Stories in (transit | quarantine)

I initially wrote this post to talk about our flight leaving the Philippines, but when we got to our hotel, honestly I just needed some time to decompress and relax. So, that brings us to today. We’ll be out of hotel quarantine in three days.

So many relatives and friends were excited for us, and wished us well. It must be charming, to move countries during a global pandemic…

It wasn’t, really. I’m writing about how it looked like from our perspective, for anyone curious or anyone planning to move countries during these unprecedented times. I noticed a few white hairs on my head the last few days and I swear I cannot be greying this early. It must have been the stress.


How are you feeling? Do you feel excited? When is your flight?

Some friends and relatives may notice I didn’t talk much about our move. I avoided talking about it unless it was with people I trusted and usually confided in. It’s not something we particularly enjoyed talking about, considering all the planning and unknowns that went behind the scenes.

What Ben and I felt in the last few months was the general stress and low-grade anxiety that was constantly running in the background, like a static noise. Neither of us allowed ourselves to dwell on what could go wrong, but I’m far too pragmatic to expect only the happy path. Aside from work, decluttering, and ticking off to-do lists we bided our time playing old games on the Xbox, like the Spyro Reignited Trilogy, Final Fantasy VII (not the remake), and Final Fantasy X (remastered).

Our home stopped feeling like a home after we rehomed our cats. ‘I feel like a stranger living in someone’s house’ was what Ben told me. Besides, we were stripping it of everything that made it liveable. We lived on Grab Food for a month. Our apartment, of course, as in an endless state of clutter. I don’t think I dragged my feet, but at the end of the day, we were still hauling boxes to send off to my sister on the morning of our flight!

To the people who asked after us, sent their best wishes, and even prayed for us, thank you. I know I couldn’t socialise and keep in touch with you all. To be honest it was too much to bear in the last few weeks. For the people I forgot to call when I said I would, and the people I just straight up never got to see (hey Macky), I know you wouldn’t hold it against me. Considering the NCR+ / MECQ / bubble in the weeks preceding our flight, it was probably for the best.

I couldn’t even visit my father and grandfather in Palawan before I left. They’re the family I wanted to see the most. NCR travel ban didn’t allow it. When it finally did, Palawan entered lockdowns due to local surges. ‘Do not go out of your way to trouble yourself in these times,’ was what Angkong told me. He has always been stoic and practical. I have always admired that in my father’s side.

‘Besides,’ Papa told me lightheartedly, the day before our flight. ‘This doesn’t really change anything. You just moved places. We don’t see other every day as it is.’


Off to a negative start, I know… People told me that everything will be fine and that I should be excited / happy. So what was eating at us?

Our flights got cancelled. Twice.

We first booked a direct flight from Manila to Brisbane, via Philippine Airlines. One day, my sister shared that PAL has filed for bankruptcy in the US. The next day, we received the email that our flight has been cancelled.

It makes sense. Australia has closed its borders and last I checked there isn’t a thriving Aussie community in the Philippines to sustain that kind of traffic.

Not to mention Australia has drawn a lot of international criticism from its own citizens for how it handled repatriation of its ~40,000 nationals overseas, who all couldn’t get home. Because flights were hard to come by, constantly getting cancelled, and border controls kept getting tightened with each new surge.

So, we booked China Airlines, layover Taipei. Neither of us needed a transit visa or anything for Taiwan. A couple weeks later, flight’s cancelled. At least China Airlines provided a reason—they had limited staffing due to increased COVID-19 cases / heightened protocols.

Which left us with…

Screenshot taken at a much later date. We secured a Singapore Airlines route with layover in Singapore.

At the time we booked, our only option was Singapore Airlines, with prices starting at premium economy… if there were seats left.

I feverishly opened my spreadsheet and told Ben how much money I had.

‘I can help pay for our flights. I have enough to—’

‘No, what are you talking about? Work is paying for it.’

Ben was on Slack with his boss and their CFO to explain our situation and lack of options. While he was waiting, he had the booking page on Singapore Airlines open, and could see the seats in business class getting booked in real time. He counted eight while he was waiting for the greenlight. For context, business class had only about two dozen seats.

I’m grateful to Ben’s workplace, as well as Tim, for supporting us through and through, with no holds barred, and with no ifs or buts.

