I was going to say these are 100 times better than the food they give in Australia when you are in quarantine and in Australia it’s $2800 per person AUD.
6 Likes
Time for an update!
Day 5
UberEats for breakfast - hotel breakfast were some noodles with egg and broccoli.
Lunch
Dinner: That one was actually quite nice - the watermelon was an even nicer touch:
Day 6
Day 6 started with an UberEats flop
Expectation
vs reality:
But luckily, the hotel served a breakfast burger from which I took the egg and the tomato. The result was not that bad.
Rest of the day also wasn’t really my taste:
and
Ordered an McDonald’s burger for dinner because I was starting to get really tired of that much rice every day.
Day 7
UberEats for breakfast (I think the hotel server wet rice)
Lunch was seafood pasta (strange, but edible):
Also received the quarantine care package from the government (quite late this time - luckily, a friend had already brought my a thermometer. When I asked the hotel on the first day if they would provide me one, they just told me to wait for the government package):
Dinner wasn’t spectacular either, but still edible:
Day 8
Off to a bad start: The onion rings mostly tasted like fat and were really soft. At least the chicken burrito was a bit filling:
Not sure who combines fish and sausage - but otherwise it was a nice one.
That one was actually really good! Lots of bones, but really nice taste of the meat. Finished it all. Bonus (not pictured): More melon today.
4 Likes
Day 9
I don’t know - breakfast is really not the strength of this hotel…
UberEats for dinner (SushiExpress):
Day 10
Still quite a “weak” breakfast - the fries were completely soft and soggy:
Lunch wasn’t a highlight either (the meat was really hard and chewy):
A bit too much oil on the chicken for my taste, but otherwise fine:
Oh, and that day I received a text message in the morning that I should take the rapid test between day 10 and 12. I decided to do it on day 11 and ignored the text message. At around 2pm, I received a call from the police asking me if I had taken my rapid test yet. I answered no and they told me to do it now and they would call me back in one hour. Luckily, the text message was in English and included a link to a video on how to take the test.
I also asked about the PCR test - they told me it would be done on Tuesday (Day 12) and they would call me with more information the following day.
Day 11
The first day I actually liked all three meals! Or maybe I am just getting used to them:
Also, as promised, the police called me that day and told me to be ready at 9:30am the following day. A taxi would get me and drive me to the testing station. I should bring my passport, ARC and NT$500 in cash to pay the taxi. Also, I should wait in my room until called by the front desk.
3 Likes
Day 12 (today)
I quickly finish my breakfast (yeah…) :
And then wait for the call. At 9:35am, someone calls my cellphone. I answer, but they only speak Chinese. They hang up after trying to tell me something which I don’t understand.
AT 9:45am, I call the reception of the hotel and ask about the taxi. They tell me that it hasn’t arrived yet and I should stay in my room.
At 9:55am, the taxi has finally arrived and I leave my room (somehow feels almost illegal at this point) to go downstairs. The taxi driver (wearing a full body protection suit, FFP2 mask and a face shield) takes my temperature and sprays me with disinfectant. He also takes a picture of my quarantine form. We drive for about 15 min and I get out to take the test. It’s a large container with a waiting area in front - I am the only “customer”, however. I show my NHI card, they seem to type in a lot more information than there is on the card and also take a picture. Then they hand me the test tube and send me to the testing station on the other side of the container.
One employee outside tells me to sit down and takes the test tube. Another one uses the swab in my left nostril. It’s really uncomfortable, but not really painful. The deep throat test I took in Germany was much more uncomfortable. Afterwards, I am ready to go - the other employee sprays the plastic gloves at the testing station with disinfectant (so they are in fact disinfected between “customers” - I remember someone was worried about that in another thread).
Leaving, my nose was still a bit uncomfortable and I had some strange, alcoholic smell in my nose but the feeling quickly disappeared after some minutes. No complaints.
