Hong Kong Quarantine

Adventures in Hong Kong - June 2022

Two weeks to visit Tim and get to meet my grandson Shun/Sean for the first time when he is now almost 3. From the 1^st May 2022 the Chinese Government is, at last, allowing non-Hong Kong residents into the province on condition that they are fully vaccinated and that they complete 7 days hotel quarantine and covid testing. This is me, keeping a record of this time in Hong Kong, my first visit to the province, whilst in quarantine. Wondering how I'll be with a week in total isolation. The room is bigger than the campervan though! I thought it might be interesting, to me at least, to record how the week goes.

Daily news
Sunday 19 June

My brother Andrew dropped me at Heathrow for my flight to Istanbul and from there to Hong Kong. I have flown on my own for work across Europe but never long haul. I was more aware of being a female on her own at the very quiet Istanbul Airport when I was waiting between 10pm to 2am local time.

Monday 20 June – Day 1

I boarded the Hong Kong flight from Istanbul for a 10-hour flight and landed at about 17:30 local time. I knew we were all going to be ‘processed’ once we landed and we certainly were. There was a very efficient testing, checking, weeding process in place and entailed walking vast distances looping around the airport. We were labelled, and checked for pre-boarding PCR test, all covid vaccinations, boarding pass, quarantine hotel reservation, temperature (for some, not me), Lateral Flow Test, PCR test (for some, including me), and health questionnaire QR code.

We were ferried by shuttle train from the arrivals lounge to the covid testing facility and back. We were restricted in movement and told exactly where to stand, where to proceed to, where to go next, which bits of paper we needed etc. There were interviews to be done and papers to be cross-checked several times. Once I had been issued with my mandatory Quarantine order and I had signed my acceptance then my LFT test was checked on their system by use of the ‘label’ code I had been given to wear around my neck. As the result was negative then my quarantine order was stamped to say I had passed that check and I was allowed to catch the train back in order to proceed to immigration.

Passed a robot polishing the floor as I walked from the train to the next stage. It/he/she whistled at me to alert me to their presence I guess: wit-woo. Definitely in Asia now then.

More forms for immigration but once I had been cleared then I was able to collect my suitcase from the carousel and proceed for customs clearance. From there I was herded into another queue to be checked for which hotel I had booked for quarantine and put into a queue to wait for a bus to take me there. The system collected how many people were waiting for each bus and when a full load was waiting then the bus arrived and we were processed onto it using the quarantine order QR code so that they knew exactly who they had on the bus and where they were going. After a drive of about 30 minutes, I arrived to be checked off the bus and into the hotel. Papers checked, agreement to quarantine signed, deposit paid and received dire warnings of what would happen to me if I so much as stuck my nose out of the room (fine of HKD 25,000 and removal to a detention centre) and I was issued with my ‘one time use’ room key and a room on the 26^th floor of the hotel – mine all to myself for 7 days and nights. I was also given paperwork galore on what I should be doing to monitor my health each day, instructions on how to maintain my hygiene and how to clean my own room AND, most importantly, the free Wi-Fi password.

I managed to find and get into my room easily enough and was hit by a wall of freezing air. The airport was air-conditioned, as was the bus, and the external temperature was around 30C, which I actually found very pleasant. The room was set to 16C and was a shock to the system. First job was to find the control and turn it up to 24C. Second job was to login to the Wi-Fi system and have my phone download loads of messages, including from my son and daughter-in-law who, not having heard from me for hours after I’d landed, were worried that I had not passed all the tests and checks and may have been carted off to a detention centre. They had also had delivered to my room some gifts of delightful toiletries and a couple of large bottles of water. They had offered to get me a lovely hamper to supplement the included food package but I had turned this down. I had also cancelled the included hotel food package and just asked for 4 litres of water for each day as I had brought with me packet food to manage my weight whilst in quarantine for the week. Ideal opportunity.

By this time, it was around 9pm local time (2pm UK time) but I was fairly tired, not having slept very well on the plane. I answered a few messages and phoned Ray to let him know I had arrived and been deposited within my room and then climbed into bed to try and get the worst of the time difference sorted out. I woke after about an hour but quickly went back to sleep until gone 5am.

