Travel in the Time of Corona

We’ve had an interesting journey from Delhi to Hong Kong.   Lets call it Travel in the time of Corona.  What is a simple 5.5 hour journey (or 10 hours, if you consider door-to-door time) under normal circumstances has turned out to be a 48 hour journey this time around.  Thanks to the current situation when there are limited flights between India and Hong Kong, and even they get cancelled faster than new flights are announced. 

This may be a long read, and frankly, quite uninteresting.  So feel free to drop off at this time. 

Prior to setting out for the airport though, we needed to get tested for covid and have our negative results and certificates ready.  We discovered the joys of Delhi’s “drive-thru” testing process. Hong Kong health authorities need not just the lab test results but also a certificate that the path lab is accredited by ICMR and has the ISO: 15189 certification.  Got test results, got certificate, got ICMR accreditation copy.  All check. 

Delhi - Dubai: The check-in section of the airport was busy although not even close to how it is during normal times. Check in still took time though because they need to check COVID Test results in addition to all the other stuff.  

Dubai Airport: The airport had a barren look.  Even the Emirates terminal which is usually buzzing with people was running empty! It was a strange feeling to see several cafes, duty free stores and restaurants closed (like it was at Delhi Airport too).  We requested Emirates to check us in to our next flight from Dubai to Hong Kong.  We could not do this at Delhi itself because the two legs of the journey were on separate tickets because of current travel restrictions from India to other places.  

Thankfully, Emirates in Dubai agreed to book us to HK the same evening, and very importantly, agreed to fetch our checked in bags and route them further to HK.  This was critical: had they not agreed to do that, we would have been forced to go through immigration in Dubai to collect our bags then check in to the next flight again. To go through UAE immigration would have required that we do another COVID test at Dubai airport as per their current rules for visitors from India and then go and wait in a hotel till the results were out. That would have forced us to spend a night in Dubai itself. And carry out another COVID Test in the city because the one we had done in Delhi would have gone beyond the 72 hour limit set up by Govt of HK for validity of test results.  Thankfully, none of that came to pass. 

We found ourselves a lounge for the day and stayed there for the next 12 hours!  Of course, we stepped out of the lounge every now and then, but not for long.  How much duty free shopping can one do after all?   :-)

Dubai - Hong Kong: More checking of the COVID Test result before boarding.  More checking of the quarantine hotel booking at boarding (for a minimum of 14 nights on arrival in HK). This journey had two parts. The first part was a 6 hour leg from Dubai to Bangkok.  The flight had about 80 passengers, so about a third of the Boeing 777 ER was filled. The second leg was from Bangkok to Hong Kong, with about 25 passengers. The rest had got off at Bangkok itself. No new passengers came on board at Bangkok. 

Hong Kong Airport: On our arrival at Hong Kong, we were shunted to a designated testing area.  All arriving passengers are tested for Covid. They have to wait at the airport (if the flight arrives in the daytime) till the test results are out.  However, since our flight arrived in the evening, the government arranged a hotel for us to spend the night till the results were out the next day.  At the designated testing area, we gave our deep throat saliva sample.  We were given a wristband that we need to wear at all times for the next 14 days. We had to install an app that connects to the wristband by bluetooth. The govt will call us at random intervals over the next 14 days and we will have to scan the QR code printed on the wristband with the app on the phone.  

This will keep the authorities informed of our whereabouts.  They also gave us a digital thermometer with which we need to check and records our temperature twice a day.  The entire process at the airport took us 4+ hours. Then we were shunted to the govt designated hotel for the night. Check in formalities for this hotel were performed at the airport itself. Room numbers were assigned at the airport itself. Our food allergies / constraints (eg, vegetarian) were noted at the airport itself.  On arrival at the hotel, we were handed one food packet each and sent to our rooms. Once we entered the hotel room, we were not allowed to come out till the govt department of health asked us to. 

Quarantine Hotel: The next day a breakfast food packet was left outside our door, and around 10:30 AM, we got a call from the hotel reception that we needed to check out. Then we took a cab to our designated quarantine hotel. We have booked two rooms here with an interconnecting door.  We did this because both of us will be working from here over the next 14 days and we couldn’t possibly join conference calls at the same time if we were in the same room.  We cannot leave the room at all for the next 14 days. The hotel has swag though - check out their toiletries - all inspired by rock and pop music themes.  

We can order food from restaurants in the city and they leave it outside our door.  They also allow others to leave food for us. The hotel is a mere 200 metres from our home. We intend to ask our helper to cook food and bring it over for lunch and dinner.  On our first day here, a colleague of mine arranged for sambhar, aloo and rice to be dropped over for us.  

Its been an interesting journey.  No complaints though. Things kept progressing, albeit a little slowly at times. And our expectations were in line with the situation on the ground.  So there is no disappointment or frustration.  We are thankful that we could even make the trip to India, spend an entire month there, and then make it back to HK. A lot of people came together to make this happen for us: colleagues, friends, family, random people that I don’t know but who were approached for help on our behalf by our friends… everybody helped.  Everybody wanted to help. Everybody understood the gravity of the situation.  Everybody only wished us well.  We are very thankful.  God has been kind.  It was important for us to be at home in India with Papa, our Masis, VishAanj, our family.  It was important for our sake, and for their sake.  We are fortunate we could spend this time together.   And for that, even if we had to do a 96 hour journey, we would. 

Visit the Vixabs Wanderlust page for other trip descriptions.