Hello everyone, my name is Luigi and I would like to share with you this experience of forced #quarantine (#lockdown style) that I had in #South Korea in April 2021.
PREMISE: quarantine, for those arriving in South Korea from abroad in that period, was mandatory, even if the result of the molecular #swab was negative or you were vaccinated. Only a few categories were exempted including #diplomats, #medical staff, #volunteers of humanitarian associations.
Let's see the quarantine procedures in Korea
Arrived in airport, after various procedures due to #covid (passengers must fill out 6 forms on the plane, each for a step of the entry procedure), including the mandatory installation of an app on your mobile phone to monitor your health status, I find myself among various queues and #government personnel dressed in white laboratory suits and covering and protective transparent plastic glasses.
After this procedure which lasted about half an hour, I arrived at a fenced common area where I waited about an hour and a half before being transported to a hotel by government personnel via bus.
Quarantine hotels set up by the Korean government
The transfer lasted almost an hour, but when we arrived at the reception we found staff in white overalls that also completely cover their shoes, rubber gloves, medical hats and a transparent plastic screen that covers their entire faces.
These kind gentlemen make us uninstall the previous app and have us install another one where every day, twice a day, I have to indicate my possible symptoms, the temperature (there is a thermometer in every room) and if I want additional notes.
Once this is done, they photocopy our passport and make us pay for the hotel room for two weeks for just over 1500 euros (meals included) and give us the magnetic card to open the door of the room.
Then another gentleman gives us some forms to read, and yet another (this one is inside a sort of plastic tunnel equipped as a laboratory) gives us two swabs, one in the mouth and one in the nose (of which after five days I still don't know the result).
Once out of the tunnel (in every sense), another gentleman dressed as a laboratory gives me a bag with dinner inside. I take my three bags (suitcase, trolley and work bag) plus the bag with food for dinner and he puts me in the elevator by pressing the button for the right floor (room 616).
The room has a low #Korean style table (assumes you sit on the floor with your legs crossed), a TV with all the menus in Korean, the sink at the entrance to the room and the bathroom with a normal shower and a #toilet bowl that not even #NASA could design like that.
As I see things, I remember them explaining them to me:
– the #thermometer to take my temperature
– some orange bags with the #contaminant element symbol, there are 14 of them and I owe them and can only use one a day where I put all my waste, all together.
Every day at 7 in the morning, at 12 and at 18, a loud piece of music comes out of the speaker on the ceiling of the room and then the announcement says that the food is ready. The announcement is stated in:
– Korean
– English
– Chinese
– Japanese
– Russian
Note: At the end of the ad they say to eat the food slowly 
The food they provide during hotel quarantine
They leave the food outside the door in a plastic bag like a shopping bag and you can only open the door to take the bag, which is placed on a small wooden support.
You can't take one step beyond the door.
After eating #breakfast, put what's left in the orange bag, along with the two meals from the day before, close it and put it outside the door. "They" come by to collect the orange envelopes at 10 in the morning.
In each bag, in addition to the food closed in the trays, they put a small quantity of #milk ferments, a fruit juice, a banana and two half-litre bottles of water.
It means 3 liters of water a day, I can't drink it all and my room is filling up with bottles.
In the trays there is always a #soup (soups in Korea are excellent), a second course accompanied with rice (in my opinion sometimes the meat they give me is dog meat like #bosintang for example), and a salad accompanied by #kimchi which few people like but they say is very good for me (my belly started to swell in an alien way and so I stopped eating it).
In the morning there is also a #sandwich (of which I only eat the filling because being still I cannot eat carbohydrates otherwise I will leave the hotel rolling, and this also applies to the rice for lunch and dinner which I only taste) and a boiled egg, as well as four sachets: two types of tea and two types of instant coffee (there is an electric water heater in the room).
On the other hand, I brought:
– #pollen grains to keep immune defenses high and regulate the intestine
– two bottles of 1000mg #vitaminC
– two packs of #complexB again for immune defenses
– a few bags of peanuts and various nuts for safety
The day after my arrival I started to feel very hot, I called the reception explaining that the air conditioning isn't working and they counter-explained to me that they keep the ventilation off so as not to spread the #virus in the hotel. They told me to open the windows.
The "comfort" in the hotel during the quarantine
When I asked to have a normal height table where I could place the #computer and work, they replied that they don't have any; so I placed the table on top of my suitcase so as to have it a little higher (but I still have to be folded).
There is very little to see from the window and so I consider myself lucky that I have a lot to work on and that every now and then I can ramble on my phone about #socialnetworks because otherwise it would be really depressing.
Ah, after the first shower, while I was taking the change, I realized that by changing every day I would have soiled all the stuff I have in my suitcase and therefore, since I'm in a t-shirt and underwear all day, I only use two changes: the one I use after the shower and the one I used before the shower, which I then wash by hand and put it to dry waiting for the next day.
Unfortunately, when I take long trips eastward, it takes me a long time to adapt to the time zone and so I spent four sleepless nights tossing and turning in bed, then remaining a #zombie during the day.
That's all!
Luigi from the #GoldenTulip hotel, to you studio
PS: in the photos you can see what I have so briefly mentioned 