With a compulsory self-paid 21 days hotel quarantine in Hong Kong, it surely is a jail sentence. However, with some healthy cookies and proof that the essential things in life are not money, fame, and property, but are good internet, good smartphone & laptop.
25 November 2021, I checked in to Silka Sea-View Hotel in Yau Ma Tei with my family. When I say family, I mean my wife, six-year-old son, and myself. When we landed in Hong Kong on 25 November 2021, around 4.30 am, we felt like we started playing the Squid game. Go here, do this, wait here, fill this form, queue here, so many things were lined up turn by turn. My son laughed and said, “Papa, it’s fun; it feels like we are playing Squid Game.” We finally began testing for covid, turn-by-turn, and then waited for 2 hours for our results. The wait for the covid result felt like waiting for my final year’s results of Bachelors of Engineering, same tension, stress, and lack of sleep. Thankfully, everyone else on our flight tested negative, and we were asked to move towards the baggage belts to collect our bags.
Around 8 am, we collected our bags and moved towards another very long queue that segregated according to the hotel bookings for everyone. Each hotel had a different line, and the airport staff led everyone turn-by-turn. Finally, we got on to our bus and reached our hotel, Silka Sea-View.
As we reached our hotel around 10 am, 15-20 feet high wooden partitions surrounding the hotel entrance welcomed us. I felt like we were going inside some jail. Around 8-10 of the hotel staff, looking damn tensed and covered entirely in PPE clothes, welcomed us with complete dismay on their faces. Many people say covid is just in mind, and this is precisely what I was feeling, covid-positive only in my mind. The tensed hotel staff cordoned off the hotel entrance, and the scary tired faces of everyone made me feel like one covid positive patient. I haven’t tested positive for covid until now, but this was the closest I could get to feeling positive. “Covid has made the word positive very negative in the covid sense; no one wants to be positive.” The hotel staff briefed on the covid quarantine game rules rules very clearly. Breakfast boxes at 8.30 am, lunchboxes at 1 pm, and dinner boxes at 7 pm. It would help if you took your meal boxes inside your rooms within a maximum of 30 minutes after they were placed outside your room. Inside the room, trash will be picked only at 2.30 pm every day, and nothing can go outside the room except for the used meal boxes and bin bags.
Finally, around 11 am we got inside our 120 square feet room with 13 bags, in total that weighed over 150kgs. Just imagine the feeling and visualize the space; you will understand what I mean. There is a queen-sized bed, one small fridge, an unusual shaped small working desk, and a non-working smart TV. To make it merrier even, the wifi wasn’t working correctly. I was in a state of shock for some time, and as I cooled off, we all started settling down inside the room. Sometimes in life, it does not matter who you are or how much you have, but what matters the most is how flexible and compromising you are with the situation that life brings in front of you. Take a note, if it’s related to Hong Kong, never trust photos of anything. Be it a girl, a hotel room, or any scenic beauty. The reality might be terrifying.
My wife and son dozed off immediately as we all were exhausted and sleepy. I had to stay awake and get on with my work, as it was a fresh new Thursday in Hong Kong, and business was running as usual. Thankfully I had my Hong Kong phone working, so I could use the Hotspot and get back to business immediately.
I had an extremely tiring and fruitful working day; I felt happy that despite feeling very tired, sleepy, and angry about the hotel situation, I managed to connect the ends and have a great day at work. I thanked God for giving me the strength and courage to accept the situation and move on happily. At first, I felt like calling the hotel reception and shouting at them mainly for the wifi not working, but somehow I made up my mind to understand that this is All-Good. What if one of us brings back the covid virus to HK? Hence, 21 days quarantine is a must for all. What if the wifi does not work? I still have my phone’s data and Hotspot to use. I at least had my son and wife with me, and together we can face and sail through the worst situations in life. What’s Important is the people around you, not the things around you.
We were served typical Chinese Hong Kong-style breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Being Indians, it’s tough to adapt to non-spicy tasteless food, but as I said earlier, you need to learn to adapt, learn to compromise, and move on in life. My wife and I started making the Hong Kong food spicy, tangy and tasty with the help of all the chilly, black-salt, and Indian flavored ready-to-mix powders we brought from India. Anticipate the worst, and then everything looks good. So here we found a solution of having Honko-Indian food every day.
There is another incident I would like to share. Every alternate day, my entire family had to go through a covid test by an outsourced company appointed by the Hong Kong Government. Just imagine every alternate day, 3-4 full PPE covered staff came hard knocking at our doors, shouting “covid-test, covid-test you need to come out.” On the first day, there was a very impolite Chinese fellow who was staring at me and shouted, “do fast, do fast we have to go.” I told him, “my wife and son are sleeping, do my swab taking first, and in the meantime my wife, and son will be ready.” He, very rudely, said, “no-wake them up right now.” I was pissed off, and I shouted at him, saying, “just shut up and come stay with us inside this hotel without internet, no space, and this jail-like feeling, then you will understand what kind of mindset we are in; right now.” I told the guy to be polite and understand that quarantine patients are not covid-positive patients, but are only in quarantine. So he needs to be polite and not treat us as slaves in imprisonment at their own paid expenses. All the Chinese in Hong Kong, at least the ones I came across after I landed in Hong Kong, treat people in quarantine like covid-positive patients. I also complained to the Health Department, and the following test onwards, I didn’t see the same guy again, and the swab-taking staff were very polite and sweet-talking. In Hong Kong, you need to shush down the Chinese who raise their voices on you just because you are a South Asian.
As days passed, my family and I became used to the food, small room, crowded space, wake up-eat-sleep routine, and same covid tests every week. After a few days of struggle with adjusting to the whole thing, we started liking it.
My wife and I enjoyed our wine, chips, and light refreshments every night. My son slept hugging both of us every night and felt super happy that he could be together with both of us simultaneously and for an extended period. I understood that if I didn’t exercise, my weight would increase, I realized it would not be reasonable to lose my temper on anything, and I also learned the most important facts and lessons of life.
Always be ready and happy with whatever you get and wherever you are. Happiness does not come with money, fame, and luxury. It comes with quality time spent together and definitely a very good high-speed Internet, good wifi, latest smartphone with all business and work apps., and obviously a good laptop.
We will never forget the 21 days spent together in quarantine as a family. I will personally feel proud that we turned a rather sad journey of 21 days into a memorable happy period of my entire life.
Few things to carry along before you get into quarantine in Hong Kong:
1)Carry a lot of ready to mix spices and food items
2)Carry a WIFI dongle
3)Carry your Amazon firestick or tv box
4)Carry a lot of dry fruits
5)Carry your insect repellents
6)Carry spare bed sheets and blankets
7)Carry spare mobile phone charger and India to HK plug adapter
8)Carry books to read
9)Carry some digestive tablets
10)Carry your yoga mats
11)Carry a portable vacuum cleaner, table clock, and Bluetooth speakers
12)Download Deliveroo and Food Panda App as soon as you arrive in HK
13)Get mobile nos. of India food meal box suppliers
