Finally travelling!! HK has now accepted UK flights but we still have to quarantine for 21 days.

Many people have vlogged on their travels to Hong Kong and they’ve written short descriptions of their ordeal, but me, I’m a blogger. I like taking pictures and writing about my experience (and I haven’t taken a lot in the past year and a bit). So, you’re going to see pictures rather than videos along the way!

I’m fully vaccinated and now I’m off to Hong Kong (actually I’ve arrived in HK, and it’s my first day in the country)! It’s been just over 3 years since I last went to Hong Kong, and so I’m overdue to go back (I’m one of those overseas British born HKers who need to go back every 3 years or less… I’m unsure if this is what we should be doing, but there are varied answers online. I’m not taking the risk of getting downgraded with my ID card, so it’s just best for me to go, right?). I’ve taken the risk of entering HK – 6 weeks overdue my 36 months from my last entry. But it’s not my fault!! The orignal dates I chose to fly out in July all got cancelled, because of some covid cases from the UK in June… so my flight on July 1st was cancelled. I also attempted to go back last year but the vaccine wasn’t out (too early), and the UK was on lockdown… plus a 14 day quarantine in HK sounded absurd at the time, and I don’t think my boss would have let me go either.

At the moment, the quarantine system has been unfair. Hong Kong has seen a number of new imported covid cases recently but didn’t ban flights from those countries at the time (especially the USA). So disappointed! Even in recent weeks Nicole Kidman got away with having to quarantine… what nonsense is that?! How can Hong Kong residents even trust their own government when they can give out exemptions to celebreties but not to their own citizens who HAVE been fully vaccinated. But you know, even our own PM Boris decided to not quarantine when his dog caught covid… shame on the world… (no-one seems to be letting go of the Nicole Kidman story. OMG. What HK should be worried about now is getting more than 70% of their population vaccinated so that businesses and people can get on with their lives!).

Here’s my pre-travel checklist before I flew from the UK to HK:

• Printout of Vaccine letter (most important) – I have 2 NHS letters, one from June, and a recent one with a Chinese descriptive page on how to read the English letter
• Printout of PCR Test results (also very important) – I was going to use the Randox Health self-swabbing kits but was persuaded by my colleagues to get a same day swabbing… which meant I had to pay extra… 😦 – ALSO MAKE SURE to get a copy of the the lab’s UKAS accreditation certificate with whichever recognised lab you go with, here us the Randox Health one online, as it’s not included in the email! It took me a couple of hours to figure out what British Airways needed. It was like a prompt to get one printed for the HK border control.
• Printout of quarantine hotel (because HK needs to view it)
• Printout of air ticket – boarding pass was downloaded on the app
• Passport
• Hong Kong Health Declaration Form – to do online on the day I fly out
• HK ID Card – to be used when I get to HK

British Airways will email you to upload the first three points above just to check you have everything before you even reach HK. Have scanned and printouts of everything!

Other things I need on this trip:

• Laptop … going to be working during quarantine
• Phones (my work phone is coming along, boohoo!)
• Clothes (minimal)
• Lots of antibacterial wipes
• Hand gel
• Siracha sauce, chilli oil, coffee sachets, cup-a-soups
• Humidifier
• Toiletries
• Motion sickness pills – I wasn’t sure on how I was going to cope with the flying after a 2 year hiatus, just thinking about it was making me nauseous

And the list goes on… I even bought a laptop bed stand (in June) because originally I was going to stay in a cheaper hotel without a table and chair, but decided not to take it as I was able to get a hotel room with a table and chair.

Very, very importantly are face masks… I bought a few types, as my colleagues and friends just keep telling me to stay safe on the plane. I don’t like the N95 masks. I’ve worn them a few times, they stick to your face, but you can easily breath in them. Instead I bought the non-medical surgical masks (made in China), KN95/FFP2 masks (EU certified ones) and the KF94 masks (made in South Korea).

p.s. I actually threw this post into the trash can in July, I was just really peed off with how many U-turns from one country … thankfully the post didn’t completely delete itself.

No pictures today, but there will be in the next post!