Update to Trying Times

March 19th, 7:35 p.m. Hong Kong time: Thank you for the many heartfelt comments, emails and messages – much appreciated!

Just when we thought we finally had things nailed down, we woke up to one more surprise. Our hotel in Hong Kong alerted us to new requirements. Effective March 19th (the day of our flight) “People arriving in Hong Kong who have been to any overseas countries/areas in the past 14 days, regardless of whether they are Hong Kong residents, will be subject to compulsory quarantine.”

Of course panic – so I once again called on What’s App to our lifeline, better known as “Deb and Rich Help Line” . Just hearing their voices helped, and they started their research and would get back to me. Meanwhile I called the Canadian Embassy in both Kuala Lumpur and Hong Kong. They said they were finding out things the same time we were and other than registering our whereabouts on the Canadian Government site, they had little to offer at this point. Of course our level of stress went up a few more notches…but our lifeline came through. Deb and Rich researched and made some calls. Deb found out from Cathay Pacific that if we were just transitioning through Hong Kong i.e. not going through Customs, then the quarantine did not apply. The catch was we had to be using Cathay Pacific the whole way – Kuala Lumpur to Hong Kong and then Hong Kong to Toronto. Due to the cancellation by Malayasia air, I was able to book through Cathay Pacific – that turned out to be a good cancellation.

Malayasia was in a partial shutdown, and more restrictions were coming so getting a taxi to the airport was our next priority. Luckily we had made friends with our tour driver (who in his spare time was a taxi driver) and he took us to the airport.

Getting through the Malayasia airport was much easier than we thought as they were happy for foreigners to leave. Not surprisingly, their focus was on arriving passengers with tough new entry and in transit restrictions.

Coming into Hong Kong, they did a temperature check before we entered the “in transit” area – we were normal (well our temperature was). That was at 10:30 last night….and for the last 9 hours we have been hanging out in the Hong Kong Departures area. We tried sleeping on the chairs – not good, then Larry tried the floor – really not good. So we wandered around looking to see if there was anything else – of course there wasn’t. We thought of Tom Hanks in The Terminal movie – he was much more creative than we are.

It is 7:30 in the morning on March 20th – we are 12 hours ahead of Toronto time. Many cancellations on the Departure boards, so we are hoping that our flight does not become one of the casualties. We really need to leave at 6:15 tonight or we will become Tom Hanks

I will update again once it looks like we are actually boarding the flight home (15 hour flight from Hong Kong to Toronto).

We will do our 14 day self-isolation in Huntsville – and we are glad to do it as long as we are home.

March 17– Previous Blog: The Coronavirus as we know is impacting everyone. This is definitely a time to be at home. This is a quick post to say we are ok – stressed as we are trying to get home from Kuala Lumpur Malayasia and flights keep getting cancelled. It is a book, rebook…again and again as I receive emails that our flight has been cancelled. Getting through to get any help takes hours on hold and even then sometimes I get cut off.

Just when we think we finally have a flight home things change. Right now the Malaysia government has implemented a partial shut down just as other countries and Canada have done – but this one is more severe here. This means flights are also being cancelled – so even the airport for departures is impacted.

We have to get to Hong Kong to get our flight home. We now are booked to fly from Kuala Lumpur to Hong Kong on Thursday March 19th at 5:50 p.m. (4 hour flight) with Cathay Pacific – Dragon. It is direct as if we stop in another airport we may not be able to continue on as countries like Vietnam will quarantine foreigners.

Assuming our flight to Hong Kong is not cancelled then we fly home on Friday March 20 with Cathay Pacific leaving at 6:15 p.m. and arriving in Toronto at 9:10 p.m. (we are 12 hours ahead here). It is a 15 hour non stop flight.

I am glued to my email watching for cancellations again – there have been so many thus far.

We are right now in an apartment in Kuala Lumpur – we do have some groceries which we picked up yesterday as restaurants are shut down and even getting anywhere is difficult.

Hoping and praying no more flights are cancelled and we can come home on Friday.