On the merits of spontaneity, especially while traveling during COVID. 

As of just 48 hours prior to landing here in Phnom Penh, we were still unsure whether we would be going to Cambodia or Egypt next. Today we need to figure out how we will get to Sen Mororum tomorrow for our 4 days of volunteering with the Elephant Valley Project. We haven’t yet booked lodging and tours for next week. And we don’t know what country we will go to after Cambodia. For anyone who knows my strong penchant for a thorough plan, this might come as a surprise. 

Lots of countries on our original itinerary, like Australia and New Zealand, are still closed to tourists right now. That is why we were even able to spend so much time in South America. Then during Phase 2, we lost money because we had booked cheap non-refundable air tickets and then couldn’t get into Chile (twice). We tried to “plan” Phase 3 during the still on-going and migrating Omicron spike, and every week, different countries announced changes to travel restrictions and entry requirements. And we learned the hard way that for any given flight or border crossing, we can’t be sure that we’ll all test negative on pre-travel COVID tests. 

So we’ve realized that extreme flexibility is a necessity for traveling right now. 

This is definitely a stretch outside my comfort zone! Fortunately, James is the spontaneous sort and this type of travel is just fine for him!