Tuesday 21 June – Day 2

Woke up just after 5am to the oddest thought; nowhere to be and nothing to do. My choice entirely as to whether to get up and have a shower now or later. Whether to read or try and go back to sleep, whether to stay in bed or make myself some breakfast. No one here to even discuss it with and agree a course of action for the day. Weird! I always have things to do and places to be. I have some things lined up for the week to do but nothing that has a critical timeline to it, or even a timeline actually. Refreshing for a change. The only thing I have to do each day is take my temperature twice, once in the morning and once in the afternoon, and complete a lateral flow test by 2.15pm. I think I can manage that. This week might actually be good for me; a reset if you will.

The other thing is my gluteus maximus muscles telling me either that I walked miles in airports or that I sat for hours unmoving on planes, I’m not sure which?

Looking around I realise that the room is about the size of a cruise ship cabin. Perfectly formed but not exceptionally spacious. Everything you need but not luxurious; functional for the week. It does have a big window from which I can see mountains behind the tower blocks so all good enough.

I read the papers (well yesterday’s as the UK is still in yesterday) and then get up for a shower with the lovely toiletries I was gifted by Tim and Yumi. No hurry to start the day so I boiled a kettle for breakfast coffee and had a protein shake. I also put some of the bottled water into the mini fridge for any other shakes as I prefer them made with chilled water and hadn't yet done that.

I re-read the instructions and dire warnings of the quarantine regulations just to make sure I know what I need to do. Tim has booked me tests for Day 9 and 12 so all compliant so far. I do the LFT just because I can get it out of the way and there’s nothing else to do right this minute. I then fire up my computer, link it to the Wi-Fi and start to collate a record of my incarceration hotel stay as there are several unique thoughts going on.

My Fitbit is telling me that I’m not moving. Every hour between 8am and 6pm it nudges me if I haven’t completed 250 steps that hour. I’m in a small room and I do need to keep moving so I resolve to do my 250 steps each hour. I have brought the desk chair up to the window ledge so that I can sit looking out and typing with my back supported. I have 2 steps from the chair to the corner of the room and then 10 steps from the corner to the door. My steps are therefore done in multiples of 12. Am I going stir-crazy on Day 2 or is it just the way my mind works? Dear reader, you decide.

Just put the kettle on again and realised that it’s lunchtime. Where has the morning gone? At this rate the week is going to fly by!

Don't know where the afternoon went. I completed a few admin things that I've been meaning to do for weeks/months. Need to find the time to do some photography online courses that I haven't had the time to do recently. Must make sure I don't fritter away all this time I've been gifted.

Mid afternoon I heard the knock at the door but know I'm not allowed to go out. I put on my mask (as instructed if opening the door) and opened the door to see why there had been a knock. There is a two-tier trolley outside everyone's door. Food and deliveries in on the top tier, rubbish and LFTs out on the bottom tier. Anyway, when I opened the door there was a lovely scented bouquet from Tim, Yumi and Sean. Such a wonderful surprise and the scent of the flowers as I picked them up was delightful. They are now sitting by the side of me as I type this and wafting their delicious scent around the room. I am being truly spoilt, both with gifts and with time. Not worried yet about a week in isolation.

Really tired by about 9pm. I thought I'd got this jetlag thing sorted and this seems to be wrong as it is 2pm in the UK but I can't keep my eyes open so go to bed.

Wednesday 22 June – Day 3

Wide awake at 1.30am! So much for going to bed early. Several hours reading and then a late rising. Does it matter? No, but I do need to get to HK time properly by Monday when I will hopefully be picked up, if all the tests are negative. I thought I was doing better than this :-) although I seem to remember the same thing happening when I went to Thailand for Tim and Yumi's wedding. Fine for a few days and then one day it hit me! Got to do better than that if we are going to Australia at the end of January.

Relaxed start to the day; read the papers, did a few emails, received a delivery of sparkling water and watched the clouds roll in across Lion Rock as the patchy blue sky disappeared. Apparently it is 32C outside but I'm wrapped up in my chilly air-conditioned room. Looking forward to being warmer but I hear that it's also very humid and sticky out there. You can't have it all though can you?

I am keeping a record of my temperature twice a day (as instructed) but it does seem to be on the low side. It is always between 35.4C and 35.9C when the range is meant to be 36.1 - 37.2. When we have been temperature checked on cruises each day I have always been low though so I am not too concerned. At least I don't have a fever which may be a lot more worrisome.

Spent the day following up on emails and chasing companies for responses, all those things that have been put on hold whilst we have been cluttering around the country for cricket and family functions. Trying to do everything by email though instead of chase-up calls as I have switched off roaming. Working very well in some cases but not so well in others. Still, there will be a shorter list for when I get home. Time spent usefully.

