Hello everyone.
As I mentioned before in some comments I was doing quarantine in a government facility, and we were transferred to a nice hotel after one week. For free. I plan to make a youtube video about all this in Chinese. Any questions to clarify this experience are appreciated. Criticism too. It may improve the final video.
So, how did I accomplish the transfer? The short answer is I accomplished it by complaining everyday.
I didn’t ask for the transfer, I asked to leave the quarantine facility and go home. I think they couldn’t stand my complainings anymore, or they were afraid I would really go crazy or my kids were suffering too much. That’s the reason they organize the transfer to the hotel. Which reason it actually was, I don’t know, but it’s clear that without complaining it wouldn’t have happened.
I will now explain some “highlights” of that week and share the Line conversations so the level of complaining is clear (that may be useful as a reference if you are now in such a facility or will be in the future).
I don’t think you can reach a transfer if you just complain a little bit. In my opinion, it has to be a lot and it has to be clear that you are angry and can’t stand it anymore.
Also, I always criticized the government, not the people working in the government facility. Well, there was one exception.
English is not my mother language, sorry for the mistakes.
I also want to say I arrived full vaccinated.
I prepared for the quarantine with my kids, brought our Nintendo Switch (with HDMI cable, so I could connect it to the TV, it worked), a small Decathlon mini basket ball set, a yoga mat, books and poker cards. They actually had a good time, all day in bed playing. They adapted well.
The story
We arrived at the airport and because I had been in the UK one day during the 14 days before entering Taiwan we were separated from the rest of the passengers. I arrived with my kids, but they hadn’t been in the UK so there were two minutes of uncertainty because the government officials didn’t know what to do with us. All the other passangers who had been in the UK or another country listed as dangerous were already waiting together, we were in the middle of the corridor. Officials coming and going asking questions to me and then talking to each other, asking the same questions and the talking again…
Finally, we were put in the same group as the others. I was told my kids will not need to do any PCR that day, also not the PCR on day 10, just the PCR at the very end of the quarantine. So, the information they gave me and the information online didn’t match.
We were brought to the quarantine facility by bus, it took about one hour. Then we had to wait outside the door, and one by one fill up some documents with our personal information, they gave us some stuff asked if we had alcohol or cigarettes. And then they let us go to our room.
The room
The room was tiny for three people and there were just two beds. It was freezing. The A/C was at maximum power and set to the minimum temperature, I think it was 15 degrees. I swiched it off immediately. It was very clear to me that that building was not a hotel before the quarantine. There were two desks, one for the TV, very small TV, and the other for eating I suppose. Just one chair. The desks were office desks with metal drawers. Really not hotel furniture. The view was just some trees just in front of the window. You couldn’t see past the trees.
First night the gave us instant noodles for dinner.
We put the beds together and asked for another set of sheets (they gave us one set later), after complaining that we only had two beds, but we were three people and that the room was too small. 没办法，that’s all we have, they said, no bigger rooms.
Important point: begin to complain the moment you arrive.
Food, vomit, diarrhea, PCR and Police
I got a message the first night saying that the next morning we would have to do a PCR, the three of us. Not what I was told at the airport. Not good news for my kids, they had a bad experience with the PCR at one Taiwan hospital and were really scared of it.
I complained again.
First morning we are awakened by the speaker inside the room. Big surprise for me. Every day at 6:55 we were woke up by the speaker.
Later in the morning someone knocks in our door. A doctor and a nurse waiting in front of our door to do the PCR tests. I open the door a little bit, still with the chain on. I said I was told different at the airport. And I say I don’t agree with what the government is doing. The doctor says, we have to do the PCR or the fine will be 300.000NT dollars. I ask him why they told me differently at the airport? Why do we have to do PCR before arriving to Taiwan and now again? He said “you should not come to Taiwan, you don’t want to do the PCR, I call the Police”.
I said I dont agree with the government, not that I will not comply. I had no intention to avoid the PCRs because I knew we have to do it and took a lot of time explaining to my kids that and calming them down, telling them the doctors have improved a lot of now that they have done so many PCRs, it’s not like in the beggining.
I was really surprised by his response. It made me very angry, I can’t stand people kicking me out of “their” country. I decide to open the door. And ask him what he just said to me and who the fuck he thinks he is. They are both already walking down the corridor. He screams to me he will call the police and again that I shouldn’t be in Taiwan. I think of running to him and crushing his skull to the floor but it seems not appropriate, like his comment. Maybe I didn’t think that, but I watched the John Wick movies recently, sorry for the interference. I go back inside my room.
