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I know, natural disasters don't sound like the most appealing title. But I felt the need to write down this post…
September can be a rough month to travel anywhere near the Pacific. But honestly, it looked like my plan was set up by some weird travel agency with an odd sense of humour.
Asia
The day before my departure, the deadly storm Jebi hit Japan pretty badly, leaving the airport of Osaka closed for quite a long time.
When I visited, I only saw the damage to a few areas in Kyoto, but it was pretty bad.
Then, while in Seoul, I saw the news that super-typhoon Mangkhut was on its devastating way to Taipei. That, on the exact same weekend I was supposed to be there. Forcing me to cancel my departure to Taiwan only 2 days before.
Mangkhut then suddenly changed paths at the last minute and moved south to ravage the Philippines and Hong Kong.
Pacific
At the same time, tropical storm Olivia made landfall in Hawaii. And that was shortly after the eruption of Kilauea. In fact, Hawaii received quite a few blows these past weeks, to the point that parts of the islands are disappearing!
Climate change is real
Luckily, in the end, none of this affected me directly, but it made me realise how bad the situation is for the population in these areas.
Living in Europe, you see only some news every now and then, but you don't sense the true scale of the problem. We have our own disasters, though: flooding is probably the main one throughout the continent.
And it's getting worse year after year. Climate change is making the hurricane/typhoon season ever so unpredictable now. As well as causing all sorts of disasters.
I hope that I, and the other tourists, can make at least some positive impact on the economies of these countries.
Oh, and one more thing…
And it wasn't enough. I came close to natural disasters even after I left the Pacific. While visiting Toronto, the nearby region of Quebec was hit by several tornadoes in a very short time.
:(
I know what you're thinking. I should lock myself in and avoid visiting any country for the time being… But I promise it's not me! I met someone at the airport in Tokyo who told me the typhoons were following him, so… Wanna hang out together? ;)
In the next post, I'll tell you the books I brought to read while stranded in airports during those disasters…
