penny bay
Hong Kong is still cranking along with ZERO local covid-19 cases. Whilst we get a handful of imported ones, they get sent straight to hospital so we don’t have any cases in the community. With the exception of intense quarantine rules on inbound travellers (and a lot of mask-wearing and QR code scanning) we are living life very normally here in HK. Netball started back up in September and I joined a team again, happy to commit to it, with no travel foreseeable in the coming months.
Things were ticking along uneventfully until Tuesday morning when one of my team mates messaged our Netball team group chat to let us know that her other half had tested positive for covid. He’d just returned from a flight to Germany so likely caught it in his travels, and he’d been home for a few days so a reasonable chance she’d now test positive too. Yikes. Whilst we are all vaccinated and not particularly worried about our health as such if we’d caught it off her, we were all immediately worried about being carted off to quarantine ourselves, and also causing anyone we’ve been in contact with to be carted off too. We all immediately left our offices and went home to self-isolate while we waited to see what would happen. Our teammate was sent right away to a government quarantine camp (Penny’s Bay) for 21 days as she’s a close contact of a positive case. If she then tested positive the same would be true for our whole team.
They really took their time testing our teammate so we all kind of waited in limbo for the rest of Tuesday evening. On Wednesday morning we were all asked to go get tested which we dutifully did, then later that afternoon we were informed we’d be sent to quarantine for 3 days (despite not yet having test results from our teammate) because the government wanted to contain the close contacts of close contacts for testing. We were informed we would be collected that evening. We all packed our bags for 21 days (because we didn’t have our teammate’s test results yet) and waited to be collected… and waited… and waited. Turns out they’d not calculated how many buses they’d need to get the hundreds of people collected and they just never arrived for the pickup. At midnight we all gave up waiting and went to sleep, pretty happy to have spent some more of our “3 days” at home rather than in Penny’s Bay.
Lunchtime Thursday we got the good news that our teammate had tested negative so we should only have to stay for the “3” days, although considering sometimes the virus can take a little time to show up on tests we didn’t fully relax just yet. We all finally got collected sometime on Thursday afternoon with the last of our team arriving around at Penny’s Bay around 6 pm. They also made all the teams we’d played against in our last 4 games (stretching back to well before our teammate’s other half traveled), as well as coaches and umpires, go to Penny’s Bay. Pretty insane all around. Our 3 days had started counting on Wednesday so we were going to be spending around 28 hours in Penny Bay after all of this. We spent Thursday night settling in, talking sh*t in our group chat, and ordering Pizza, yes PIZZA, Dough Bros (an awesome takeaway pizza place on HK island) very kindly bring free pizzas to people in Quarantine. Considering the food that is otherwise served this is a highly sought-after service so we all got in on it. It wasn’t clear to us when the pizza would arrive but we assumed the next evening around dinner time. We were very surprised then when pizzas turned up to some of us at 10 pm that night, regardless though the gesture was SO appreciated and I ended up having mine for lunch the next day (reheated to luke-warm by creating a steamy space using the dough bros bag covering the kettle!). We had a bit of drama Thursday night when a young girl in a room below us somehow burnt herself on a candle and was screaming and crying and then both an ambulance and a fire engine turned up! The whole time there were also lots of Penny’s Bay workers running around looking very unsure how to deal with it. I don’t think the injury was too serious luckily and it provided something else to focus on for a bit and discuss.
On Friday most of us had to work but it wasn’t the easiest environment to work in with constant distractions like 2x covid tests (within the space of an hour). One test organised by Penny’s Bay because it was our last day and they need a “last day” test in order to release us. The other organised by the health department as part of the contact tracing from our teammate. Why one test couldn’t serve both purposes is the sort of question you eventually just don’t bother asking yourself. We also had of course food deliveries, temperature checks, and various text messages flying around trying to plan our departure (did we want a bus to the MTR station this evening or the next morning?) and confirm whether we’d tested negative and were actually allowed to leave. For whatever genius reason (again, better not to ask), all quarantines here finish at midnight which means either you have to spend even more time locked up and leave the next morning, or make your prison break at midnight when you’re tired as and have minimal transport options available. We all decided to leave at midnight regardless so had some time to kill after finishing work for the day, a few hours of zoom games and wine saw us through, as all of our negative test results slowly dripped through (thankfully). Leaving was a complete kerfuffle with waiting for buses and sorting bits of paper, and unfortunately, one of our teammates wasn’t allowed to leave despite having tested negative because they couldn’t find the correct piece of paper. The poor thing had to spend an extra night in there despite having left her room and made it to the bus queue, she in fact had to threaten legal action to get herself released in the morning.
