Having a little brother living in Shanghai, I was acutely aware of COVID-19 well before it even had a name. I recall traveling through New Zealand and Australia when news about the novel coronavirus first came out. Then I was in Latin America when China started to enact strict lockdowns. Next I spent most of February in South Africa, as the global financial markets were plummeting, and the first cases of COVID were being discovered in Italy, Iran and eventually the United States.

I returned to New York for a few days in early March, when the city was starting to go into panic mode. Restaurants were still open and people were being encouraged to keep living their normal lives, but the private sector had started to shut down offices and there was a palpable feeling of impending doom throughout the city. It was not without a bit of trepidation that I boarded my flight to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on the evening of March 7th, 2020. Fortunately I had made time for a hair appointment the previous day. Little did I (or anyone) know that it would be months before a visit to the salon would be possible again.

My Original Itinerary

Like much of my 2019 and pre-pandemic 2020 plans, I had an ambitious itinerary planned for southeast Asia in March. First I’d fly to KL for a couple nights (read more here), then on to Langkawi (here) to relax on my own. Next it was on to Singapore for three nights to meet a group of eleven other people to celebrate my friend/former colleague David’s 40th birthday, followed by five nights on a private island in the Philippines. The final leg would be a few nights each in Laos, Cambodia and Thailand with my dad, stepmom and little brother before returning to New York. After that I had a busy April planned in Europe, including my first visits to Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Switzerland, Russia and Denmark. Clearly, most of that didn’t happen.

Arriving in Singapore

Shit had basically hit the fan during my last full day in Langkawi. It took less than thirty minutes on a treadmill for the news to come out that Tom Hanks had been diagnosed with the coronavirus, the NBA was suspending its season, and Trump declared a travel ban on visitors from the EU to the US. Shortly thereafter, ten of the eleven people on the aforementioned birthday trip decided to cancel their vacation.

At this point in time much of Asia was still open and virus cases actually seemed to be much lower than in other parts of the world, so I figured I may as well try to ride out the trip as best as possible. My parents had already decided to cancel since they were in their late 60s and in a high-risk group for the coronavirus. And it looked increasingly difficult for my brother to be able to leave China. However, I still had one standing travel buddy: David’s girlfriend, Sideah. The poor girl had already been en route to Doha, Qatar to catch her connecting flight to Singapore from Canada when everyone else on the trip bailed. While Sideah and I had never met, we both decided to take advantage of the unusual circumstances and make the most of our time together.

We were lucky. Singapore ultimately closed its borders just a couple days after we arrived. While I was anxious flying in from Langkawi, I reminded myself that I was in one of the safer parts of the world at the moment (definitely much safer than NYC) and I felt fortunate that I was still able to travel when many other people were grounded.

Singapore Day #1: Meeting Sideah, Marina Bay Sands, Hawker Centre, Rooftop Bars

Upon landing in Singapore, I easily cleared immigrations and customs and was soon in a taxi to my first Singapore hotel: Marina Bay Sands. While I normally wouldn’t have chosen this giant Vegas-style casino/resort for my own stay, it had fit the bill perfectly for the theme of David’s 40th birthday trip: Crazy Rich Korean. Well, Sideah and I would have to figure out how to carry out the theme all on our own.

The original plan for the first night in Singapore was pretty low key since almost everyone except me was supposed to be arriving from North America and would be pretty jet-lagged. Sideah and I met outside our rooms and headed upstairs to the rooftop for drinks. If we were going to become best friends for the next few days, cocktails were in order.

No visit to Singapore would be complete without a stop at at least one of the city’s famous hawker centers, essentially vast open-air food courts. We decided to go to Maxwell Food Centre, well-known for its Hainanese Chicken Rice, which I of course would not be eating.

After a delicious but not particularly spicy meal, we headed to The Other Roof, a rooftop bar nearby Maxwell that features over 400 “tea-finished” spirits. Finally, it was back to Marina Bay Sands for a good night’s sleep.

Singapore Day #2: More Marina Bay Sands, More Bar-Hopping, More Bad News

I had lazy plans for my first full day in Singapore: first hitting the gym to help me feel not so lazy, then hanging out at the hotel’s iconic rooftop pool.

At this point, I was still hopeful that I’d be able to continue on with my original travel plans post-Singapore, starting with Cambodia to visit Angkor Wat. Then the news broke that Cambodia had enabled an entry ban on foreigners from the United States, among other countries. So much for that idea. I was also trying to figure out what to do with the five days that I had originally planned to spend in the Philippines with David and his ten friends. After consulting a map, flight schedules and current border policies, I decided on a tour of Sri Lanka. I had never been to the South Asian country and had read great things about its beaches, wildlife, tea plantations and more. In between the gym, the pool and drinks with Sideah, I was rushing to adjust my travel plans amid all these rapidly-changing conditions.

