Since March the world has become a lot more complicated and traveling has become very difficult. Before Covid I would not be home for more than 3 weeks before I would have to be on an airplane. Even though technology has enable us to continue doing business remotely with Teams, Zoom, FaceTime, it does not replace face-to-face meeting. So after what felt like an eternity (actually 5 months), it was time to schedule a trip to Taiwan to see our partners.
Pre-Covid for Americans or French people, all you needed to go to Taiwan was a plane ticket and your passport. Post-Covid, the Taiwanese government was requiring a Visa, a negative Covid test taken no more 3 days before the day you were going to travel to Taiwan, and a 14 day quarantine.
Because of the pandemic also, the direct flight from Raleigh to San Francisco was removed so my itinerary included now a layover in Houston. Once I landed in SFO airport, I was shocked to see that at 4pm PCT the airport was a ghost town, not only where all shops and restaurants closed but there were barely anyone walking around from one gate to the other. As I made my way to baggage claim and then to the ticketing counter in the International terminal, there were barely anyone there as well. It made waiting for 5 hours for the Eva Air counter to open even gloomier.
The gloomy side of the trip continued as the plane barely filled up. The flight between SFO and TPE is over 14 hours long and I ended sleeping 10 hours out of them!! Once we landed I was entirely sure what to expect since it was very hard to find clear information either from the consulate or from the Taiwanese government websites. So as we deplaned we were directed in 2 different lanes: 1 lane for the people who already had a Taiwanese phone and 1 lane for those like me that needed to purchase a Taiwanese SIM card. This was a surprise since nowhere did they mention anything about needing a Taiwanese number and my iPhone was unfortunately not unlocked. So after waiting 30min in line to purchase a SIM card, now I had to rent a phone to be able to be tracked by the Taiwanese government. What took another hour and a half was to get escorted to an ATM because everything had to handled by cash and I did not bring enough.
Once this step was over I could head to baggage claim then customs then hopefully into a taxi. The taxi line was interesting...
Once in the taxi it was about a 3 hour drive till my final destination and place of quarantine in Tainan in the south of Taiwan and 3rd biggest city after Taipei and Kaohsiung.
The only government appointed hotel in Tainan
Taiwan requires everyone entering the country to undergo a 14 day quarantine period in a government vetted hotel. In Tainan there is was only hotel available: L'Arc Hotel
http://www.larchotel.com.tw/
Arrival in my room
I figured it would be best to do a quick video than me trying to explain!!
The Meals
A lot of you have asked me about food and how it worked. Unfortunately the meals are pre-made and pre-packaged for all of us in quarantine. Since I am a pescatarian, there were able at least to accommodate me. So they would bring us the meals as follow:
Breakfast at 9am
Lunch at 12pm
Dinner at 6pm
And you can't see my breakfast on those pictures?? Actually it was also fish and rice with some cakes. If you are not Asian, the food is difficult I will not lie.
I found out that the food was the most difficult part of this quarantine. After 5 days, I could not eat any of those meals, I could not eat anymore rice. And it's not that I am a picky eater because I am not. The last week of my quarantine, just the smell and the view of the food was giving me nausea. I think it could have been also that my brain had associated this food with being stuck and locked in this room.
What saved me was having our business partner and friend A. in Tainan. This is why I chose to quarantine in Tainan instead of Taipei. I knew the room or hotel would not make a difference but having someone to call in case I need anything was a piece of mind. And I was right because the first week him and his wife brought me some amazing food.
I also tried to order Uber Eats twice. The problem is that the hotel was located 30min from downtown and the best restaurants and then the food had to arrive before 6pm. The hotel staff could only come to our rooms during the designated times 9/12/6 So once I was craving some Italian food and I managed to order a small pizza and some pasta. I said I manage because even on the Uber Eats app everything was in Chinese so I had to use Google Translate to try to see what I was ordering. The result: well the pizza was not too bad but had a 4cm diameter maximum! And the pasta with veggie was more like noodles with asian vegetables. The second time I ordered Uber Eats I found a toast shop that sold peanut butter toasts and egg toasts. Let's say that it was much better than the Italian restaurant.
The second week became even harder with the food situation and I could barely eat anything. I knew I needed some Western food, and since I'm French I really needed some cheese. So I went online on Carrefour's website and starting taking snapshots of the food I was going to ask A. and his wife to buy for me and bring me the next day. Yes I was desperate!!
And this care packaged fed me for the last 4 days of my quarantine!! I canceled all other meals provided by the hotel and snacked on all those items. They also brought me amazing bread and cheese brioche for one of the best bakery in Tainan and I have to say that it was delicious! Pujei Bakery: https://pujeigiftlp.com.tw/pujei-bread/index.html
My daily routine
Having a routine is important and that's what everyone told me before I left. Easier said than done off course but I did my best and I didn't lose my mind so I guess I did ok!! I also had to take my temperature three times a day and right it down on a paper. The hotel reception would call me every day sometimes only once and sometimes twice randomly. I had a thermometer in my room in case you wonder if there were coming to my room!
I am lucky I don't have much issue with jetlag so I was already well acclimated since day 1. I would wake up every morning between 6am and 8am. The morning I would be working on all my emails from the day before then take a shower. I would also clean my "cell" every 3 days, not that it was dirty but it made me feel more normal since this is what I would do at home. It just took a lot less time to clean! I was also lucky that my window could be opened and I would let it opened all morning to bring some fresh air in. After lunch I would work on some projects like building this website and coloring.
Around 5pm I would watch some Netflix, sometimes in the mornings too depending on the work I had to do. Some of my favorite shows on Netflix that I watched during quarantine:
Leaving quarantine: Freedom
Just like when I arrived, I decided that a video would be best to describe getting released!
FREEDOM!!
First impressions when I got outside after 14 days:
Let's just say that it was wonderful and it did not hurt to go outside greeted by palm trees, sunshine and a gorgeous 28 degree weather!! I definitely hope we all get out of this pandemic very soon, but I have to say that being forced to limit our contacts with people, limiting our travels and in a sense limiting our freedom is a good reminder of how great life is and how thankful I am to be actually free every day.
What an experience...!