That's the situation we find ourselves in now. After more than a month of being told that we cannot leave our residences (we still did, just not nearly enough) and after more than a month of nearly all businesses being closed and over over 60% of the population being unemployed, the people of Vietnam are allowed to go outside and do things like go shopping.
We still aren't allowed to go to public areas like the beach or to the boardwalk where people would gather to socialize, get some exercise, and get their kids running around but we are allowed to go to places where we can spend money. Does that sound familiar at all?
It seems as though Vietnam, and the surrounding countries is simply doing what the rest of the world was already doing a year ago and we have gained nothing by the original approach that was praised all over the world. I question whether the information we were receiving a year ago was even true to begin with. It's not like Communist governments are super transparent or anything.
Less than a week ago the barricades were torn down and we were allowed out of our neighborhoods and most people saw that as an opportunity to go get some food themselves and not depend on the whims of the delivery system that unless you were ordering staples that cannot be screwed up such as eggs, rice, bacon (they still screw that up), and spaghetti there was a really good chance you were going to end up with something you didn't want and did not order.
The delivery system was a complete mess to the point where out of frustration people started violating the "no leaving your house rule" and just breaking the law. A friend of mine walked into a store that he was told he cannot enter walked right past the staff got the things he wanted, tried to pay for them, they wouldn't ring him up so he just left the money sitting on the counter.
I'm afraid I am not courageous enough to do something like that but I was close man, I was close. By the way there were no repercussions for my friend who did this. I'm guessing because all of us white people look the same especially once we have masks on.
I'm being a little silly here but it was nice to be outdoors without getting nasty looks from people and also feeling like you could potentially be getting into a lot of trouble.
Just walking down the street to see if I can find some fresh milk because while I don't hate the UHT stuff, I don't really trust a dairy product that somehow magically doesn't spoil for over a year.
Met this little cutie while I was on my way, I would imagine that lockdowns didn't apply to him. He's new to the neighborhood and this is very rare in Vietnam.
In the end I didn't end up getting my milk. It seems as though that is going to take quite some time before it is replenished on the shelves since the dairy industry was shut down along with all other industry as well. At least the government wasn't playing favorites and applied this lockdown to everyone. I did, however, manage to get a far less processed dinner than I have become accustomed to in the past month.
I'd like to say that I made that myself but alas, I did not. The butcher shop was having a take-away special and it cost about $6, which I think is more than fair.
I hope the extreme lockdown did what they were hoping it was going to do but now we find ourselves right back where we started. If this was in fact successful and it stopped the spread of Covid, this simply means that this is exactly what they are going to do every time a few cases are detected, over and over again and I'm afraid that simply is untenable.
I suppose it isn't my problem to worry about but tomorrow is going to be a tell-tale date because the 15th was meant to be the target date for re-opening the entire country in a semi-normal sense including domestic flights so I can get the hell outta here. If the past is any indicator of the future, I believe tomorrow's target date will be extended another 2 weeks minimum.