One last minute surprise that I was able to enjoy during this time: my new friends Juan and Charmaine were visiting Singapore for the weekend, so Sideah and I met them for cocktails at Marina Bay Sands. I had just met Juan and Charmaine a few days before in KL when we joined a street food tour together. Canadians like Sideah, they had embarked on a year of the digital nomad lifestyle, spending a month in various cities around the world while working remotely. Over drinks we all fretted about the particularly disastrous state of the world and the unpredictable outlook for our future travel plans. What other countries would be closing their borders? Would we be able to get home? While we all felt quite safe in Southeast Asia, was it even responsible to be traveling during this time? After finishing our drinks we bid each other an apprehensive farewell, wishing each other luck.

Then it was time to finally leave Marina Bay Sands and show Sideah around. Singapore has a bustling nightlife scene and I was excited to have a partner-in-crime to tour some of my favorite spots with.

Singapore Day #3: Brunch at Manhattan, More Upended Travel Plans

Sideah would be leaving for Seattle to see David the following day, so Sunday was our last day together. I had made brunch reservations at Manhattan, a glamorous hotel bar that features a legendary boozy brunch on Sundays. The original plan had of course been to party it up with a group of twelve, but alas, it would just be the two of us ladies.

My brother Jonathan had introduced me to Manhattan’s cocktail brunch during my first visit to Singapore, less than a year earlier. As an actual resident of the borough of Manhattan I worshipped the institution of brunch and had high expectations for Manhattan the bar. It was honestly unlike anything I’ve ever experienced in NYC. I’d even go as far as calling it the adult Disneyland of boozy brunches. While pricey, the cocktails (and Champagne) were free-flowing and the all-inclusive food menu included oysters, lobster, pork belly, and much, much more.

Sideah and I had a fun time sending FOMO-inspiring selfies to the crew stuck back in the US in between sips of Champagne and bites of lobster. Oddly they all felt bad for us being “stuck” alone in Singapore. I mean, if this was how my coronavirus quarantine was going to be, I’d take it.

Things started to get a bit more real back at the hotel, as I began to stress about my plans to fly to Sri Lanka the following morning. While I still wasn’t too concerned about my personal safety or my ability to get home — and I loved the idea of an adventure — I was feeling guilty about traveling during a global health crisis. The more that I researched the current state of travel in Sri Lanka, the more my concern grew. While the tourism industry was still welcoming visitors and the country itself was reporting a low number of COVID-19 cases, the citizens seemed to be increasingly suspicious of visitors from the West that may be bringing in the virus. It also seemed unlikely that I’d be able to continue with my original plans of visiting Luang Prabang, Laos and Bangkok, Thailand. With much disappointment I decided to cancel my Sri Lanka trip, just a day after I had booked it.

Singapore Day #4: Moving to Capella on Sentosa Island, Canceling More Travel

I bid Sideah farewell and sent her off to the U.S. with David’s birthday gift, a GoPro meant to be used while snorkeling and jet-skiing around a private island in the Palawan archipelago of the Philippines, not while quarantining in a Seattle apartment. Then it was time to check out of Marina Bay Sands.

At this point my future plans were completely up in the air. I had a flight booked from Singapore back to New York on the 31st of March, over two weeks away. While U.S. citizens hadn’t been banned from all of the countries on my original Southeast Asia travel list, I was feeling increasingly guilty about going anywhere and coming into contact with more people. While Singapore had been one of the first countries to report COVID cases from China, it had done an impressive job with quarantines and contact-tracing and I felt very safe there. Meanwhile, everyone I knew in NYC was losing their shit to say the least. I decided to stay in Singapore for the time being and see how things developed. Spoiler alert: not good.

The upside: Singapore has a ton of luxury hotels, fine dining restaurants and high-end cocktail bars. I decided to make the most of my remaining stay and see as much of the city as I could. Next stop? Sentosa Island. While I had been to Singapore three times in the past year, I had never visited Sentosa and the luxe Capella seemed like the perfect next stop after the mega-resort that is Marina Bay Sands.

Staying at Capella Singapore

An island just a 15-20 minute drive from Singapore’s “mainland,” Sentosa is a family-friendly tourist destination with a large beach, a cable car network, a couple golf courses, a theme park and a casino. Does that seem like my kind of place? Yeah, not really AT ALL. But Capella looked like a lovely and serene respite from the city, and a very chill place to stay while the world was imploding. Plus, Trump and Kim Jong-un held their “historic” meeting at Capella, so I could at least say that I had stayed at the same place as two of the most notorious world leaders in recent history.

