Surviving 14 days of Quarantine in Hong Kong in Penta Hotel Kowloon
Keeping one sane
Here’s a short one on how I survived:
Activities
Keeping exercise cues apparent. I created lot of spaces in the room to allow me to do my exercise when I see them. I also brought quite a few elastic and resistance bands to do some strength training. This is to help me get away from my desk after sitting down for an entire day. I tried HIIT for some days, but getting too sweaty in a cold room can be a litte uncomfortable. I even tried doing shuttle runs of up more than 2 kilometeres in the room, that did not end up well for my ankles.
Food
For those who likes an adventure, make sure the hotel is situated in an area where food delivery options are ample. However, you can always rely on reviews found on the Facebook’s Hong Kong Quarantine Support Group on their meal reviews of the quarantine hotels. It was absolutely the right choice to choose Penta Hotel for my 14 days of stay
Tips on what to bring
Light clothing, make sure that its easy to wash. Airism is much recommended, easy to wash and fast to dry. No one is gonna see what you are wearing in the room anyways. I wore some thermal wear on the first few days, but after a while I got used to the temperature and I was wearing shorts all day long.
Bring items that will improve your posture, a laptop stand, keyboard and mouse. If you can afford it, get an extra monitor and a table tray attachment to the table.
Optional: get a chili sauce for food you find bland or require that extra kick to keep the day going
Daily Schedule
Expect your daily life to be subjected to a fixed schedule like a jail. All 3 meals at fixed timings and food schedules are readily shared during the first day of check in.
Sometimes at night I will start the flow with exercises with audiobooks playing in the background. Towards the weekends I would read some ebooks, because there is really not much space to carry physical books.
Sunlight
The lights are rather dim in the hotel room, so getting the light on my face got me a little emotional.
Phases of denial and acceptance
As I am writing this on the last night of quaratine, I have went through many phases of psychological challenges. Initially, the environment was new and motivation was high. I made constant adjustments to the rooms and habits to make it more bearable. However, when the meals start to repeat, it was the beginning of the dread, of wanting to do something different. There is just that limited number of things you can do in the room.
Finally…laziness and comfort
On the second weekend of the quarantine, I almost felt lifeless, having really nothing else that I felt motivated to do. I binged a few Netflix and Disney+ series, to finally understand the effects of such actions. It was mentally torturing because it required great discipline just to stop the binge action. In a normal scenario, activities of life like going out and socializing would stop these actions. However, there is no one stopping me on binge watching these shows one after another. I don’t really recommend watching too many of these shows as these are really unhealthy and a few days later I don’t even remember what I have actually watched and did.
Conclusion
I did force myself to write at least once a week to remind myself that this 14 days is probably an experience I want my future self to remember of. I did try to meditate but that mind of mine just kept on listening to audiobooks instead. COP hearings of the Singapore politics of 2021 were good videos to pass time as well.
Let’s hope the world return to normalcy and I don’t need to do this… again. (Actually a 3 days quarantine is quite acceptable as an escape from reality)
