Livin' La Vida landed in Oz last night: welcome (?) home (?)
There are flights you take in life that are not like all the others - this one from KL - Sydney was that flight for many reasons. Everyone seemed to wear a mask on our very empty aircraft but a cough, sniffle or sneeze from fellow passengers makes us all nervous and skittish. The airline food is suddenly OK because you are in the air again and it feels like things are sort of normal. We even flew over Bali so I gave my other home a wave, a prayer and then flew over Broome and Alice Springs on our way East. I looked down at all the land I had explored in the bus and felt the colours of Oz slowly seep back into my consciousness. It was great to be back in the sky again. Jet fuel is a drug.
So I landed at Sydney Airport on a rainy winters night last night with a lot of mixed feelings and three extra layers of clothing on - it was quite surreal. It was basically deserted and everywhere you turned most areas were completely closed and cordoned off. Lots of barricade tape, lots of lines, lots of vast empty spaces. I have never seen the airport like that - for someone who loves to travel - it was a very sad thing to see. It felt like being in a well lit dystopian movie set.
Everything was regimented and ordered - line up here - sign there - walk here - walk there. Borderforce were there to guide you through all the new procedures and protocols. It felt nothing like travelling usually does. People were unusually quiet. There was none of that anticipation and joy that airports often bring out in people. We all did what we were told. What airport staff I did see - very few, if any, wore masks which seemed quite contradictory. Until you went to the health screening / interviewing area - then it was full-on head to toe PPE!
Be prepared to read new forms on the plane, to sign forms and lots of them and to also stand in line and get health checked and interviewed before you go to Immigration. The lady at Immigration said and I quote " you are lucky you got in when you did - it is only going to get worse here in Sydney." Great. Fewer planes - just what we need. We are already on 1% of arrivals from last year - how much less is zero?
Then all of us bleary-eyed arrivals were guided to the waiting buses outside - allocated a bus number and another phase of the process begins. It is all seamlessly organised but I repeat none of this feels like travel.
The army and police now take over ( a trigger warning for anyone that has been in a war etc should be standard for all arrivals ) and they load your luggage onto the coaches. Then you stare out your rain-soaked window and wait for everyone to board. No this is definitely not travelling. You are then ferried to the designated quarantine hotels in Sydney but no one tells you where you are going. You have no idea where you are going to quarantine until you arrive out the front. It is luck of the draw. You can tell it is a quarantine hotel from the police, staff and army out front wearing masks waiting to greet you.
They say welcome home - but you find it hard to feel anything.
Then a police officer gave us new forms to fill in and the all-clear - we were asked 2 by 2 to alight from the bus to register at our designated hotel check-in counter guarded by police - which is now outside in the car park. I sat there staring at the concierge and the lobby and remembering what travel used to feel like. This was not travelling. This felt like a bad Sunday school camp you really did not want to go to but your Mum had paid for it so you had to.
All the luggage was speedily taken off the bus by the army officers and was lined up for us to collect. An army officer personally helped each of us with our luggage to a police check inside on another floor - whereby we had a short but standing interview with a police officer and more ID checks etc. You are told once again welcome home - it feels hollow.
Then you receive your first quarantine dinner in your brown paper baggie and another muscly army officer takes your luggage in the lift to your room. There is a table permanently outside blocking the door and a masked security guard in the hallway. This is where all deliveries etc take place - EFTPOS transactions - everything is contactless.
Everyone from the moment I got to the hotel is wearing a mask - including the police. So I left Penang at 1 am and got in the room by 9: 45pm.
So my take on all this: this is not an edifying time or way to travel - this is not a time to jaunt around - this is something you do because you really have to. There is nothing lighthearted or free-spirited about sitting in ghostly airports that have taped off areas or having to go through this kind of rigmarole to enter or stay in a country. There is no holiday vibe about all this.
Most of the people returning to Australia now are people that have lost their jobs OS or are coming back for an emergency - sometimes it's both - they are the two categories. People should keep this in mind before they comment or judge - be kind. The ones that can stay away from this situation will - and they should for now - rather than pay 3k for a two-week stay in a hotel where they can't walk past their rooms front door or open a window. I was lucky I booked my ticket just before the cut-off. 2-week quarantine begins. Updates to follow.
Peace