Every time our flights got cancelled, Ben immediately opened his Macbook and booked a replacement flight on for the same day. Had we been in the position where we had to pay for our flights ourselves, just the sheer financial burden of rebooking flights (with no guarantee of immediate refunds for cancelled ones) would have drained both our bank accounts, or put us in debt. And that’s just for the flights.

I’m not flexing here, just giving perspective. Moving came at a huge financial cost. Ben had enough sense to spend his salary and bonuses judiciously, and save a lot of money months before. The mandatory hotel quarantine is a fixed cost of AUD 3,710 for two adults. Not counting the prior cancellations, the flights cost AUD 9,000. This also does not count the money Ben had saved up in the last several months to furnish our new apartment when we settle down, as well as the deposit and advance payment required for rentals.

The AUD 1,300 I raised selling our stuff seems measly in comparison, but it’s in these circumstances that liquidity mattered a lot. I don’t want people to think our experience has been ‘exciting’ or ‘charming’. It was not. It was the accumulation of months of preparation. Anything going wrong would have broken either of us.

I was so eager to leave, and so anxious that something would bar us from leaving. I don’t hate the Philippines, but I had already resigned from a job that I loved (effectively ending my career in the Philippines). Our apartment was growing emptier by the day. I wasn’t going to stay in that state of limbo for longer than I had to.

How we were able to travel at all

Australia has its borders closed except for Australian citizens, permanent residents, and immediate family of the former two. With this in mind, I carried the following documents with me when we flew out from Manila:

  • My grant notice for my visa
  • Our original PSA marriage certificate

That aside, airlines are particular about how to handle COVID safety. It was possible with Singapore Airlines because:

  • We were travelling exclusively with their carriers.
  • We were travelling to and from approved countries.
  • We took the COVID-19 PCR test 72 hours prior to our flight.

As an aside, here are the things Ben and I needed in order to leave the Philippines:

  • ECC, or an emigration clearance certificate, which is a standard requirement for expats like him (to prove he didn’t commit crimes or do anything shady, before leaving the country, I guess?)
  • A CFO certificate from the Commission on Overseas Filipinos, which proves I have informed the Philippine government that I am leaving the country, and in particular, that I know who I’m going with and I am aware enough to know that I am not being trafficked. (Apparently there are spousal visas where the two parties don’t even meet prior to travel?)

These two are crucial, as Philippine immigration will look for them.

The last mental hurdles

So, all our documents are set, our exit agreement with the landlord is in place, and I had a clear idea which items were being packed with our travels, shipped via international movers, sold, and decluttered.

There were four things, which I perceived to be completely out of my control, that I struggled with in the week leading up to our flight:

That Singapore Airlines might cancel the flight

This could have happened without notice. Australians have struggled to come home since the height of the pandemic last year, due to a combination of travel restrictions, increased restrictions during surges, a backlog of cancelled flights, and rising ticket prices. [1][2][3]

I only believed we were flying when we reached NAIA Terminal 3, saw the check-in counters open for our flight, and seeing other people boarding the same flight waiting with us.

That our COVID-19 RT-PCR might come back positive

We had our home RT-PCR test on June 30. The results came back negative the next day. This was mandatory in order for us to board flights.

It probably shouldn’t have worried me. But probabilistically (following the exponential distribution), to me it didn’t make sense that I have not tested positive at all in the last sixteen months. What if I was asymptomatic? Unlike Ben, I was not vaccinated. There was no guarantee. Two weeks before our test, we both started isolating ourselves, only coming out of our apartment to get deliveries and buy only the absolute necessities.

Australia tightening its borders following the recent surge in cases

Australia had a concerning series of surges across its states. Queensland was on high alert after a miner from Northern Territory tested positive. They had transited through Brisbane Airport and travelled to the Sunshine Coast. [source] That aside, there were new lockdowns in NSW, NT, QLD, and as the Delta variant gained some traction. There were talks among premiers to further reduce international arrivals. [source]

This is how Ben responded to that news:

On the day of our flight, here is one of his friends being supportive:

That Taal Volcano might ground all flights

On the last day before our flight, Taal Volcano erupted, releasing a kilometre-high phreatomagmatic plume into the air. Alert level 3 was raised. [source]

When it erupted last January 2020, Metro Manila was covered in a very visible layer of ash fall. People wore N95 masks (a harbinger of the pandemic yet to come). Flights were cancelled. And that was on Alert level 4.

