I was scheduled and ticketed to visit Borneo in June, 2020. So yeah… thankfully, Natural Habitat refunded the trip cost, and Expedia got my airline tickets refunded I continue to book most of my reservations through Expedia since then; they’re very good about working things out when wrinkles occur.
Borneo was closed for travel for some time. And I booked a trip to East Greenland while COVID settled down and vaccinations ramped up worldwide. Remote and cold Greenland didn’t seem like a hotspot for outbreaks. We had to test for COVID to fly to Greenland, and again to transfer from Tasiilaq to our base camp nestled in a remote fjord. All from our group passed both tests.
But weather in the region prevented us from getting to the base camp. We spent our time in the heavy rains and wind in Tasiilaq before transferring to Kulusuk, where he had a spot of nicer weather. The Natural Habitat guides kept us duly entertained, and the company provided generous accommodation for us not being able to get the full tour from base camp.
The Natural Habitat trip was East Greenland Arctic Adventure.
UPDATES: I did eventually make it to Borneo in June, 2024. And many of us did contract COVID in the outpost hotel in Kulusuk. There was another big group of Americans there while we were there, and it seems they were not operating under strict testing protocols. I was COVID-free from the initial outbreak (early 2020) until September, 2022. My case was mild (I had vaccines and boosters in me by then), and that was my only infection so far.