Drinking loads of water, part of being on the diet food too. However the hotel supplied still water in 330ml bottles and I am using about 10 of those a day, plus 2 or 3 sparkling water bottles, making a lot of rubbish to put out in their tiny waste bin bags. I'll either have to start crushing the bottles or ask for more bags as they only supplied one for each day. Might need them to supply another loo roll too :-)

Thursday 23 June – Day 4

Still not getting to sleep easily but I did sleep through until gone 8am. I missed a message from Tim and Sean who would have called before nursery school if I had been up but hopefully I can hear from them later today. Tomorrow is the last day of school for the summer holidays for Sean so next week we can have all week together.

It's apparently 32C today and I can see that it is sunny. The other days have been quite overcast. I can feel the heat coming in through the window today and the room doesn't feel so chilly. Out of leggings and a jumper and into a linen dress, makes a nice change. Goodness knows what it's like out on the street, probably far too hot, but it's nice to feel a bit warmer indoors.

Still negative on the LFT today, the daily routine, and still a low temperature. Tomorrow it gets exciting as on Day 5 there is a PCR test done. Someone actually comes to the door and there is a defined process for placing your chair and waste bin in the doorway when they come and how to remove a mask for the test to be completed. They leave nothing to chance here. Just as well I am a very compliant sort of person (drives others mad sometimes I know) and I'd rather be told what's expected of me and know what's going to happen. The Chinese Government have this down to a fine art and their technology to back it all up and trace people is phenomenal. Everything I have been issued with has a QR code and is all linked back to my passport number, which in turn links back to numerous other ways to know who I am and where to find me.

Did you ever see those lions and tigers parading up and down their enclosures? Pacing backwards and forwards? Well, every hour that's me. Every time my Fitbit tells me that I haven't done my steps for the hour then I get up from the chair in the window and pace backwards and forwards. Good to do though as otherwise my back gets stiff from sitting for too long.

Thursdays are usually spent umpiring a cricket match, so I would be on the go all afternoon, or else we are at home and I would be going out in the skiff for a couple of hours rowing. Ray and I recently purchased a kayak each (plus buoyancy aids and paddles in case you were wondering) but haven't taken them home yet. We were able to try out a few different sizes and types within the waters of the marina but I knew which one I preferred already. Ray chose to have a similar kayak but in blue and white because he didn't like the blue and green one I preferred. They were both available at Shepperton Marina but would have taken up all the available space in the middle of the campervan so we said we would collect them the next time we are going back home to Scotland and take them then. £££ to get them delivered, one of the very few disadvantages to living in a beautifully remote location. We will be picking them up when I get back to the UK and after a further week of cricket. Looking forward to not only the exercise and getting out on the water but being able to explore wildlife and remote locations from the Kyles.

I started a personal family history book some while back and opened it yesterday to start adding to it. Interestingly it says I started it in 2010 and what each of our 'sprogs' were doing at the time. None of the five had any children then whereas now we have six grandchildren between us. Where has the time gone? We built The Kennels in 2010 and now we have sold it, as well as selling another house we had, buying a replacement for it and then selling that as well. Everything now sold and we have bought our home in Scotland; our project for next year. I say everything sold but we still have two tiny patches of land; a car size ransom strip in Sudbury, Suffolk and a tiny, weeny patch in Sutherland so that we can call ourselves 'Laird' or 'Lady' it tells us :-). I am going to spend the day reading the start of this book through and adding to it. My children or grandchildren may be interested in it at some stage. How life was so very different growing up in the 60s and 70s and the huge changes that have come about in our lives between then and now. If I had been isolated in an hotel room for a week in those times it would have been a very different week. Back later - off now to immerse myself in the past.

More editing, yet still only up to my youngest brother being born when I was 4 today. Slow going and much more to add to the narrative.

Friday 24 June – Day 5

Health representatives, sent by the Chinese Government, are to visit me today to conduct a PCR test. LFTs have been done (and will continue to be done) by me every day this week but this is the gold standard test so that I can be released on Day 7 if negative. I then have to go to a centre to have another PCR test done on day 9 and Day 12 whilst I'm with Tim and family. Huge consequences for not doing so. Perhaps if the UK had done something similar then we might not have had so many cases but then perhaps we wouldn't have got so close to herd immunity and be back to living an almost normal life, although I read that cases are rising in the UK again. We still don't know what's for the best do we? Will we look back on this in years to come and realise how naive we all were?

