Dear Diary:
It is Day 1 of 21 days of being stuck in hotel quarantine.
13 hours, 46 minutes later, my plane lands into Hong Kong International Airport after 6 weeks away in Canada.
Am I ready to be stuck inside a stuffy hotel room that I’m forced to pay out-of-pocket, for 21 days?!
NOPE!
Take me back!!! 
But it’s a beautiful December morning, rays of sunlight are peeking through the floor-to-ceiling windows. Hong Kong International Airport use to be one of the busiest airports in the world, but due to Covid, it feels more like a college library before exam week. Very, very quiet.
The usual hustle-and-bustle of the terminal, is now enveloped by a veil of silence, like it’s still asleep. In some ways it was actually quite nice, like being in those 90’s Folgers commercial (minus the coffee and catchy jingle).
I’m taking this moment in, since I know I will never be able to witness HK Airport so empty as if I rented out the whole terminal.
The world has been hit hard by Covid the past 2 years, but up until now, Hong Kong has had it pretty easy, with low infection rates. I’m talking like zero local cases for the longest time. As I’m writing this, we’ve only had 2 new cases today in one of the most densely populated places in the world!
Why? How is it possible?
HK has some of the toughest Covid restrictions in the world, turning the city into a fortress:
- If one person in your apartment building has Covid, the whole building will be under compulsory testings
- Mandatory masks for EVERYONE (even babies) with a $10,000 fine
- Mandatory PCR tests before and after arrival, then PCR tests every few days for a few weeks ($10,000 fine)
- Mandatory quarantine, if you leave, you can get arrested.
Just to name a few…
These are the requirements needed in Dec 2021 to board a plane to Hong Kong:
- Proof of residency or valid visa
- Hotel Booking Confirmation in a government approved quarantine hotel for the proper amount of days depending on the your country of arrival. *The booking must have ALL the names of the people staying in the room
- A negative Covid PCR test that is taken within 72 hours from time of last departure
- A certificate indicating the testing site for the PCR test has been approved by the government body or is “ISO15189” approved (It sounds like gibberish right?)
*The results must be in English or Chinese or needs to be translated officially by a certified personnel. - Vaccination Record
- Health and Quarantine Declaration Form
- At this point I feel like they also want my credit scores, social security number, my Netflix account information, and my IG handle.
When I booked my flight back, all incoming passengers from Canada needed to quarantine for 14 days.
Then, 2 days before my flight back to Hong Kong, Canada went from a medium risk, Category B country to a high risk, Category A country, because an arriving passenger from Canada brought over the city’s 1st ever Omicron case. The change means our quarantine has been extended to 3 weeks! 😭 😭 😭
I spent 48 sleepless hours trying to get a hold of someone from our quarantine hotel to change our booking so we can board the plane!
I was able to extend our booking, but the updated booking confirmation, which we needed to board the flight hadn’t come!
So let me try to explain the craziness of what it’s like travelling to Hong Kong during Covid:
- You’re unable to book a quarantine hotel in advance until the government releases the approved list
- Booking a Quarantine Hotel is like trying to buy Taylor Swift concert tickets online (they’re always booked up the moment the list comes out).
- The price for these hotels are double the regular price
- Direct flights are super limited and expensive
- Transiting through other countries is cheaper but you risk sudden changes in restrictions which can leave you stranded in another country
Okay, back to the story:
It’s the day of my flight, still no booking confirmation in sight. I refresh my e-mail inbox for the billionth time. The number for Room Bookings for our hotel is still busy. I’m panicking.
“Should I just cancel?” I tearfully asked my Uncle.
“No, let’s just go to the airport and see what happens.”
4 hours before the flight, we are in line to check-in, there’s an indian couple in front of us who just got rejected to board the flight for not being able to provide certification for their PCR tests. They’re now trying to argue their way on-board, but staff is not having any of it.
We’re screwed.
Our hotel didn’t have a cancellation policy, so if we were to rebook the flight, we would not be getting our money back for the hotel, which was almost $20K ($4000CAD) for just 2 weeks quarantine. THEN I’d have to rebook a whole new hotel for 3 weeks instead of 2!
GAH!
*Beep* incoming message *Beep*
I get a notification on my phone. It was the booking confirmation!!!
Oh. My. Gawd.
Tears of joy and relief! I felt like I won the lottery!
Travelling to Hong Kong during Covid is like playing high stakes Russian Roulette.
You place a bet on a time you want to fly with a high chance you won’t get a hotel, sometimes the regulations suddenly change, flights are cancelled. If you’re not stuck, then you’re suddenly down a lot of money.
We successfully flew back to Hong Kong, touched down at 6am, got our on-arrival PCR tests done, and got to our hotel by 11:30am (which I hear is super fast, because it my sister-in-law 9 hours from arrival to her hotel).
To be honest, it’s not that we’re afraid of catching Covid, it’s what the government will do if we were infected that scares the bejeebies out of us since we’re doing “Zero Covid” they’re taking no chances on an outbreak in one of the most densely populated places in the world. Which means anyone can be dragged off to some government facility for ages, way beyond 21 days in most cases if you don’t follow their strict rules
After disinfecting the room and Tetrising our luggage away, I’m exhausted, but ravenous. I have never looked forward to a meal so much before.
Lunch delivery is from 12-2pm, so any minute now!
I patiently waited for our lunch to arrive, 12 o’clock came and went, nothing. Ok, no biggie.
1 o’clock, still nothing, I was hit with major pangs of regret, “Why didn’t I take advantage of the complimentary, unlimited sandwiches, snacks, and water at the airport?! Why didn’t I take those bags of peanuts from the plane?!” I internally screamed to myself. I was so hangry!!
By 2pm I was lying weakly on the bed, the anger had dissipated, I felt myself draining away, I was delusional from exhaustion and hunger. The 2 people I was sharing the hotel room with, was starting to resemble giant fried chicken legs. Any more waiting and the news headline tomorrow will read, “Asian Girl Found Eating Roommates During Quarantine.”
At 2:30pm I mustered up the last of my energy to call the front desk about our missing lunches. “Oh, let me check for you.” the girl on the other end cheerfully responded.
Instantly, within 30 seconds after hanging up, we hear a knock on the door and food was delivered to the plastic wrapped chair outside.
OMG they had actually forgotten to feed us!
(I will soon find this is sometimes the case).
I will never forget that first meal at the hotel.
Not to exaggerate but, it was glorious. (*not being sarcastic)
The entrees were tomato pork chop and pork chop in cream sauce with spaghetti, with a side of boiled/steamed (most likely boiled) courgettes (zucchini) and carrots with some spices inside. There wasn’t enough sauce to mix into the pasta. The vegetables were not seasoned. I know it doesn’t sound good, I mean, it doesn’t sound good now even while typing this out, but maybe I was delirious from 24 hours of sleep deprivation, or the fact I hadn’t eaten anything since 5am that morning. At the time, the food tasted fan-effing-tastic and I was actually looking forward to the food during quarantine (this would be short-lived).
Alright, until next meal!
Yours Truly,
A “Hopeful” Vicky ♥️
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