We are (were?) so looking forward to visit New Orlean's famous Café du Monde for coffee and deep-fried beignets with a truck load of confectioner’s sugar dumped on top.
Point of View
Global travel restrictions, Louisiana anti-vaxxers, Delta variant, and now Hurricane Ida...are we really going to SCA New Orleans in less than 4 weeks?
SCA’s US show is always set in stone on the STiR events calendar. As soon as we get the dates, we start planning as you can see from our events calendar www.stir-tea-coffee.com/events where we already list SCA shows in Boston in 2022, Portland in 2023, and Chicago in 2024. Every year, this is the must-do show, where STiR sends the most staff... more than any other show.
And, with the cancellation of SCA’s 2020 event, and the delay of SCA’s 2021 event to September (normally held in April each year), we are especially eager this year to come to the iconic city of New Orleans not only to see our coffee friends but also the opportunity to see friends and family living there.
But while it’s much easier for our North American personnel to attend, it’s a lot trickier for non-US-based staff to navigate the added travel restrictions and requirements and stamps and tests required these days. Although we have our plane tickets and hotel reservations in hand, our overseas staff have been dithering back and forth on whether we can attend or not.
In particular for those living in Thailand... On top of the 72-hour prior travel Covid test and on top of a required visit to the Thailand embassy in the US (requiring a trip to New York, Washington, or Los Angles) for a return document and on top any added health risk in travel these days and on top of plane cancellations and delays we’ve been hearing about – those that live in Thailand, face a 2-week mandatory, in-hotel quarantine upon return regardless of vaccination status or Covid tests of stamps or documents, etc...
And before you start to think staying in a hotel in Thailand for two weeks doesn’t sound all that bad, think again. This is no vacation. You are virtually a prisoner for the first seven days confined to your room, with windows sealed and no access to the balcony if you have one. Prepared meals are set out at the door with the staff scurrying away so as not to catch “it” from you. And even if you were allowed to use the gym or pool – which you aren’t – all pools and gyms are closed in Thailand due to Covid. And another deal breaker for some, Thailand is unique to many countries in that one of its anti-Covid measures is a ban on alcohol sales in service establishments. So no drowning your sorrows, alone, in your room either.
That’s just the bare bones structure of the dilemma of new travel restrictions in place as there are many more that we won’t bore you with right now.
So there was that on top of that on top of that but still, we considered travelling from Thailand to glorious New Orleans. And then Hurricane Ida came.
With the devastation it seems the hurricane has left behind and New Orleans without power (some are saying for a week, or weeks), it seems God or the Gods have made the decision for us. We’re staying home.
If the show can go forward, STiR’s US staff will definitely be at SCA New Orleans. So be sure to look us up in Booth #1000. As for the rest of us outside the US, we’ll see you at SCA 2022 in Boston.