Apparently it is 31C here at 10am but a little more cloudy again today. Jersey dress rather than linen dress for me today in the room.

Strangely odd sensation over the last day or so of having Ray with me in the room. I keep going to do things for him or getting up quietly in the morning so as not to wake him. Very peculiar, perhaps going slightly mad in here after all.

In some ways though this room is a little like being in the van or on a cruise ship. Everything that's needed but no more. The ability to get online and communicate but not quite all communications available as away from home. I'm not using data roaming here and there is obviously a time difference. When we are away we get things delivered but can't get to them or we have things to send and it's harder. Finding it a little the same here. Fighting with Fitbit at the moment to get a refund from Ray's Ionic being recalled. They say they have recalled and say they will refund but nothing appears. Called them a few weeks back and they said they would send the email again and to put their email address into the safe senders list, which we did, but still nothing. No email to get to them from here, it has to be a call and I'm not going to pay for roaming just for that so it will have to wait. Tried contacting Amazon as I bought it through them but they were as much use as a chocolate teapot. What do we do if keep calling doesn't work? Lose $299 I guess! No money back for any Ionic accessories that were bought either. Grrr!

I think I have done most of my chasing up chores now. Need to do some organising for where to stay for some cricket matches in July and what to do for our wedding anniversary weekend. We decided yesterday that to go home for it is now so expensive for fuel that we would be better going to a posh hotel down south for the weekend. However, we'll probably just go somewhere quiet in the van and defer the celebration until a later time when we can enjoy Scotland.

Huge noise advancing down the hotel corridor outside, people's door's being knocked on and a stream of something unintelligible to me being shouted. Then a ring of my room doorbell and a quiet 'hello' being called out. The Covid testing is here! Everyone on this corridor must be on Day 5 together. It has been so quiet here with sometimes barely heard music, or the quiet rustle of food trays being left or waste bags being collected being the only evidence of anyone else around. Much quieter than hotels in the UK, especially when you think of everyone being in their rooms all the time. Just hoping for a negative result now so I can get out at 07:30 on Monday morning to spend a week with Tim and family.

You are probably wondering why, when I have done a week in a hotel, I am only spending a week with Tim. Couple of reasons really:

1. The Chinese Government only announced visitors being allowed into Hong Kong very recently and the reduction of the 14 days to 7 for the fully vaccinated. Decided to take the opportunity before they change their minds again with the new administration taking over on the 1st July.

2. Summer is always manic for us with loads going on and with babysitting commitments for weddings, Richard's 40th birthday celebrations, Kylie's 'big' wedding (after her tiny Covid-19 one), Adrian flying in for a long visit from Australia and Rachel also coming back for the wedding too it made it more difficult to find a stretch of time but I really wanted to get to meet Sean and see Tim and Yumi again as soon as I could. I have been waiting almost 3 years for this now. I had thought about delaying it to Sean's birthday at the end of September but Sean is back at school then so here I am now. Hopefully when restrictions have been lifted further or changes happen I/we can come back again and see them more often or they can come and visit us in Scotland. That would be great.

Spent today diving into history and geography one way or another. I started doing some more family history checking and then decided to veer off to look and remind myself of the history of Hong Kong. Opened many maps of the peninsula to give myself perspective on where I am located and what's around me. What the prehistoric past was and then up to more recent events, of which I am more aware. I remember the events leading up to 1997 and then from there onwards, especially once Tim and Yumi moved there. Very interesting. I then looked further into the list of different places Tim and Yumi are suggesting for next week and it is all looking exciting. I didn't want to get too excited before in case anything went wrong with quarantine and testing but hopefully it will all be ok now.

Hoping my techy Tim can rescue me as I have done something I have only done once before and I thought I had learned my lesson. To cut down hand luggage to the 8kg I was allowed I left my big camera bag at home and just brought my old Canon EOS 70D camera and a compact zoom lens in a small bag. Guess what? I forgot the battery charger! What an idiot. I did this the first time in 2004 and now again! Tim says he thinks it is the same size as his charger, let's hope so otherwise Ray will laugh at me twice as much as he does now for ever having forgotten it the first time. We had to buy a new one then and, if I need to, I'll buy a new one now. I have so many spare batteries and chargers at home to make sure I always have 'the power'. Feeling stupid!

