Hong Kong Diaries Day 1: Covid Testing & Quarantine

After weeks of uncertainty, my Hong Kong work visa was finally released and couriered to me last week, so I was at last able to get on a Cathay Pacific flight from Singapore to Hong Kong on the night of May 12, 2020. 

Even though I knew that Changi Airport would not be full due to the Circuit Breaker measures imposed for Covid-19, it was still eerie to see it in ghost town mode. 

When I went to the counter to check in, I discovered that I hadn’t paid attention to the instructions regarding luggage, which stated that each luggage could only contain a maximum of 32 kg. But luckily, unlike other airlines who would just let you throw out anything in excess of that or leave you to your own devices, they provided a box for me to transfer those to. Talk about great customer service!  

All the shops were closed, so I couldn’t do my usual pre-boarding browsing and just headed straight to the boarding gate.

Inside the plane, there were only 9 passengers (including me) in our section. I had nobody sitting next to me and the entire row of seats in the center was unoccupied. This was great because I had a migraine and could get some sleep.

When it was time for meals, there was an announcement stating that they could no longer serve full service meals and gave us light refreshments instead.

The flight was supposed to take 4 hours, but we arrived in Hong Kong at a quarter to midnight. 

When I reached the immigration area, I handed over filled out health declaration and compulsory quarantine order forms. I was asked to download a stay home safe app and strap on a wrist tracker which will track my location and ensure that I am complying with my 14-day quarantine. This makes me feel like Neal Caffrey of White Collar, somehow.

There were still several stops to make. I lost track of how many times I had to talk to an officer in full protective gear who looked through my documents, gave me papers in brown envelopes, and asked me to proceed to the next stop. I had to take all my luggage, put them on a trolley, and get on and off a bus maybe three times. This was after midnight and I still had a migraine, so I wasn’t even sure I knew what was going on most of the time. 

Our final stop was a centre where we had the Covid-19 test taken. We were each handed a small plastic bag with a small container, a paper cone, tissue, and alcohol swabs and then had to watch a video instruction of how to collect our own deep throat saliva specimen. It’s not a swab, so it’s not painful; you just have to make a “krrrrk” sound and then spit.

After that I was handed another test kit – I needed to do another Covid-19 test on the 12th day of my quarantine. They are really very serious about this, and now I understand why Hong Kong’s cases have fallen a lot.

Then I had to wait in a hall before I was called to get my luggage and board the bus again, but this time it was to our government-appointed hotel, Regal Hotel. I reached the place at around 3:30 am. I was given a dinner box and my room key card, and was informed that it was activated for single use – that means that once I enter the room, I cannot leave, because the key card won’t work if I want to go back in. It’s actually a good control measure to prevent people from moving around.

The hotel is a four star one, so the room was very nice. Since I was by myself I had the room to myself, but people who had partners or families had to share.

The food wasn’t, though, but it was not bad. We were also given breakfast the next day and could order lunch from the hotel’s room service but it was expensive.

I got a call about my test results at 1:23 pm. It was negative, so I could check out. I finished eating the sweet and sour pork I ordered for lunch, packed up my stuff, checked out, and got into a cab to go to Novotel where I would fulfil my 14 days of quarantine. The driver didn’t know a lot of English and had to ask someone else to read out my hotel details to him. Oh boy, do I need to learn Cantonese?

In the hotel, nobody helped me with my luggage, probably as part of their Covid-19 social distancing guidelines. The receptionist who checked me in informed me that I would serve my quarantine in a room on a quarantine floor, so she said I should change rooms after the quarantine period, so I could be on a floor which gets normal hotel services such as daily cleaning.

The room is a standard one with a nice huge desk which is perfect for working from home, which I will be doing starting next week.

I am not allowed to leave the room, so every time I order something, it’s left outside my door.

Luckily I can order food through Deliveroo, Foodpanda or Uber Eats. I already ordered dinner from Deliveroo last night – Cheung Hing Kee Shanghai pan fried buns which were recommended by my friend Jeff, who is based here. They’re so good, like xiao long bao merged with crispy buns.

Jeff also very kindly offered to buy groceries for me and deliver it to my hotel, so I asked him to get me stuff you can eat without having to cook it, because like standard hotel rooms, I only have a kettle and nothing else to cook with. He got a bit carried away with the instant noodles because there were some interesting flavours, like lobster bisque, black garlic tonkotsu, and MOS fried chicken. I can’t wait to try them.

And I guess that’s it! KTB!