Day 5 Isolation

Now for most people, this is day 10 and I totally appreciate that you’ve done double the time and therefore probably think I should just keep quiet.

But I am really struggling with isolation and being back home in the UK in general.

In December (2019) we set off on a round-the-world backpacking adventure, dreamt up and saved for over the last 5 years, planning to come home at the end of May for our close friend’s wedding and had been having the most incredible time, experiencing new cultures, pushing ourselves to our limits (we free-climbed a sheer rock face mountain with little more than 500mls of water and a local man plucked from his home as a guide- something last year’s Lara wouldn’t have even considered doing)  and learning a whole range of new skills (I can now ride a moped, cook up some lovely Asian dishes and have everything I need in 1 backpack!!).

When the UK moved to stricter measures on social distancing/ self- isolation, we were in Indonesia- on an island called Java. We’d arrived from Jakarta (to our hostel) to a French guy in a blind panic about ‘The situation’ and not knowing what to do. France was a few steps ahead of the UK and therefore flights home for him were crazy expensive and really quite difficult. We’d made a decision to go into private rooms and stop sharing rooms with large groups of people anyway but he definitely made us wonder what might be next for us. We went to the common area round the pool and sat down with beers with a group made up of 2 other Brits, 1 American, 1 guy from Belgium and the Frenchie and all discussed how the coronavirus was hitting Indonesia and what we should be doing. We all decided to be a lot more careful but stop causing panic amongst each other and try and support the locals by eating locally.

A couple of days later, the rumour mill started- ‘Bali is closing its borders, you have a day to get there’. Bali was to be one of the stops along the way, with 3 of our friends from home coming to meet us there- something we’d had planned since last summer- and a couple of the girls we’d travelled Vietnam with, coming over too.

Due to the drastically evolving situation, our 3 friends from the UK had their trips cancelled and wouldn’t be joining us. This was a huge blow for us and we decided to really change up the plans and get to Bali sooner. We knew it was more built-up and touristy and for me, it felt like we would be safer around other tourists/ Brits, should the situation change. We booked a flight over and one of the girls from Vietnam came across to meet us. We all decided to change hostel/ hotel life for private villas and to do food shopping and cook in rather than be out in restaurants. We spent our days learning to surf on the beach and doing endless ‘pool challenges’ and attempting to learn some local language. But about 10 days in, we woke up to Boris’ announcement on a UK ‘lockdown’. It was about 5.30am when we woke up and saw the ‘Breaking News’ on our phones (No idea WHY we woke up at that time, but it was a very abrupt wakeup). I immediately called home and after a long discussion, it was decided that perhaps the severity of the situation at home could not only impact our ability to get back to the UK but could also be a warning of what was to come in Indo.

We spent hours looking at flights but as restrictions across the world were changing, we weren’t actually 100% sure which routes to the UK were viable.  I joined a Facebook & Whatsapp group for Brits stranded in Bali and soon realised that, literally overnight, our options had become VERY limited. Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong and UAE (amongst others) had all banned transit passengers, limiting our routes to Doha, Japan and Russia. We didn’t manage to book a flight that day as we were hearing of how many people arriving at Bali airport only to be turned away and told the flights were cancelled with only vague promises of travel vouchers by way of refunds. Not wanting to risk it, we wanted to understand exactly where we would be able to travel/ transit over the next few days before cashing out thousands on flights that would never fly.

The next day was Nyepi- Silence day. This means TOTAL lockdown for the Balinese (and visitors) with no leaving the house, no light and no internet to the island. All enforced very strictly with road blocks and police officers patrolling. Late night before it started, news spread that this was to be extended for a 2^nd day in response to an increased in Covid-19 cases on the island, although internet would be back on.

Silence day was split between being a great fun day, floating round the pool, reading and enjoying not having constant phone alerts and sheer panicked moments of no idea what might be unfolding around the world without our knowledge. Sure enough, we woke the 2^nd day to the internet back on and the update that Russia and Japan had also stopped transits. Basically leaving Doha as the only route home. Thankfully, the embassy stepped in and the FCO organised 3 flights from Bali to Heathrow with special authority to refuel in Singapore/ Hong Kong. We managed to get 3 seats on the Hong Kong route and were told we’d leave the next day so we decided to have a fantastic last day/ night, enjoying our freedom, the hot weather and a private pool!

Fast forward to Sunday, after the most surreal journey home, a lot of arrangements made to ensure we could get ourselves home from the airport, and we were on our way to what is now named as our ‘Isolation house’. My wonderful sister had done our food shopping and everything was dropped in the front garden and then we were left alone. That was it. 2 weeks of total isolation to follow- having flown through 3 airports with hundreds of other travellers, we can’t be sure what we might have picked up and decided to totally isolate ourselves.  

Fast- fast- forward and here we are on Day 5.

Feel a little like I’m going mad. I woke up with a ‘sore throat’ and was paranoid that I’d got ‘It’ but alas, I had slept with my mouth wide open and it was just dry.

I have absolutely NO idea how we’ve even made it this far. I am literally crap at sitting around and considering we only have our backpacks full of shorts and vests, lighting the fire and making 6 hot-water bottles a day have become the main events.

Last night we argued about who was allowed to cook dinner. DESPERATE for something to do, we both wanted the full task. The temptation was there for us to prepare all the meals for the week but then on second thoughts we couldn’t bear the idea of this daily highlight being removed.

Normally when we come back from holiday, I like to get all the washing done at once and packed away so we don’t end up in a shit tip. But this is totally different. Washing can pass time. Doing 1 load a day gives us something else to look forward to and so the neat little colour co-ordinated piles sit waiting for their very own washing day.