Egypt 2020, online birthday and other entertainment during the pandemic
Monday March 23
How drastically plans change when an emergency occurs. The reason for this is quarantine due to the coronavirus. In a week we were supposed to make three trips to Germany: my parents' trip for the weekend, I have a business trip and Dasha was supposed to join me a day later. Now I would write a story about how we had a great time in Frankfurt, that this is the fourth trip in a row to the same country. But things turn out differently. In any case, I have. Dasha and Misha successfully made an unplanned trip to Egypt. They managed to get through. Now the borders of many countries are closed, air traffic is practically stopped, and we, reunited with our family, are sitting on self-isolation.
Still recently, I made night trips into the forest. There were no people, no virus. True, the absence of people in the night forest is also a little annoying, but it is much more interesting than sitting at home yourself. The company I work for reacted to the epidemic in time, we all now work from home for at least a month, provided with the necessary equipment. I now have my own office in Misha's room. My working day ends, and Misha and I start "mochilovo" over the network. No wonder I bought another copy of Portal at a sale a couple of years ago, I was waiting for Misha to grow up and start playing online. In addition to my office, there are some other changes in the apartment. The balcony is now a quarantine zone for everything brought in from the street, including groceries. Everything should first lie on the balcony for several days, especially the packages in which the products are brought. If there are products that need a refrigerator, then they are first treated with alcohol. The apartment itself is now clean, close to clinics.
In addition to the main epidemic, the main thing is not to get infected with other diseases. Otherwise, things can get complicated. Our exclusion zone is now a common corridor. There, in the very corner, there is a large suitcase packed in polyethylene, full of things, in a five-day quarantine. In the pantry there is a basket with things that Dasha and Misha were wearing at the time of their arrival from Egypt. And yes, it was a chic and unexpected trip.
Thursday March 12
Two weeks ago, schools announced a three-week quarantine due to a possible epidemic. In other words, you need to sit with Misha for three weeks. The first logical thought is that it is better to spend this time somewhere in a more pleasant place than just at home, for example, in Egypt. At the time of the purchase of the tour, according to official data, there were 60 cases of infection and 27 cases of recovery. But if you fly for a week, then you will need to stay at home in self-isolation for two weeks. If you do not fly, then you will need to stay at home for three weeks, and also, possibly, in self-isolation. In total, we have two options, in both three weeks you need to sit and do nothing, only in the first option there is a week of Egypt, but not in the other.
Tours to good hotels were record-breakingly cheap in our experience. For 12.000 UAH we took 8 full days at 1 + 1 Island View Resort. Initially, they took the four, Garden View, but, as predicted, the four would be closed and everyone was placed in the top five.
I didn't have a vacation planned for Egypt. On that day, I talked with my superiors in the office that I was ready to fly on a business trip in a week, and then naturally sit in self-isolation. Moreover, during the trip, all my work had to take place practically without people. Masha also supported the initiative not to cancel the business trip and fly. Moreover, mathematical statistics are on our side.
Friday March 13
A state of emergency has been declared due to the epidemic. In European countries, a rapid increase in infected began. On this day, all employees in test mode tried to work from home. But then a letter came that you can return to the office once to pick up the necessary things and continue remote work. All regular flights from Kyiv will soon be stopped, charters will continue to fly in both directions. Here, of course, I did not quite understand why they gave me the opportunity to travel further. I called the tour operator, who confirmed that all flights are in force and in any case they will find a way to return tourists if everything closes completely. Then I talked to our Ministry of Foreign Affairs, they have an online chat, where I received an explanation about self-isolation upon my return.
Yes. . . The picture has changed completely. Now, if something changes again, you can fly to Egypt and stay there in quarantine, which, in general, is also a pretty good option. True, it is not clear what exactly quarantine will look like there. Now I regretted that I did not take the ticket for myself, it would be possible to temporarily relocate remotely to Egypt.
Departure will be on Saturday at four in the morning. Until that time, we thought a lot, discussed and weighed. Once or twice they abandoned the idea of flying and once or twice they changed their minds to the opposite. By evening, the media began to finally sound the alarm. We decided to wake up Misha and tell him that we are not flying. Otherwise, he will wake up in the morning, still afraid that his mother flew away without him. At night, they went to buy food for a week, while they were buying, they looked at each other again, and Dasha asked me: “Are you too lazy to cook all this for yourself? ” On that we firmly decided: we need to fly.
Our decision shocked many friends and relatives. My mom tried to talk me out of the idea. Dasha's mother is always for Egypt. So she didn't answer. She even managed to ride electric trains herself on the last day, it is not yet known which of us is more risky. Now on the Internet you can already find a lot of videos about how people cried into the camera with a request to evacuate from Egypt, about how tourists are driven to the operator Join Up, who officially said that he would pick everyone up at least a week later than necessary. And all this happened in the same week when Dasha and Misha traveled.
But why did we decide to fly? Specifically, at the time of departure, there were no cases in Sharm el-Sheikh, and Dasha and Misha do not fall into the risk zone. At the time of departure, the chance of catching it in the country with the strongest epicenters of epidemics is approximately 0.7% (if you count all the people in the country, if you take the province of Hubei or the country of Italy). Is there a chance of her getting sick in Egypt, where the epidemic is still going on in a loyal mode? about 0.000... %, in general, very small. We also looked at the statistics on the number of hotels in Sharm and the likelihood of quarantine falling into exactly the one we choose, it also turned out to be in our favor. In addition to statistics, an important point: it is more convenient and pleasant for us to sit out the epidemic in Egypt than at home. It's a pity, though, that we're not all flying together.