I returned to the taxi - the taxi driver sprayed me again with disinfectant. We drove back to the hotel and had to sign both taxi invoices. However, just with the taxi from the airport, the driver kept both and only accepted cash ($140 + $150 = $390 in total). I was back around 10:45am.
Lunch wasn’t bad - I was a bit startled that the fish still had quite a lot of bones inside although being fried…
Dinner not a surprise - neither especially good, nor especially bad.
Just two more days to go now… 
4 Likes
All good things come to an end - and some bad things too, luckily! Just 1.5h and I am finally free again.
Well, actually - I’ll still stay the night because I’d rather still get a good night’s sleep instead of carrying all my luggage around after midnight.
But here’s the remaining ones:
Day 13
Ordered some UberEats because the breakfast sucked again.
Lunch was seafood risotto - well, more like rice with seafood. Rather meh.
Couldn’t complain about the dinner, though.
Day 14
Tuna bread and sugar cereals - the breakfast really is the worst meal of the day on pretty much every day…
Lunch and dinner were both fine, however.
That concludes this year’s food diary - looking back, I think they actually improved quite a bit compared to the year before. Only a few meals I truly didn’t like (mostly the breakfast…) - mostly were still fine and some even quite nice. In total, I had only 8 food delivery orders and only spent a bit more than $1000 on those, so total quarantine cost was still below NT$40,000.
I truly hope that I won’t need to gravedig this thread next year and quarantine will be history by then…
9 Likes
Just checked into my hotel a few hours ago. I got in right in time for breakfast. The breakfast was McDonald’s McMuffin, tea, and a hash brown. I took a picture but i used too high of a setting so the size is too big. I’ll update at lunch
Did you choose McDonald’s or did they choose that for you?
If the latter, which hotel so i can avoid it?
They chose it for me
Which hotel?
Westgate in ximen. They also left a package of instant noodles and a couple drinks in the fridge (coke and super super)
2 Likes
Thanks! I’ll be sure to avoid it or at least ask them not to bring me McDonald’s.
I’m on a boycott of McDonald’s.
I think you can probably just request not to have it. They seem nice so far. The room is alright, cost 3,000 a night. It was the cheapest option. There’s a window but it’s opaque and faces the wall or something there’s not really any light coming from it. I say or something because it’s so cloudy you can’t see anything out if it at all. Other than that the shower was nice and there are plenty of towels. The bed is a little firm but that’s pretty common in Taiwan.
1 Like
Kudos to you for being OK with this. For me … ugh, shivers. I’d be going squirrelly within a few hours, never mind a few days.
It’d almost be an interesting experiment. How out of sync would my body clock be after two weeks? But I guess the meal deliveries would keep me on track.
OOoh boy. I am the complete opposite.
I hate light so much that I taped bristolboard to my windowpanes. You know, the ones kids use for presentations before the advent of PowerPoint?
My living room is in the centre of the flat and only the other rooms like the kitchen and bedrooms have windows.
1 Like
That looks good actually.
Yeah it wasn’t bad. The pork rib was pretty good I’d say. I’m not the biggest fan of purple rice but i thought this one came out alright
Netflix’s series “Explained” did a thing about time. There was a geologist who spent two months in a cave underground with no clocks. He called the surface anytime he was awake or going to sleep and the people on the surface recorded the times. His body naturally fell into a 24 hour cycle. His perception of time was off though —he thought only one month had passed when really two had.
I’m not sure what that says about quarantine. Would time pass faster if you didn’t have any clocks or windows? I’m not suggesting this seriously; it still strikes me as actual torture in the human rights sense of the word
2 Likes
Yeah, I’ve read about semi-accidental experiments like that. I’ve always been curious how my body would react - but have no interest in finding out, because I suspect the first consequence would be psychological collapse.
Sorry I haven’t been taking pictures every meal. I just wanted to say the food at the hotel I’m in has been really tasty almost every meal (except the one McDonald’s breakfast but a lot of people like McDonald’s)
At dinner I’ll take another picture
4 Likes