the best during this crazy time.

One of the hardest/scariest parts is that we don’t know when all of this will end and when it does, what the world is going to look like. Because you see, we have big plans for the future. In a week we are supposed to move out of the house that we’re renting and stay with family for a while. Andy and I were going to work like crazy over the summer and holidays and then we were going to be off again.

We’re Moving!

We planned, still are planning, to move to Thailand. We hope that everything will settle down soon so that we can continue on with our plan of saving, building up our online business and heading out there. We want to set up a home base in Chiang Mai and travel from there every other month.

It’s Out of our Hands

All of this of course is now up in the air. In order to make this plan work, we need to actually make money, both at home and online. Right now Andy, who makes 99.9% of our income, is out of work. And when his restaurant can finally re-open, will people have the money to go out to eat? Will companies be hiring freelancers? We obviously can’t answer these questions at the moment but we’re continuing to hold out hope that they will.

Even if everything changes, and it’s hard to imagine they won’t, we will find a way to make it happen. It may take a little longer but we’re going. Chiang Mai is our happy place and nothing makes us feel more alive than traveling does. We will do everything and anything to get back to doing what we love!

We’re Grateful for What Matters Most

Don’t get me wrong, while we are incredibly sad about our plans and the uncertainty of our future, this pandemic has made us so grateful for the things that matter most in this world. We have our health and our family, the only two things we truly need right now.

My hope that more and more people will start taking this virus seriously and we can nip it in the bud. The longer we wait to listen to the advice of health experts and just stay at home, the longer we will be dealing with this crisis and most importantly, the more lives that will be at risk.

Please stay home 🙂