Got bored this evening, went to bed early.

Saturday 25 June – Day 6

Awake earlier, which is good. Perhaps properly in the time zone now. Another sunny day with big puffy white clouds and around 32C apparently. Still feels like Scottish weather in the room!

Did my daily LFT test and negative again. No one has come to take me away from the PCR test they took yesterday so I'm hoping that's also negative.

This is taking me back 50 years today. I feel like I was when I was 13 years old, sitting along my wide window ledge on my bedroom in Surbiton, looking out and reading a book (electronic book now though) this morning. I used to read a large number of historical novels and I recently bought 10 year old Christina one as she said she really likes history. See if she gets to like them as much as I did; Jean Plaidy, Victoria Holt and others. I offered her the choice of which Royal House and she chose The Tudor Saga. Not sure if it's too old for her but she says she is enjoying it.

OK, back to family tree this morning. Trying to ensure that all Ray's great grandparents and his great great grandparents (2 x great grandparents) have birth, death and marriage dates as far as possible. Some born before 1837 are harder to find online and need more work at a later time.

Just before 11am there is a lot of knocking and noise and I am petrified they are coming for someone and maybe me if we were on the same flight. Turns out they had a couple more PCR tests to do on this floor. Those 'guests' must have come in the following day. Phew! Eventually my result came in as negative so now looking much better for escape on Monday morning.

Ray called later with our travel company for Australia and New Zealand having called him. It looks like they have charged us extra for an upgraded cabin on the Indian Pacific when we booked for earlier this year BUT when they moved it to the reverse itinerary for next year (because Australia still wasn't open this year) they failed to book the upgraded cabin for us even though they are still charging us the same as they were. That's Fitbit, Easyjet and Imagine Cruising I am now in a wrangle with and will need to sort out on my return.

Sunday 26 June – Day 7

Last Day in quarantine in the Pentahotel, Kowloon!

I've been re-packing my case this morning, trying to get it into a case and a handbag instead of a case and a rucksack. It didn't work. Food for the week has come out but then there are a few things Tim and Yumi had delivered for me which need to go in such as those lovely toiletries. I also have birthday presents for Tim and Yumi, whose birthdays are both at the end of July, and presents for Sean - just because he's Sean, OK? :-)

I noticed the hordes of builders weren't working on the top of the tower blocks that I look out onto today. Then I remembered that it's Sunday. They have been working all week from before I draw the curtains back through to around 7pm as it starts to get dark. Long days, I wonder if other workers do that here? Builders would not be working those hours in the UK. Whether that's good or bad I don't know.

Another sunny day with big puffy white clouds. I keep reading there may be thunderstorms but I've not seen then yet. The temperature outside is around 32C and it's very reasonable in the room. It is going to hit me like a ton of bricks tomorrow when I get out from here I dare say. The window ledge is very work in the early morning as the sun comes through and it's certainly too hot to put the computer on until the sun has moved round. Then the ledge is perfect with the chair drawn up to it. I am facing north toward Lion Rock, probably just as well I'm not facing south. Whilst it would sometimes be nicer to be a little warmer in the air conditioning I don't want to be toasted inside the room.

By lunchtime I am more than ready to go and can't wait to see the family tomorrow. The, what I can only imaging is a, large family group on the roof top opposite is setting up for another day of partying. They have a large area at the top of the block and they have been using it for groups of adults and children to eat, drink, play and paddle in the pool. I first noticed them on Friday evening when the adults had a pit fire going and were enjoying the evening together. It's a lovely private space to be all together safely, if you ignore all of those around over-looking them. There's always a lot of setting up and then a lot of tidying up afterwards. Reminds me of when we used to take our coffee out onto the tops of some of the BT buildings years ago when I was working for Openreach. We watched the Queen's Diamond Regatta from the top of one such building alongside the Thames in 2012. We were eating our rooftop cooked BBQ in the pouring rain - typical! No rain here (yet).

Managed to get through the rest of the day with carrying on the family tree work and ordering pdf certificates of births and deaths in the mid 1800s (births) to early 1900s (deaths).

I have now made sure I have all the rubbish out and the bags are almost finally packed for tomorrow. Just one or two items I still need to be put in. Meant to be around 33C tomorrow but with humidity that will make it feel like 38C. I shall melt after a total air conditioned week I feel. Never mind, I'm here at last.

Go to the Hong Kong visit page to hear what happens next.