Shangri-La Hotel. Quarantine 2020 Singapore: October 30th to November 13th.

Quick rewind to a few months back: Changi Airport June 27th 2020. 

Changi 28th June 2020.Very few people travelling, very few shops open & definitely a tense atmosphere.

Terminal 1 was empty, more staff than travellers and very little open. Warning bells started to ring, but I was through, due to fly to London & I knew the risk that went with leaving Singapore against government travel advice not to do so.

Changi Airport June 227th 2020.More staff than passengers.

Fast forward 4 months. I finally got an approval letter to come back to Singapore, nobody wanted to see the letter at check in LHR, but I'm sure it clicked over somewhere at one of the SingGov departments. 

38 people on flight BA11.All passengers boarded in 20 mins, rows of free seats to stretch out on. Even got a hot meal, which I was expecting at all!

BA11 from LHR to Changi, 38 people on board (2 in 1st Class!), 23kgs of carry on, (yes, 23kgs!!) allowed, why not, plenty of room!. It took about 20 mins to board everyone. When we landed the plane really rattled, lack of weight to keep it steady possibly?

My window on the world for the next 14 days.I opened the curtains straight away so I could see what was going on and see the weather changing.

After we landed & cleared immigration we waited for transport; the stress & tension were palpable. We all wanted the same thing, a reasonable hotel for the next two weeks. 13 people on the same flight as me ended up on the same corridor as me at the Shangri-La.
Score, the Shangri-La for two weeks! I was so relieved.

1st meal drop.My 'Table of Hope' all my meals landed here.

The Table of Hope. Everything that came into my room was put onto the table. All the rooms on the corridor were occupied by returnees.
Most days breakfast was a variation on the same theme, but it was slightly different every single day!

First breakfast.All the meals have been good!! I've been so lucky.

There was no housekeeping, which I liked, nobody to disturb me.

My running route!! You better believe it haha.

Room running route!!Yes, I did a 5km run almost every other day. Very, very lucky to have a room big enough to even think about running in let alone actually run in haha!!

My room was big enough to do a run...well slow jog, but better than nothing!

This was the last room run I recorded on Strava, 35km's in total over 14 days quarantine. 

I clocked up 35km's in total!Hotel room running!

I left my trash outside to be taken away. Fresh bed linen arrives a week into my quarantine, packets of towels arrived every three days I think. 

Fresh bed linen and towels.More towels than you can shake a stick at! made me feel 'at home' though.

Very impressed with the meals I received, probably shouldn't been surprised as it was the Shangri-La. Having heard a few food horror stories from friends who had been through the quarantine experience in Singapore, Tokyo and Hong Kong, I was a bit worried at first.

Nice bit of fish!Day 2 dinner.

After the 2nd Day, I had to download an app' called 'Homer' from the MOM (Ministry of Manpower) after that the constant temperature recording & calls from the MOM started, along with calls from the hotel. Repeating the same information twice a day at least got to me a bit, but really, in the big scheme of things, it was nothing. I'd been allowed back into Singapore.

Homer.Three times a day I reported my temperature & other health information. It was running constantly in the background.

Time lapse vid' of my 'running route' and view for the two weeks. 

Day 8 Room 1103My hotel room running route.

Most of the week looked like this from my window, there were some great thunder storms and awesome blue skies & constantly changing light on the side of this building.

Our QR activity sheet. I really enjoyed the yoga and nearly made it through one of the HIIT activities haha.

Quarantine activities. I tried out a few of them, it was a really good idea and we got a new sheet on the second week.

4th of November: American presidential election and the UK has just announced a new month long lockdown. What a day & I'm holed up in the Shangri-La, writing travel articles for the Royal Photographic Societie's website. Life's good for me today!

Chicken and veg'.Another really good quarantine lunch!

31st October dinner...a Halloween themed dessert going on there!

Temperature checks 5 times day, every day.

I've paid up now so there's light at the end of the tunnel. Or at least, fresh air at the end of the corridor!! Laundry came back today $15 for 10 items, all good, I can get my running gear all washed anyway.

The cost of quarantine. The price of getting back into Singapore, it was worth it!

Friday the 6th Nov'. Day 7, half way through and 1st day on the UK lockdown.

Room 1103, where the sun was always shining!☀️

Room 1103.The sun always shines in quarantine!

The 2021 calendar, photo diary & RPS (Royal Photographic Society) botanical print notebooks I designed during the first few days in quarantine are being posted out to me today & I've written 5 articles for the International page of the RPS's website. I'm getting quite into this quarantine and making good use of the uninterrupted time to concentrate, it almost has a 'retreat' quality about it...Truth!!

Seafood pasta.

Day 9 dinner, seafood pasta, this was a good one!! 

Run down of all the packaging that my quarantine generated:

1. 42 plastic food trays and 42 plastic lids.

2. 14 small foil dessert dishes.

3. 28 small white paper bags (that contained pastries and fruit).

4. 28 plastic water bottles.

5. 14 small milk cartons with straw in a plastic wrapper.

5. 14 small fruit drink cartons with straws in a plastic wrapper.

6. 84 tiny paper sachets of salt and pepper.

7. 28 butter and jam individual portions. Plastic with a foil lid.

8. 42 plastic carrier bags that contained the meals.

9. 14 individually wrapped cheese crackers.

This was the hotel generated packaging and I also had 20 cans of beer & tea bags.

I assume it all one to trash island? I'm not joking, look it up!

Sunday breakfast.I love hard boiled eggs!

Monday 9th Nov'. First time out of my room for 11 days, Woo Hoo!! Up to the 24th floor to have a (very uncomfortable) swab test, my eyes were still watering in the lift on the way back down to my room.

(Still pleased and relieved, Biden/Harris!! BOOM)

Waiting in a queue on the 24th Floor, at least the view was nice!...and my swab test was...

Tuesday 10th Nov'. Getting all the collections of trash I've been hoarding, ready to take some photographs & see if I can create some Photo art from this 2 week experience. If anyone can, I can (see what I did there 🙄).

Orange and milk cartons.I collected a weeks worth of cartons, bottle and food trays.

Wednesday 11th Nov': A travel corridor to Hong Kong is to start on the 22nd November, dates 1-3rd Oct' 2021 have just been announced for the Singapore GP & it looks like a vaccine is getting to be more of a reality. Things are looking up for 2021.

Thursday 12th Nov': 24 hours to go and I'm out!! I got a negative swab test result this morning from the MOM and a certificate.

Friday 13th Nov': 12.30pm and I'm out of here!!! (Good thing I'm not at all superstitious). 

I kept up with some running, yoga almost every day, wrote & took photos other days. Chilled out read, drank tea, beer & slept for the rest of the time. Thanks to all the hotel staff for making my quarantine so easy, comfortable and dare I say it....enjoyable. Advice for anyone just about to do a similar quarantine, don't over think it, enjoy being able to relax & do nothing much at all for 2 weeks!

If you ever stay in room 1103 at the Shangri-La, Orange grove road, have a look at the carpet, I ran 35km's up and down that carpet! Of the 30 rooms on the 11th floor, 1103 is one of the biggest, I was very, very lucky!

It's a wrap!

Good Bye 1103!!

Ruth Xxx

Thank you for reading my quarantine blog.