Day #5: More Travel Cancelations, Trying to Relax, Making a New Friend

My WhatsApp messages had been blowing up as my friends in the U.S. faced new restrictions: working from home for the foreseeable future, gym closures, restaurant shutdowns, etc. One of the benefits of being in Singapore was that I could still safely go out to eat, work out at a gym, drink at a bar, and essentially move around as if a global pandemic that had not yet been named a pandemic wasn’t occurring. While I was bummed that I couldn’t travel to the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Laos or Thailand like I had originally planned, I wanted to make the most of my time in Singapore.

Singapore Day #6: Zoom Happy Hour, Trying Not to Have a Meltdown

The following morning I had the delight of becoming acquainted with the pandemic tradition that we all had to learn to embrace: the Zoom happy hour. Since Singapore was 12 hours ahead of NYC, I set my alarm for 5:45am so I could make some coffee and visit with my friends virtually while they drank wine at 6pm ET.

After another workout at the curiously empty gym (no complaints!) I decided to explore Sentosa and Capella a bit more.

Singapore Day #7: Back to the City, Doom-Scrolling, Staying at Six Senses

While I loved the high-end yet laid-back feel of Capella, I was ready for a change of scenery after three nights and wanted to get back to Singapore’s city center to enjoy more of its fine dining restaurants and cocktail bars. One of the benefits of the border closure was that I was easily able to get last-minute reservations at the top restaurants in town, such as Odette and Burnt Ends.

I had had an incredible experience staying at the Six Senses Douro Valley when in Portugal and decided to check out the Six Senses Maxwell in the heart of Chinatown for a more urban hotel experience in Singapore (sadly, the hotel closed permanently a few months later).

Unfortunately, much of my first day at the Six Senses was spent on my phone, analyzing the constantly-changing news, talking and texting with family members concerned for my safety, and assessing Singapore Airlines’ flight schedules to ensure I’d eventually be able to return home. A quick search on COVID-19 cases in Singapore provided an encouraging outlook: the small city-state was doing an exceptional job of contract tracing, and anyone (literally anyone!) could access a spreadsheet to see a record of all the local cases, the nationality of the infected, and their approximate residence.

A part of me felt like I should stay in Singapore indefinitely. The country had its shit together, and while there was no guarantee that a complete shutdown wouldn’t occur, it seemed much more equipped to handle a pandemic than the reactionary U.S. That being said, I missed the comforts of my own home. If I couldn’t travel, see new places and meet new people, was I really prepared to live alone in a hotel or Airbnb in a foreign city for the foreseeable future?

I had a terrible night of sleep as I kept hearing my phone vibrating with news alerts and messages from my family and friends. As I tossed and turned, my mind raced. While I wouldn’t be able to see people at home in-person for some time, it would be nice to be in a somewhat similar timezone to most of the important people in my life. The idea of going back to my apartment, cocooning for a while, cooking in my own kitchen and drinking some of the wine I had purchased during my travels over the past year suddenly didn’t seem so bad.

Singapore Day #8: The End & A Day of Lasts

I awoke to dozens of messages from friends and family. The biggest concern was this announcement from the U.S. State Department:

While I felt Singapore was a safer place to be than NYC at a time when New York had become the new epicenter for the virus, and I felt confident that I’d be able to get home (albeit possibly not on my flight of choice), the pressure had reached its peak for me. I didn’t know anybody in Singapore and was craving the comfort of my own home. It didn’t feel like the right time to be going out and meeting new people. All signs were telling me to leave.

I was able to change my SIN-EWR flight home relatively easily. Instead of departing on the 31st of March, I’d be leaving on the 21st. I hadn’t been able to celebrate David’s birthday on a private island in the Philippines, see Angkor Wat in Cambodia, visit Luang Prabang in Laos, or hang out with my family in Bangkok. But all of this seemed inconsequential based on the amount of upheaval and tragedy occurring worldwide.

That being said, my flight home didn’t depart until the evening, and I was determined to make the most of my last day in Singapore.

When I checked out early from the Six Senses, the woman asked me why I was leaving and where I was going. I explained that I felt I needed to go home to New York and she stared back at me, aghast. “Why?! Now? Please be careful.” While most of my friends and family in the U.S. were relieved to learn that I was coming home, my little brother in Shanghai was also unsupportive. “Why are you going back there? Stay in Singapore — it’s so much safer!”

I understood. But I also felt like I needed to go home and experience the pandemic in solidarity with my community.