When I found out about the extent of volcanic unrest, one thought surfaced very clearly:

An act of God

Amid all our unease, this broke me. Ben found me crying in the bathroom. ‘It’s the one thing no one can control,’ I told him. He reassured me that I was being silly.


Falling into place

In those days, I spent mornings, nights, and moments in-between feverishly refreshing my email inbox, as if to wait for that cancellation email. Then the day came.

We locked our apartment for good. (I didn’t even get to really ‘say goodbye’ to our apartment as between last-minute packing, doing a sweep of the rooms one more time, and racing for trolleys and service elevators, it was pretty hectic).

We booked the Grab to the airport.

We checked our baggage.

We cleared immigration.

We boarded the plane. Business class was very nice. They served us wine and more food than anyone could reasonably eat. I slept in flight fully reclined for the first time. It was nice to have a ledge / surface you can comfortably put your stuff on, rather than having them live on your lap / in your seat all through the flight.

So many families were travelling. So many were travelling with kids. It was a bit of a surprise, but perhaps there’s no greater time than ever for families to decide where they belong, and make that move together.

We landed in Changi Airport, cleared the health checks, and stayed in a quarantine area. The experience was surprisingly disappointing, considering the renowned Changi terminal facilities. Parents let their kids play with other kids. The kids nearly collided with us a few times. Some a–hole kept talking loudly with his mask off. A handful of people didn’t wear masks even as it was mandatory to keep them on. I don’t care what people do in public places. I believe that you should let children be children. But not during a pandemic.

(Ben reckoned we were probably in the safest position from contracting the virus, but all I could think about was how a confluence of people from all corners of the world is gathered into one very large room, all breathing the same air and touching the same surfaces…)

We boarded the plane to Brisbane, landed after eight hours, cleared the health checks, cleared immigration, and cleared the import declarations.

We were ushered by officers and members of the ADF into buses that would take us to our hotel. (It’s not scary or intimidating or anything. They did load and unload our luggage for us.)

While at Changi, I looked up accounts of the hotel quarantine in Brisbane and I wish I hadn’t. Many people had to put up with very bad accommodation in the past.

We settled in at our hotel. I feel like we lucked out:

How are you feeling?

In those hours between our last morning in Flair and our arrival in our hotel room, what I felt was the sensation of a gradually dissipating anxiety. Every step that went uneventfully felt like a small milestone, reassuring me that everything will be okay. I felt relief. I felt grateful to the Lord for answering my prayers to just keep us safe and sound and free from all distress. This is coming from a daughter who has not gone to church in weeks and has not really been cultivating her daily piety.

A two-week quarantine confined to a single room and balcony seems like an awfully boring prospect, but I’m sitting now writing all this, and it will be two more full days before we check out on Saturday morning. The weather has been lovely on the Gold Coast, and the sea has been teasing Ben from the first time we stepped out to the balcony and saw the coast. He said he’ll go for a swim before we drive back to Brisbane (his parents will be picking us up).

So far, the past week feels like a blur to me. Between sleeping, eating, feeding lorikeets, soaking in the bath, sorting out my finances (converting my overall approach from Philippine pesos to Australian dollars), setting up my Australian government accounts (Medicare, tax file number), and applying for jobs, I feel like I’ve made good time. The quarantine gave me the headspace to decompress and sort out my mental clutter. Ben and I did a ‘life in Australia’ planning session over the weekend to plan our life in Melbourne, as well was to have a roadmap for the next two years. It’s exciting, boring stuff I admit. But it just means we’ve had these things sorted out by the time we leave quarantine.

I feel a bit chipper now, and the excitement I repressed in the last few months is starting to surface. There’s so many things to look forward to in Brisbane alone. I made a list:

Other than that, I’ve started applying for jobs. A few recruiters have been in touch with me. I had my first phone interview this morning with an interesting startup. I think it went well. I tend to be pessimistic about job applications, but people have told me not to fret so much and to enjoy this new adventure and chapter in life. Ben reassured me that it wouldn’t be too difficult for me to find a job, and told me to try to use this time to look into jobs that I really want, not just openings I would settle for.

Our new life has begun. There’s so much to plan for, hope for, and look forward to. I am really thankful.