Aloha - Oy!

Quarantined in the Sandwich Islands

Honolulu, Hawaii

Already chronicled in this blog was our escape, more or less, from Bali, Indonesia, and the rising threat of Covid-19. As noted, we ended up in Honolulu, and started a mandatory, if barely enforced 14-day self-quarantine.



The US response (or lack thereof) to the pandemic has been analyzed, dissected, criticized and denounced in a thousand places. Our travels gave us a few data points which reinforce the criticisms.

We followed the quarantine experience of a friend who is a teacher in Macau (which can also be spelled Macao,) that travelled to the US in mid-March for family reasons. She was amazed that there was absolutely NO screening at San Francisco International. Just business as usual. She got back to Macau in mid-late March and was escorted to a quarantine hotel, administered a test, and kept under lockdown in a room for 14 days. Food was delivered (not ordered, just delivered) and she was charged $50 USD per day for the room and board, testing and medical attention, the last of which she fortunately did not need. Macau is the most densely populated country on earth, with 48,000 people per square mile. There are cities with higher density, like Mumbai with 76,790 people per square mile, but the point is that it is not South Dakota.

As of April 10, Macau has reported 45 total cases, no deaths, and roughly 1/2 of the 45 cases are from a second wave of people coming into the country from elsewhere (who then get the full-on enforced lockdown treatment). So Macau has had about 58 cases per million residents, while the US has 1,384 cases per million residents, ~25 times the rate of infection with just under 1/2 million cases. So far.

Mark's flight tracker....?????!!!!!

Our travel confusion the last week of March meant we ended up with 3 different sets of tickets to get back to the US (plus the original canceled flight for April). One connecting flight through Taipei was canceled as we stood in line to check in. The second had not given us a confirmation by the morning of the flight. The 3rd actually happened, sending us to Jakarta, then Tokyo, then Honolulu. 



Jakarta had us walk through a carwash-like tent wherein we were sprayed with something, not sure what, and our body temperature was scanned. Tokyo just passed us through to the next waiting area for our connecting flight. 

Not quite sure what we were sprayed with....

When we got to Honolulu, we were asked upon entering the building from the jetway -- "Have you been to China, Iran, or Europe?" [No. No. No. But Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia....] "OK, here is a flyer, you are required to go directly to your hotel and remain there for 14 days." We then cleared immigration, baggage claim and customs without any further discussion. We really would have preferred to have a few questions asked of us. On the Agriculture form, they did collect our phone number, and surprisingly they called on Day 5 to say "you are staying in your room, right?" Marginally better than nothing.

Ono (tasty) Plate lunch: spam musubi, kalbi ribs, mochiko chicken, rice, mac salad,

Our delivery guy asking which one to buy -- the only butter left!

We are now on Day 14, and have had food and grocery deliveries. 

Geared up to go forage

Mark has gone out a few times, with face mask, and collected basic supplies from the mini mart in the building downstairs, and the ABC store on the corner 2 blocks away, having no contact with any people aside from tapping his credit card. He has washed everything brought into our room in hot soapy water (which we read is not really necessary, but can't hurt, unlike hydroxychloroquine...), along with multiple hand washings, hand sanitizer gel, and recently making a 70% alcohol spray with isopropyl 99% (found beneath the sink here), some 80 proof vodka (hamburger helper for the isopropyl), and some witch hazel, and Dawn for its surfactant properties. 

Knock on wood, so far so good. Linda was feeling off for a few days, but it ended up being a sinus infection. We think. It's hard not to be hypochondriacal these days....

Not so much....

One thing Hawaii is really good at is tracking tourism statistics. You have no doubt completed the from they hand you on the airplane as you land here. They started, about 10 or so days ago, releasing a daily press release on arrivals and flights. The normal arrival rate before all this started was about 30,000 people per day - residents, visitors, airline crew. The day we arrived, March 28, there were 1,221 people, all categories, and maybe 50 flights. Our flight had 11 people. On April 8, there were 20 flights, 654 total people, and only 160 visitors - meaning tourists. Something like 100 hotels in Honolulu are closed. Occupancy is around 5%. According to Wikipedia, 21% of Hawaii's economy is tourism-based. It is really quiet. There is a curfew this Easter weekend between 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. ...no wheeled vehicles to be out and about. Luckily the Easter Bunny hops!

So what have we been doing? Working on the blog, obviously!!  

The TravelTiki!

Our condo is nice and relatively cheap, since no one is visiting. We are happy to watch local news and ads here. We have an ok view of the surfers at Waikiki Beach. The beaches are closed everywhere except for "transit," meaning you can walk to the water to surf or swim, but no sitting and "talking story" on the sand. We watch the interisland barges chug back and forth, maybe full of toilet paper. 

We watched / suffered through Netflix' Tiger King (just when you think you've seen it all about Oklahoma, ugh). We have had a few on-line happy hours, with friends and family. Mark learned that there is an app that obviates the need for quarters to do your laundry, though before he got that sorted he washed all the coins he got from the change machine downstairs in hot soapy water (something we watched done at a Japanese restaurant at Narita). 

BTW, have you noticed as you watch TV you are now thinking, "No, don't kiss! Don't hug or shake hands!"

Bird dissuaders

We have been getting stalked by a white pigeon and 2 red-headed house finches who have actually flown INTO our condo a time or two. We have rigged "anti-bird / exclusion devices" to try to dissuade them.

We are hoping that once we clear Day 14, we can at least go for socially distanced walks, and maybe even snorkel down at the beach -- though places like Hanauma Bay are closed for now, period. It seems likely that this SIP thing will extend well into May. We are currently scheduled to stay through April 30. 

We hope you all are safe and well at home, and that one day this all will have been a good learning experience, and only a less-than-happy memory.

April 2020