So yea a short & sweet adventure which I am happy to say stayed that way, as our teammate continued to test negative throughout her 21 days. It was a chaotic week, to say the least, but it wasn’t too painful as we had our whole team going through it together so lots of support and laughter together. Sucks of course for the one teammate who has to stay locked up for the full 21 days (despite multiple negative tests), really feel for her. This madness is of course why we continue to have no local cases but it really is brutal for those who get caught up in it.
It was interesting to check out Penny’s Bay actually, having heard so much about it. It’s a purpose-built temporary quarantine facility used for close contacts of anyone who tests positive and also used as an alternative to quarantine hotels for Foreign Domestic Helpers arriving in Hong Kong. It’s right beside Disneyland, quite surreal to drive past the entrance to Disney on a way to such an opposite place! It sleeps a few thousand people at a time and is much larger than I’d expected!
Our rooms all had the following furniture:
2 single beds (metal frames, thin wood base, thin mattress covered in plastic)
2 small foldable tables
2 plastic foldable chairs
a fabric wardrobe type thing (with some plastic hangers in it)
air-con which is also a heater
Provided items on arrival included:
a kettle
a small TV (didn’t try turn it on, no idea what channels it had)
cup noodles
crackers
small shampoo, body wash, conditioner
small thin towel
hair dryer
face-cloth
bottled water
duvet, duvet cover, bottom sheet, pillow, pillow case
rubbish bags
bucket and mop
plastic bowl and cup
The room setup is long and thin with one main room then a separate combined shower/toilet/bathroom (there is a shower curtain but most of the floor will get a bit wet when you shower). Mine was very clean, had windows at both ends that could be opened to get fresh air in. We were also able to leave the door open and even lean out (don’t let your feet leave the room) to talk to people in the room on either side. You’re delivered 3 meals a day which you can select off a small menu of not-really-western-palette-friendly options, but there is a lag between arrival and your meal selections taking affect so the first few days you just get something random. Some of my teammates asked for Vegetarian / Halal meals and got them right away and apparently, they were quite yummy (nice-looking curries and naan bread). They bought water bottles and pieces of fruit around randomly, and you can ask for more crackers and cup noodles via WhatsApp. You can also request a sim card for data (there is no Wi-Fi in Penny’s Bay). As it’s surrounded by hills and water some of the rooms would definitely have nice views, I could peep the ocean by stretching my head out the back window. Overall compared to my first quarantine camp, Penny’s Bay is definitely nicer, and from what I’ve seen of some quarantine hotels also a step up on some of them in terms of food and being able to open the window and doors. Everyone I dealt with in person was really friendly despite the pretty trying situation they’re working in, they definitely get a hard time from some of the “detainees”.
Whilst I hope not to have to stay there again, if I do this would be my Penny Bay Packing List:
Healthy snacks
Some canned foods, noodles, eggs, anything that doesn’t need refrigeration but would allow me to cook some simple meals myself
Chocolate (or some other long lasting food that makes you happy)
Wine (no one can deliver you alcohol so whatever you start with has to last you the whole time)
Vitamin tablets
Tea bags (or coffee if that’s your thing)
Small long-life milks (there is no fridge)
A small hot plate and frying pan + cooking utensil (for reheating food and some simple cooking of my own)
Yoga Mat
Exercise Bands
Dumbells/kettlebell
Sports shoes + some changes of sports clothes
Hand-wash liquid
Slippers
Bed linen
Pillow
Scented candle
Laptop + charger
Some lux toiletries
A few towels (you can’t do any laundry)
Enough clothes for the whole time you’re there (only stuff that’s comfy and makes you feel good)
Puzzles/books/knitting/crafts/kindle
Proper cutlery, a proper plate, a mug, a glass
A few teatowels
Cleaning wipes/cloths
Dishwashing liquid + sponge/brush
