I ran into an old mate while I was out walking my dog this morning. I hadn’t seen him for a couple of months, so we stopped and had a coffee, which was nice. It can be a bit isolating working at home by yourself—as I’m sure you all found out over the last couple of years—but I’ve been doing it for my whole adult life, so if I get a chance to have a coffee with a friend, I’ll jump on it.
Erik had returned a couple of weeks ago from a trip to China with his wife and was still enthusing about their big adventure. He raved about the place; they had a great time. They visited Beijing, Shanghai, and the Great Wall. He thought Beijing to be an amazing city and the people incredibly friendly. Sounded like they had a really nice trip.
That got us talking about travel, including Erik's trip to Vietnam last year, and my own plans to return there early next year. And that’s when we both made the same point: it’s weird to feel more relaxed travelling to a communist dictatorship like Vietnam or China than you would travelling to America. But that’s how it is at the moment.
I’d just read about some new requirement that the Trump administration is either imposing or thinking of imposing where, to get a visa, you have to provide access to all your social media accounts over the last five years.
Boom, that’s me done. I’d never get out of the airport. There’s no way I’d even bother applying for a visa if I had to provide that information. I’d be lucky if they just turned me around at the airport and put me on a plane home within a few hours. More likely, I’d end up in detention for two or three weeks and then get stuck on a plane back home at my own expense.
It’s weird how quickly that’s happened. I’ve done a couple of trips to Vietnam now, which is a lovely country full of friendly people, but it remains a dictatorship. There’s always that moment at the airport when you’re trying to get into the country, thinking, "Is my visa in order? Did I tick all the right boxes? Have I paid all the fees?"
But that’s administrative anxiety you can feel at Rome airport or Paris. Moving between countries isn't just a physical experience; you're moving between jurisdictions, and serious admin must be done. But it’s no longer just a question of admin in the US; you’re actually thinking, "Is the regime going to look sideways at me? Is the Eye of Sauron going to turn on me?"
It’s been about 10 years or so since I was there, and I can’t imagine myself returning because the chances of it ending badly are … pretty good. You have to wonder how much of this closing off the US is a coherent policy, the people around Trump saying, "We want to shut out the world," and how much is… I dunno… cultural change.
Either way, I can think of about 190 other countries I’d visit first.