Here’s what I went through, if you have any other questions feel free to hit me up:
Airport arrival
- Off the plane, straight to a waiting area where you will fill up some health declaration forms.
- Your group will be guided to the immigration.
- Your group will be guided straight to the bus. This short walk is your only chance to buy a mobile sim. You will not be passing by any ATM so your card better work abroad or you better have NTD cash with you.
- The bus will take you straight to the quarantine facility.
Facility arrival
- Fill up more health declaration forms.
- They’ll ask you if you have any food allergies (or preference, I’m not a fan of certain food items so I listed them as my allergies).
- You need to install LINE as the staff will use it to communicate with you.
I do not know if there’s more than one quarantine facility, but the one that I was sent to was in Changhua - close to the Changhua HSR Station - in a military training complex.
I was monitoring arrivals from the Philippines to see if there’s a corresponding bus later that day as well but that wasn’t always the case, so I assume there’s more than one (or perhaps there are other buildings in the same complex).
What to expect in the facility:
- Room - spacious but it’s pretty bare. One single infirmary bed, one folding chair, one couch, one table, one TV with 20 +/- local channels only, relatively fast and reliable wifi.
- Food - served 3x a day following a schedule, left in a chair right beside your door. Light breakfast with cold tea, typical Taiwanese set (rice, meat, 3 veggies) meal for lunch and dinner along with a juice box and some fruits.
- Drinking water - they’ll leave you with a box full of 1L PET bottles. I ran out half way through and I had to constantly ask them for more.
- Hygiene - there are packets of shower/body wash, as well as TP, toothbrush, and toothpaste. There’s also laundry soap.
- Garbage - scheduled to be picked up twice a day, leave them outside your door. They will provide you with garbage bags.
- Misc stuff - there’s an electric kettle with some tea bags, electric fly swatter, an extension cable.
Needless to say, do not step foot outside your door (except for when they guide you to get tested). Whenever I had to pick up my food I’d just reach over and grab them by my hand, same when leaving my garbage bags outside my door.
The guideline said that the staff can accept packages from friends and family for you and the only limit was no large appliances, so I think you might actually be able to use Foodpanda if you’re hungry or ask someone to get you stuff from some convenience store - but to be safe you can ask them on LINE what kind of stuff can you get away with.
What to expect when leaving:
- They will test you 2 days before your checkout date. The staff will guide you.
- Arrange everything according to the photo they’ll send you.
- You have 3 options - by private car (leave at 12 midnight and some other predetermined time) or by bus together with the same group (at 9 AM I think?) which will take you straight to Changhua HSR Station - or whatever is the nearest HSR station I guess assuming there’s more than one quarantine facility.