The Arrival, April 22, 2022 – Walk off the plane and step in the airport terminal, the entire major terminal is closed to incoming travelers but converted to a traveler arrival disease inspection station. The first sight is a giant established quarantine center where all incoming travelers are thought to be entering to check in to the quarantine center for incarceration. The feeling is of course all travelers are thought to be confirmed disease virus carriers who are transported to be detained in the quarantine center by order.

The Hotels, April 23, 2022 – Even after the travelers have gone through all testing stations, mandatory health documentation check and customs, travelers are not free to leave the airport but need to declare which quarantine hotels they are to check in, travelers are then grouped and bused to the destined hotels, while each bus which travelers are assigned has a guard officer riding along to make sure each traveler is to reach the destined hotel and not to leave the bus before arriving the destined hotel. As the bus goes in to the entrance of the hotel, I am totally convinced that I am being transported to an incarceration facility and infectious disease control quarantine center combined.

The Look Out, April 24, 2022 – Looking out to the city from the hotel room window, boating activities on the water in the harbor bay, people are working to get the wedding venue ready on the open plaza beneath my floor, and customers patronizing the rooftop restaurant all show no signs of the city is actually in the midst of a worrisome pandemic crisis. It is what I have seen in the airport after arrival and what I have been serviced in the hotel after checked-in that obliterated the fact that I am a fully vaccinated and tested negative traveler but not a highly infectious patient of any deadly virus. Watching the people in my hotel room, the noise just outside my locked hotel room door lures me to look into the peephole wanting to see who is doing what as I am not allowed to open the door at will. At first there’s none sighted within the visual coverage span of the peephole, then the 6-foot tall multi-shelves metal framed cart starts rolling forward passing my visual of the peephole as being pushed by a fully-geared of infection-proof protective clothing. Another person with the exact protective clothing turns up at a sudden to ring the doorbell and knocks on the door at the same. He then turns away almost instantaneously. I have waited a little just wanted to make sure that there would be no people nearby, but as I open the room door and take a step forward to grab the delivered meal placed on the table by the foot of the door, another person also with the exact protected clothing is pushing the tall metal framed cart already in her quick steps; just as at the moment of meeting, she literally accelerates instantaneously with no other intentions but to get far away from me the soonest she possibly can. I have my mask on and I would seem to be a highly infectious patient, but I am just a negative-tested traveler staying in the hotel.

The People, April 25, 2022 – Who? They are . . . I just couldn’t quit wondering who are the people, and I admit I don’t quite understand my question either! I would try to answer but I got stuck at ‘They are . . . ‘. I might be looking at the people on the streets and wonder who they are but not because they are strangers to me. Or I might be thinking of the people who each one of them was in full infectious disease prevention gear whom I came in contact with when I first stepped off the plane. Again, I am not wondering who the people are because they are strangers to me and I want to get to know them, I just have this query in my mind asking who are the people.

What will happen? April 26, 2022 – What happens to me in this? Confined in the hotel room for 7 days and perform a self-test COVID rapid antigen test each day before 2 PM because the used test kit is collected regardless tested positive or negative. It is advised taking a photo of the test result on the test kit each time before submitting it, and of course each day’s result needs to be written down for records in the given official form which requires signature at the end of 7 days. An official personnel takes a PCR test on me in person on the 5th day. I am really worried if I am tested negative on the 4th day, 5th day, and so on, will I be taken away from my private hotel room to a crowded holding quarantine center? I am convinced that being taken away from the private hotel room to the crowded quarantine center stifles the purpose of quarantining in the hotel room in the first place, and what’s the point of the policy of mandatory hotel quarantine upon arrival? Also, if tested positive on the 4th day onward, it is pretty much telling the infection is by the contact sources originate in local Hong Kong.

Any plan? April 27, 2022 – What are they doing? A lot is done on each traveler from arrival, but what’s the plan for all these testings and recordings? Not just for all incoming travelers, for all local people, testings and recordings, what’s the plan for mitigating the severity of COVID19 and ending the pandemic. I can’t stopping asking, ‘What are they doing?’

Are things working? April 28, 2022 – What’s to be done? Anyone knows what is going on?

Free, April 29, 2022 – Free to go! Does it mean I am really free?

Return to Hong Kong – Where do I go on from here? How do I go on from now?