Dubai, our base/home for most of the first two months of 2021...plus a little Covid!

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In January and February 2021, Dubai became in a way our new home before being able to come back home. Not that I really wanted to flight out of South Africa...but let say after 90 days, no real other option for me. At the time of booking we were not speaking much of the South African variant...than came New Year! Well....we were in Dubai on the 6th of January...and less than 10 days later, people from SA would not be allowed anymore in the country...and since the 16th January....Emirates cancelled all their flights. It's only been lately that they have one flight per day to Joburg. But they take passengers only on the Dubai to Joburg leg....empty on the way back to Dubai!

We left for 2 weeks...and came back home at the end of a cool 6 weeks trip!

So Dubai it was for us. Here, if you do not wear a mask, it's 800 euros penalty....but everything remains open, so it's a pretty cool place to be. So we had our covid test before the flight to Dubai...than again a Covid test before the flight to Nairobi. Well...what a surprise, Tanya turn out to be positive, without a single symptom at that point. So here we were...in isolation in our hotel for 10 days. She never had much symptoms and I never even got it...so we just had to be patient.



Hotel was pretty cool....solid service apartment and a full fridge...I just had to manage the wine stock more carefully! After the 10 days...if no symptoms, you don't even have to re-test. So we just took the time to organize, or rather re-organize our Kenya leg of the trip. Test this time was negative for both...on the plane we were.



Once back from Kenya...no more flights to South Africa and I didn't want to take Ethiopian or Kenyan back to home...so we stay few more days in and went to Maldives for a while. Suddenly in a world where most cannot go on a plane even if they would like, our situation was actually a pretty cool one. Back to Maldives and a month into Emirates not flying to SA. So thanks to a call or two...instead of the direct flight Dubai-Durban...it went like Dubai-Lusaka-Joburg....golf and shopping in Joburg...and finally flight back home to Durban and the drive south for few weeks.



So I could speak about the South African variant....you know, the super dangerous and contagious one! Well, deaths due to Covid are below 100 daily here....for 60 millions people...over the last 3-4 weeks, they test maybe 1000 people positive per day. We know there is a lot more around...but everything is open, everybody is wearing the mask in crowded places or indoor...life is nearly normal...and hospitals have plenty of spaces available. So at the end of the day....life in SA is pretty sweet for most...



We stay at home few weeks...than came March and a super domestic road trip...still need to upload the pictures...next international flights....coming pretty soon too but not to Dubai!

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