Our Winter Trip to Taiwan and the Beginning of the Pandemic
As a returning OFW who planned to stay in the Philippines for good, one of the things that I always look forward to is a leisure trip overseas. The year 2019 has brought me to many highs and lows, I badly needed a break and hoped 2020 would be better. However, as the world knows, the year 2020 was not just an ordinary year. The plan was to meet my friends in Taiwan on the first week of February. By this time, news about the coronavirus was starting to get seriously big in the Philippines. But there are still flights in and out of Manila, so we decided to push through with the trip and practice caution. At that time, wearing masks was encouraged in the Philippines, but it was not yet mandatory. However, it was different as soon as I arrived in Taoyuan International Airport . How should I put it? There was this eerie vibe as every person I saw was wearing a face mask. It wasn't the usual welcome hug you get from the country you've been meaning to explore. That's when I knew ...