Quarantine

This was a gilded cage.

And even with all the gilding, I hated it.

Being back in Hong Kong in this age of coronavirus meant we were stuck in a mandatory hotel quarantine for a week.  We were already lucky compared to others.  I knew others who had at different times dealt with anywhere between two weeks and three weeks of quarantine.  That's also if they weren't unlucky enough to test positive and be sent out to one of the spartan government isolation locations at Penny's Bay.

We had arrived late in the afternoon, so by the time we had cleared the ridiculous testing requirements and incessant waiting, it was night time when we arrived at the hotel.  The hotel was nice, it was very nice in fact.  One of the best in Hong Kong.  It didn't matter.  I hated being stuck in the room.  I threw open the curtains and looked out at the Hong Kong sky line.  It was a strange feeling to be looking at Hong Kong from this spot.  I was "home" and yet held at arm's length from it.  Across the harbour was my apartment and yet I was being forced to stay in this hotel.  Looking directly across me was ICC.  Seeing where I worked as I was in this confinement would be strange.

The next few days would be strange.  We spent our time moving from the bed to the desks.  We were already in quite a big room, but with the inability to leave it felt stifling.  The food was brought to us like clockwork, and it was on the whole, terrible.  For the price we were paying for the stay, it was quite shocking how poor the quality was.  It was very clear that the hotel catering had been closed and that the meals for all quarantine stays had been outsourced to a third party catering service.  It added to my general annoyance and anger at the whole situation that the enforced stay was now being used as a method for the hotel to increase its bottom line.

The next few days felt exactly the same.  With work from home, it just meant that we woke, showered, ate, worked, ate, worked some more, watched tv, ate, then went to bed.  It was a monotonous cycle.  

I found my jetlag wasn't going away either.  The lack of natural light seemed to be impacting me badly.  Having the bed right next to my desk also made it hard for me to get mind mind back into the time zone as I tended to move back to the bed constantly to nap or rest.  Even after several days, I was still waking up in the middle of the night.

Eventually, we were given some good news.  In the middle of our stay, the government decided to change the policy for hotel quarantine which dramatically shortened it.  As we were caught in the transition period, we were going to be released one day earlier than what was originally required.  It wasn't much, but it was still something.

Our last night in the hotel, we set ourselves up once more on the table in the corner of the room.  We looked out in the distance as we ate our food.  It had been a strange experience to finish our trip.  It wasn't something I wanted to repeat, but I was glad that I didn't have to do it alone.

Dead Airport

We were back in Hong Kong.  I didn't want to be back.  The holiday had easily been the best I had ever had.  Food, sun, sights, friends.  It was a trip that had everything I wanted, and I felt my soul had been refreshed by the ability to get out of the stifling confines of Hong Kong and the interminable coronavirus restrictions.  Yet all good things must come to an end and so after a brief period back in Rome, were flew back to Hong Kong via Doha.  In what felt like a strange return to normality, as we were boarding our connecting flight in Doha, I heard a familiar voice call my name from behind me.  A friend who lived with us in Hong Kong was returning from Spain and we happened to be on the same flight back.  This reminded me of the encounters we all used to have at Hong Kong airport.  It was such a busy place with people coming and going that we were always lucky to bump into people who were off on their own travels at the same time.

Things were now very different.

Arriving back in Hong Kong, the airport felt largely deserted.

We were funneled down different paths to go to the various testing stations and waiting spots.  It seemed ludicrous that we were going through this charade given coronavirus was well and truly within the community in Hong Kong.  The outbreak had occurred in March and many months later, there was still this futile and pointless behaviour to "stop" incoming infections.  I was probably more likely to catch the virus again on my next taxi ride in Hong Kong.

There was a noticeable annoyance from all the travelers like myself.  Back when there was a genuine need for the protective measures, I think most people were understanding and willing to accept what needed to be done.  Now it was a different situation altogether.  This was a waste of time and money.  Flippant comments were made.  Sarcasm abounded and people rolled their eyes at the white clad and double masked staff trying to manage this process.  I didn't hate these people.  It was just their job and they were trying to earn a living.  But they did represent an awful impact on our lives that seemed to now stem more from the poor decision making of a few rather than the original underlying coronavirus.

After the tests and the waiting, we were eventually allowed through.  We were already undergoing a more streamlined process than others and were allowed to leave the airport after negative RATs. Previously, people had to wait at the airport until their PCR tests showed negative as well which at times resulted in waits last hours.  We went to collect our bags, but it still wasn't over.  We were now off to our mandatory hotel quarantine.