Back in AUS soil, at last!
We arrived in Sydney on Sunday evening 20th June, are now serving 14 days mandatory detention in a quarantine hotel ☹ ☹
After almost 4 months staying in an ultra luxury and spacious flat owned by a prolific poster of this forum (I have previously posted about this and a few of you know them well) – it has 3 marble / stone bathrooms all larger than ours, a large kitchen with all mod cons and top brand appliances, and 270 degree views! We have come down hard to earth in the quarantine hotel! The offer to us was completely unexpected and extremely generous (they paid all the bills) to help us planning our trip home. Words do not express adequately our gratitude.
Last October British Airways (BA) had a 50% off point redemption for flights to Sydney. We thought it was a good opportunity not to be missed. We booked one-way flights to SYD from LHR, via SIN – first class – for May this year. We hoped that the pandemic lockdowns would be over by then, and no hotel quarantine. Then two months later, BA cancelled all flights to SYD until at least November this year. Having followed a frequent flyer forum, we took their advice not to accept a future travel voucher but to wait until closer to travel dates and ask to be re-routed. Things got worse around the globe, the vaccine program started in England around last Christmas. We thought we would wait until after fully vaccinated to return to Sydney in the hope of being allowed to self-isolate at our home. However, as we know things got even worse and the AUS government has had no plan on when the borders would be re-opened. Having been fully vaccinated we decided it was time to fast track our return to Sydney. Thankfully, a wonderful staff member at BA agreed to re-route us on Qatar Airways. We were quite nervous about whether this booking would stick, as it was on frequent flyer point redemption. We monitored our booking every day for almost 6 weeks to make sure it was still there. We did not tell our families as we did not want to disappoint nor crush their hope if things did not go according to plan.
We left London early Saturday morning 19th June (lockdown day 452). We flew with Qatar Airways from London to Doha (6½ hour flight), transit in Doha for 2h 30m, then onto Sydney (14 hour flight). Both flights were excellent – we were in business class, Q-suites (same as BA first, if not better). There were only 33 pax on the long flight from DOH to SYD. Our selected seats were on the window, and we asked the cabin crew to make up a double bed in the middle two seats for us to sleep – it was so relaxing.
When we arrived in SYD, it took 3 hours from the time we got off the plane to when we arrived in our hotel room for detention. Health, army, and police personnel asked questions and checked our passports and documents, and met us at the hotel to check us in and escort us to our cell – oddly enough, no-one has asked us whether we have been vaccinated. We were put on a bus with 6 other people, all socially distanced – sitting on it for more than an hour before it moved – to an undisclosed location. As hubby said, we got “the rough end of the pineapple” for quarantine hotel – as many on facebook groups appeared to have got apartments with balconies or much better named hotels. We can’t tell you the name of our quarantine hotel, but it ain’t the Hilton Waldorf Astoria or Conrad, nor JW Marriott, nor Intercontinental, nor Park Hyatt
where we have stayed over the years.
Our cell is a standard hotel room with 2 double beds, a single person sofa, a small table just big enough for our laptop, one chair (we have asked for another chair), a small bathroom barely enough to swing a cat (with a shower over the Lilliputian bath, and a single hook for a towel), a window overlooking another building, no sunlight, and no fresh air. We are not allowed to set foot outside the room, other than to open the door to pick up 3 meals delivered a day in paper bags, or to get tested on day 2, day 7 and day 12. Hubby has been very paranoid about people coming near us. I am mentally wrecked in not having a balcony for fresh air.
We are not likely to eat much “specifically catered food”, we will order dinner from our friend’s restaurant to be delivered to the hotel. Another friend will bring fresh fruit and 2 mugs for our tea / coffee (hotel only supplied a dozen small disposable paper cups, we asked for proper cups / mugs but they said not allowed due to quarantine rules ☹)
Well, at least we are back on Australian soil. We had been in London for 9 ½ years. We loved living there, having our 2 dogs with us (one for less than year and another for 9 years), being able to travel to more destinations easily, and seeing the length and breath of the UK and Ireland with one dog). We left London with mixed feelings (Samuel Johnson who said “The man who is tired of London is tired of life”). But hopefully we can call Australia (small-minded though our politicians and many of its people are) home for at least the next few years.
Stay safe and well and hope to meet some of you one day.
PS -
@kpc: please fire up that BBQ as you have promised
@cove: we look forward to get our 2 home-made Christmas cakes by Mrscove - warehoused for us!
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It is the Novotel in Darling Harbour / Chinatown. Great to hear that you are all fully vaccinated 
There is a bar fridge with nothing in it and not on.
