We\u2019re greeted at the airport by people dressed in PPE and army uniforms. It\u2019s the same old story – temperature checks, a dollop of hand sanitizer, are you bringing any food or wood products into the country. It\u2019s taken us a while to get here. It\u2019s my first trip to Perth – a last minute change after our tickets to Brisbane were cancelled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We clear immigration and hand over our yellow fever vaccine booklets for inspection when asked. There is no mention of the PCR test certificates that are required to enter the country and which we obtained in Dubai. We declare the cashew nuts & crackers we\u2019ve packed as contingency snacks, but forget to mention the wooden candle sticks I was given as a birthday gift many years ago. The X-Ray picks them up but it\u2019s not an issue. After all, they were originally purchased in Australia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
An army guy directs us to a police officer sitting behind a perspex screen. The cop asks for our QR code to enter WA which we had to apply for before leaving. He scans to check and it\u2019s all in order. He doesn\u2019t ask for the Australian Travel Declaration which all arriving passengers are directed to fill out 72 hours prior to landing. He asks whether we have been tested for COVID-19 but doesn\u2019t ask to see our negative certificates. It seems somewhat ironic given the airline almost refused us boarding in Dubai because our certificates didn\u2019t show our passport number as apparently required by the Australian authorities. He then tells us that today is Day 0 and that Day 1 of quarantine will start tomorrow. My head droops in disappointment – we\u2019ve been told that some other States count arrival day as Day 1, and when you\u2019re talking 14 days stuck in one room, every extra hour matters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the last week, we\u2019ve been tested for COVID-19 three times; 1) prior to leaving our home in West Africa, 2) upon arrival at the airport in Dubai, and 3) again in Dubai at a drive-through testing facility which we visited in a taxi. We are told that we\u2019ll be tested another two times in the next 14 days. I don\u2019t mind the frequency of testing – it\u2019s reassuring to know we\u2019re negative and we don\u2019t want to risk infecting our families – although I would take the throat swab over the nose any day of the week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We\u2019re told we\u2019ll be staying in the Pan Pacific hotel which we\u2019ve never heard of, and are directed to a waiting area in the airport with plastic chairs socially distanced. After about 40 minutes, the buses finally arrive and we are shepherded out to load our bags. Michael is in charge of loading our suitcases on the bus – after having back surgery four months ago, I\u2019m not able to lift my fair share which is frustrating. Worried I\u2019ll look precious or lazy I mention the surgery to an airport worker. He lifts up the smaller suitcases for me and calls me sweetie with a kindly Aussie accent which makes me smile.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We board the bus and wait while it\u2019s loaded with more and more quarantine lepers like ourselves. I gaze out at the sunset while we wait. It\u2019s an incredible one – deep reds and gold splashed across the sky. It\u2019s been a while since I\u2019ve seen a sunset so dramatic and so vast as that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Once the bus is finally loaded, we set off for the hotel. The police escort seems overkill, but perhaps there have been prior instances of passengers hijacking the quarantine buses in order to escape their fate. We pull up at the curb outside the hotel lobby. Waiting for us are 2-3 hotel staff members in face shields, masks – full PPE. Behind them, the hotel lobby is haemorrhaging people – free young workers dressed in black jogging with their backpacks in groups of 3 and 4. Apparently the uncontaminated need to leave the vicinity before we are allowed to enter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The bus doors open but we are only allowed off in small groups. The hotel staff in PPE roll luggage trolleys towards people from a distance as they alight from the bus. One staff member yells at us to stay on the bus – there are too many potentially infected people outside on the pavement or in the lobby trying to check in now. One lady tries to access her suitcase from the front seat of the bus where it has been stored. The bus driver, panicked, puts his gloved hands in front of him and refuses to assist \u201cI can\u2019t touch it, I can\u2019t touch it.\u201d We watch from the bus doorway as two small Asian women try to manoeuvre their fully loaded baggage trolleys up the ramp. The trolley is twice their size.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At check-in, the staff ask if we want 1 king bed or 2 queens. \u201cThe biggest room you\u2019ve got\u201d I say. Michael and I will both be working remotely during the quarantine period so separate work spaces are helpful, as is extra space in general. \u201cThe rooms are all standard-size\u201d a staff member replies curtly. \u201cUh, king bed then I guess\u201d I stumble, \u201cdo the windows at least open?\u201d I\u2019m sure the staff get such questions all the time – \u201cunfortunately no.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
With Michael pushing the trolley we are escorted at a distance towards the lift and head up to the tenth floor. I swipe the keycard and open the door to our temporary abode. It takes a minute for the reality to register. It\u2019s a bog-standard hotel room. One bed, small bathroom, single desk, TV. Not quite the 5-star standard advertised on Google. There is a large window through which we face another quarantine hotel, the Novotel. To the left, you can see the Swan River.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I open my suitcase and dig out the industrial can of Lysol I packed and start spraying every surface. Given most positive cases out of Australia seem to connect to hotel quarantine I\u2019m not taking any chances on their cleaning standards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One box. Two people. No sunshine and no breeze. It\u2019s gonna be a long two weeks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
We\u2019re greeted at the airport by people dressed in PPE and army uniforms. It\u2019s the same old story – temperature checks, a dollop of hand sanitizer, are you bringing any food or wood products into the country. It\u2019s taken us a while to get here. It\u2019s my first trip to Perth – a last minute …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1917,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/moniqueshutch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1914"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/moniqueshutch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/moniqueshutch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moniqueshutch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moniqueshutch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1914"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/moniqueshutch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1914\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1918,"href":"https:\/\/moniqueshutch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1914\/revisions\/1918"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moniqueshutch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1917"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/moniqueshutch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1914"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moniqueshutch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1914"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moniqueshutch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1914"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}