csdf

So if and when it becomes possible again to leave the country (and go on holiday) who amongst you will take up that opportunity, and when? What about vacations within the UAE itself? Are you comfortable taking a 1 week break at a beach hotel somewhere, in lieu of going abroad?

hnd

We’re no longer in the ME but, if we were, we would not be thinking of leaving the UAE - or Oman, our most recent home - until some time next year at the earliest. We would be having staycations whether in the UAE or Oman, and that is exactly what we will be doing here in Malaysia. There’s just no knowing when or if they may ban non-nationals from returning from outside the country if the authorities decide a further lockdown is needed and we simply aren’t willing to take the risk of being shut out should we decide to travel further afield.

scot47

Many expats working in the region dislike their host countries so much that they will leave at every possible opportunity !

Millhouse

MM2 is 6 months pregnant. We’re staying all summer... just like we did last year with a 3 month old.

Can’t say I’m looking forward to it. I do hope to escape to the U.K. for a weekend but only if return travel is possible and quarantine isn’t really really on the cards.

csdf

Two kids under two? Good luck.

Millhouse

Now you understand why I'm so keen to go back to the office soon and move on from C19.

nonthaburi

My kids are 55 weeks apart. The first was learning to walk just as the 2nd was born. Absolute nightmare. Didn't go out for 4 years.

Millhouse

that’s awesome. Like twins but actually worse.

Ours will be 18 months apart. One reason I can’t leave this place - I’m not getting involved with that shit and we can’t really have a maid in Europe.

nonthaburi

I wouldn't say it was awesome, but we did it. They're now in their teenage years. Definitely wouldn't want to go back there again. Days out in Bangkok with 2 young kids, what could be more fun?! Sweating buckets, crappy pavements, and at that time a lack of escalators. Had a permanently dead right arm from carrying. On the plus side , got a lot of female interest from a couple of very white minimes.

scrubbedexpat141

We've earmarked an Xmas trip to Blighty.

Decided to stay for summer, she'll be bored (as she's a teacher) but we're going to try and get a few mini-breaks in I think.

Only spanner in the works is consultations start this Thursday for 'right sizing' the team I'm in. I thought I'd survived but it appears to be back to April and anxiety levels are rising.

csdf

Going to surf that second wave eh?

Millhouse

A second wave of something that have come to be nothing.

scrubbedexpat141

Not a lot of choice if we want to get married in April, in the UK.

By the time a second wave comes, nobody will give a ****. People my age will be more likely to die from a furious wank than corona and the world will have decided that as fun as lockdown has been, it's too detrimental to stay.

csdf

My point was less about getting infected, more about the higher chances of another lockdown (in the UK or in the UAE) if there is a second wave, and therefore getting stuck somewhere you don't want to be stuck.

scrubbedexpat141

True. There will be some thought beforehand and some genuine care before just travelling willy-nilly.

I just think by then, the world won't give a monkeys.