QuaranTIME

I hope you’re all still buckled in tight, as I’m sure most people reading this don’t have anywhere to go during quarantine time, anyway! Continuing on with the last post, I just want to make one thing clear. The adventures to follow are all true and real accounts of what we experienced but shouldn’t be used as 100% factual or research based information....

With that being said, I’d like to continue with our time spent being isolated in our apartment in Shanghai.  To say that those 7 days were stressful is quite an understatement. We felt super safe because of measures being taken, but constantly berated with information from the media, the western news, the Chinese government, and then advice (not always desired but surely always given) by our friends and family on the other side of the world.   

It was the last week of January and entering the coldest time in Shanghai.  As most of you probably don’t know there is no central heating in most apartment buildings, and the high humidity makes it almost impossible to stay warm when you are stuck at home not moving very often.  We went outside once or twice a day for sanity and to warm up in the sun, but usually we were given dirty looks for doing so (even though we were covered head to toe with clothing, masks, eye glasses, hats, you name it we had it). In order to even enter the grocery store you were required to wear a mask, and on top of that most places checked your temperature.  All non- essential stores were closed and it felt like a ghost town.  

Keep in mind Shanghai is a city of more than 24 million (over 4 times bigger than NYC) and is continuously growing, so to see the streets barren was absolutely mind blowing. It also goes to show you how effective the government in China is at laying down the law and how obedient their citizens are. To say that was the safest place to be, scared my family and friends, but I honestly still believe it to be true as we made no contact with any other people day to day, most Chinese people who had plans to travel for the holidays cancelled them immediately, and everyone (I MEAN EVERYONE) obeyed the orders to stay home.

The stress of hearing that China’s border could soon be closed for an extended period of time finally freaked us out to the point of no return.  On day seven of the quarantine and driving ourselves crazy, debating multiple times a day what the best move was (go to Germany where Kolja’s family was, go to the US where mine is, or stick it out), we reached full panic mode when many airlines decided to cancel all flights to and from China.  And to top it all off my sister who was planning to visit in late March’s flight was officially cancelled.... womp, womp, womp. 

We talked to some friends and decided the best place to go was Malaysia because it has very good healthcare in the capital city, we had friends also there, and it was close to China so the flight wouldn’t be extremely long and hopefully safer.  After considering countless options we finally made a decision to fly out the next day to avoid any cancellations. 

The travel experience from Shanghai airport to Kuala Lumpur deserves a post of its own because the chaos of flying out of a country, that has a rising epidemic, along with people on the verge of hysteria, just makes for one thing.... a GREAT story.

Until the next post..... stay safe, wash your hands, stay home, and remain positive!!


Shanghai January 25- January 31, 2020