Couple recounts travel in SE Asia amid COVID-19: 'Taking temperatures everywhere we went'





BAYSIDE -- From temples and landmarks to scenery and people -- Juli and Norm Schultz had a trip of a lifetime traveling to Cambodia and Vietnam in early March for over two weeks.

"It was just beautiful," Juli Schultz said. "It was so interesting, different cultures. It was incredible."

But with coronavirus cases starting to spread, things quickly changed.

"They were taking temperatures everywhere we went," Schultz said. "Mandatory masks every building we went to, every historical site we went to. When we got on and off the bus, they would give us hand sanitizer."

Juli Schultz



And a cruise was cut short.

"They had a case on one of the other cruise ships, so they ordered all of us on the cruise ships to get off and get onto land," said Schultz.

Back in the United States, their travel agency was helping them get re-routed.

Norm Schultz



"Vietnam shut down when they were on the cruise, and were not letting anybody from the United States who had been out of the country more than 14 days," said Jeanne Reuter, Bayside Travel owner.

Thankfully, the couple met the requirement because the alternative would have been much different.

"They were going to test us for the coronavirus, and if we tested positive, we were going to be quarantined in a military hospital in the jungle 14 days from that point," Schultz said.



They got the all-clear and were handed back their passports.

"That stamping noise was the biggest sigh of relief that all of us had," she said.

Reuter said while bookings for the next few months stopped, many are looking ahead to new experiences later in the year.

"There is a little pinhole of light at the end of the dark tunnel, so we are holding out hope for all of that," Reuter said.

Norm and Juli Schultz