Heading home to Hong Kong... life before lockdown - Wednesday 25 March


After 5 months in Singapore on a work assignment, it’s time to head home to Hong Kong. We are living in unprecedented times, countries are going in to lock down and most flights are grounded.

 I was due to fly home on Friday 27 March but received an update from the airline on Monday night to say my flight was cancelled, so it was a mad scramble to get organised to fly on Wednesday.

 We have been working in split teams in the Sg office so I haven’t seen many of my colleagues or team members face to face for many weeks. It’s sad to be leaving without saying goodbye in person.

 It’s fair to say I was quite nervous to be flying at this crazy time. I was also very anxious about the thought of going in to quarantine for 14 days. But the need to be home was important so I donned my face mask, stocked up with hand sanitizer and headed to the airport.

 I’ve never seen an airport as empty as terminal 4 at Changi. I stocked up on some duty free skin care (because quarantine) and headed to the Cathay business lounge which was open surprisingly. I did plan to stock up on booze (because quarantine) but most of the airport stores including the duty free booze was closed. Whoever made that decision has never had to take on quarantine!
The flight departure screen in the Cathay Lounge 

No one in sight



All by myself
I spent my time at the airport walking laps. It would be the last minutes of freedom for two weeks so I needed to ensure I hit my step count. I got to just over 24,000 steps before I hit the gate and boarding was called early.

 Anyone who knows me knows that I’ve spend a large chunk of my life in airports, so nothing phases me when it comes to the weird and wonderful things people do to prepare for flying. What I wasn’t prepared for was a dozen police at the gate with a bunch of young guys.

 (Note, I took loads of photos but don’t think I should share them in case the people concerned are really in the shit!)

 A few families were panicking so I asked what was going on. The only thing the staff would say is ‘they’re not sick’. Me and my new best friends in the check-in line decided that they must have been thrown out of the country. The Sg govt are doing that when non-residents break the Clovid-19 rules. Good idea I say.

 After an empty and uneventful flight, I landed in HK feeling slightly under-dressed. 


 I didn’t wrap myself in plastic - must have missed that memo! I’ve never been out with shower caps on my shoes, this might have been my only chance!

 The HK govt are only allowing HK citizens and residents with a work visa in to the country. I fully support this as we need to contain this crazy virus - but I was unsure of what chaos I might face as I made my way through the terminal.

 Well there was no chaos, thank goodness. There were loads of signs explaining what to do and loads of people giving directions.

 I had to go through the following process:
1. Line up to check you’d completed all the paperwork and downloaded the ‘stayathome’ app.
2. Line up to get a geo wrist band
3. Line up to get the process explained - well I think that’s what was supposed to happen. My dude just kept telling me how tired he was - but I struggled to hear him through his face mask and plastic face shield thingy. I told him he was doing a great job, he smiled and waved me on my way (long line for not much info!)
4. Stop by a desk to get your phone number verified and to be given a brown envelope with quarantine information.
5. Go through immigration via a counter (not using the machines that I would normally use). This should have been fast but I had a slight problem. I had to get a new passport late last year (because too much time in airports) and my work visa is in my old passport. 
6. Go to a separate desk while a little dude makes a load of phone calls. Despite him suggesting I sit down ‘as this may take a while’ he got me sorted in about 10 mins. Thank god!

 I grabbed my bags and headed to the car I’d booked to take me home. I did one lap of the car park, my last minutes of freedom for a while.

 Home. It was an amazing feeling to be home after such a long time away.

 I set up the stayathome app, unpacked and headed to bed. Nothing beats sleeping in your own bed!

 It’s such a novelty to be home, but I’m worried that feeling will wear off fast after 14 days of lock down. 

 Stay tuned for the next post, life in lockdown day 1.

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