We then try to eat our breakfast, it was a McDonalds burguer from last night, I suspect. I send some messages to the Line account of the facility explaining what just happened. I actually don’t know if the person reading my messages is the doctor who just wanted me to leave Taiwan.
Later that day the police called me to the landline phone in my room. I explained what happened and that I was just asking questions because I got different information at the airport and I just wanted to clarify the infomation; specially about my kids PCRs. After a very nice and polite conversation the officer said he would ask the doctors at the facility himself to clarify all my doubts and will call me later. He did after a while and we agree we will do the PCR next morning.
The food that day was bad. It was bad everyday but that first day something may have been in bad condition. I felt very bad at night and way after midnight vomited, got diarrhea. Slept just three or four hours.
Next morning there are 5 people in front of our door waiting. All of them wearing the full body white protection suit, or however it’s called in English. One has a DIN4 size paper glued to the suit, “Police Officer” written on the paper. There is a different doctor, a different nurse but the “you shouldn’t come to Taiwan”-doctor is there too, a little bit far from the others. I think the nurse from the previous day is there too, besides him. I look at that asshole for a moment. He walks one step further back. (Allow me some drama).
So, the conversation with the police officer starts, we are very polite to each other. The new doctor and nurse too. They offer to do the PCR to my kids taking the muster from the throat, not the nose. My kids are very happy about it, and they do it that way. My kids say this way is far better, no pain at all. Normal PCR for me though. Everything goes smoothly, polite and civilized as it should have been the first time.
Soup Rice everyday, wet floor and other things
I asked for healthier food as I really felt very bad. They gave me rice soup everyday for breakfast, lunch and dinner until we left.
I succeeded in changing the breakfast for my kids, from Taiwanese breakfast to milk with Ovaltine and steamed bun, I think it’s called in English.
The offered to send a doctor to check my health condition but I would have to pay it myself.
The floor was wett all the time. Sometimes after the AC was on for few hours it would dry. I think the wet floor problem was the most disgusting thing of that place. Walking barefoot or with socks was really unpleasant. The floor was like sprayed with something like water with soap, it was a really bad feeling. We couldn’t use the yoga to do any exercise.
The room hadn’t been properly cleaned before we arrived. There were woman’s hair, a lot, on the chair.
We couldn’t open the window to ventilate because there was a sewer just under the window and the smell was unbearable.
I didn’t slep properly, felt hungry many days, but just could eat that rice soup. Sometimes we slept late, so we didn’t want to wake up early. But the speaker woke us up everyday at 6:55.
We had to check temperature twice a day. So they will call me if I didn’t send the information. After few calls I decided to disconet the landline phone. Once they called me at 23h, WTF. They would call my cellphone or use Line to ask, but I could mute it. At least I had some control over that.
After the third day I think I just invented the numbers. Didn’t use the thermometer anymore. Meaning, even if you send the data, they can’t really know if it is true, so the system as it is know is not reliable, useless.
My kids didn’t like the food, although they felt well. No vomit or anything. I explained to the government worker that my kids were leaving the food untouched sometimes. A women called me and said it may be a cultural problem, she told me the food was good. We often go out to eat in Taiwanese restaurants, my kids go to a public Taiwanese school and eat there. It was not a cultural problem. The food was really bad quality.
I think I had three or four phone conversations with the goverment’s workers. I was always polite but clear, explaining all the things that were wrong and asking to tell all those things to their superiors, hoping they would change something.
Mental health
Lastly, I had a conversation using Line mentioning mental health and that maybe has been important. The next day the offer to transfer us to a nice hotel.
The offer
They sent me some pictures later and after discussing it with my kids we decided to move. It was the right decision.
Transfer
The hotel was far better. The food was just normal, nothing to complain about. The first dinner we couldn’t belive it, maybe because of the difference, we tought the food came directly from a Michelin Star restaurant. The room actually was a suite. Originally a living room plus a bedroom with two beds, they changed the sofa of the livingroom for a bed. Each room had own air conditioning. Carpet floor, very nice. Great view of the city. A huge improvement. Not like home quarantine but far better than the quarantine facility.
To all the people who say “没办法”or “suck it up” I will not say “go **ck yourself **cking *diot” but just let you know, there is always a way. Without kids, all that may not have worked. So, for my next quarantine I plan a hunger strike.
There is always a way. But even if really there isn’t a way, go down fighting in the way you can, let them know you are right, they are wrong. Even if you are wrong. That’s not the point. The point is you can and should express your disagreement. How can we change anything if we don’t? Wait years and expect the Taiwanese vote differently? That would be even worse, and anyway too late. But that is another conversation.
I hope this is in some way helpful.