But even with all these statistics, it's clear that this trip is a risk, and we knew very well that there was a chance to get stuck sick in an Arab hospital in another country.
Egypt March 14-21
At 09:00 I received a report about the delivered SMS beacon. So, Dasha and Misha landed in Sharm. And they began a carefree journey. Upon arrival at the hotel, they were told that they were forced to move from four to five. Where welcome cocktails were already waiting for them.
Since Dasha and Misha are in this group for the second time, they were given an improved spacious room. It was 25 degrees outside, the sun with clouds. Clouds hung in the sky after the last hurricane. We initially planned to fly a day earlier, but according to the forecast, it was clear that on Friday, to put it mildly, the weather would be non-flying. The storm was so strong that it tore apart the pontoon and on the first day it was not possible to see the fish, only Misha splashed around the bank. Although with slides and a heated pool, one day is not very critical.
From the second day, the entrance to the sea had already been repaired and it was getting hotter and hotter. There were many fish. Dasha described the temperature of the water as addictive. In the middle of the rest it was 28 degrees outside. If you do not know about the existence of a global epidemic, then nothing showed at all that something was wrong. All the same dirty chairs in restaurants. The staff that lays napkins on the tables, tearing the packaging with their teeth, another worker holds someone else's towel with his teeth when he does something with it, and another inflates a mattress for the child of one of the tourists with his mouth. No particularly high sanitary measures are taken. Only an additional dispenser with a sanitizer was hung in the restaurant. Everything goes on. Although no, his colleague approached the man inflating the mattress and began to explain that this was not the way to go. But the first one reassured him that the mattress was clean, only from the market. So we can't worry. We rest further.
The second wave of concerns for Dasha in the chats began when Egypt announced that it was closing the airport to regular flights, and the news headlines were limited to the phrase "Egypt closes airports. " As a result, journalists arrange, without knowing it, informational noise, which only exacerbates the epidemic. But the hotel employees, apparently also impressed by the news headlines, decided to urgently evict everyone and put a note in Dasha's room stating that due to the closing of the hotel, it was necessary to move out before the next morning at 12:00 noon. But it's like a few days before the end of the tour.
Oh! Now I feel the most interesting begins. Dasha had a tour from Teztur. The hotel guide of our operator immediately disappears and does not appear again. The staff at the reception is not at all aware of what is happening, the Anekstur guide sits in his place and says that nothing will be closed. I called Teztur and asked how to understand this? In Teztura, they were also surprised, and said that they would sort everything out. They asked me to send them a photo of the note. I mistakenly sent them a photo of the test results that the clinic once sent me))) The hotel, by the way, decided not to answer the phone. As a result, we found out the number of the guide, the guide on the phone said that no one would be evicted, rest further. Well, since they are not evicted, we continue to rest.
Announcements that the hotel will be closed from tomorrow have disappeared, in their place new ones have appeared with a closing date + 3 days. One vacationer said that after arriving for a week-long tour, a couple of days later she was told to check out and fly home, and even a transfer came for her. She said that she would not fly anywhere and stayed. Then she was even threatened with deportation by phone. Toward the end of her tour, she was again told it was time to go, this time she agreed. When they brought her to the airport, they asked why she wanted to leave before the end of the tour, because her name was not on the departure lists for today. She said that she did not want anything like that and she was returned back to the hotel, as a result, after the end of the tour, she extended the tour for another day. Apparently, the operators did not go very smoothly.
Join UP tourists got the most, first the tour operator posted information on the website that tourists would be picked up a week later, which, along with the news about the closure of the airport, looked even worse, and then an outbreak of coronavirus occurred in two hotels. Luckily for us, the hotels were 16 kilometers from ours.
Then in Ukraine, some man, during a report on TV, said that all tourists from Egypt should travel on their own, and the news began to simply shock, horror and panic. Late in the evening, an excuse was released that the man was referring not to those tourists who flew to Egypt as a package tour on charters, but to those who flew on regular flights. I don’t know what happened next, but despite the news on the official website of Join UP that everyone would be picked up a week later, everyone was urgently picked up. In fact, well done, everything was clear and promptly sorted out with Egypt, but nevertheless there were some troubles. But this is specifically the situation with Egypt. The same tourists who flew Join Up to Sri Lanka were forcibly given the opportunity to extend the tour at their own expense. I also took this information from the main Join UP website.
Dashin's tour ended at the scheduled time and everyone returned home without any changes for a fourteen-day self-isolation. It is impossible to say that during the beginning of the epidemic in Egypt it was calm, it all depended on how lucky you were with the hotel and the tour operator. But specifically in the Tezturovsky Island view resort, it was just an ideal and relaxing holiday, except for that case with a note.
Meanwhile in Kyiv on March 14-21
In Kyiv, everything was still relatively calm. It was clear to everyone that the epidemic was already near, especially in the Chernivtsi and Zhytomyr regions there were already the first infections. The first quarantine measures began to be introduced. On Saturday, I still took the risk of going to a meeting of classmates, but nevertheless, before the trip, using the chat, I made sure that no one was going to go with signs of any illness. In general, the meeting was in doubt, there were many discussions in the chat about whether it was worth meeting. As a result, the meeting began in a restaurant and ended in a nightclub. Although even in the club I kept my distance from the dancing crowd. It was the last bright entertainment from everyday life. Already since Sunday, I switched to complete self-isolation and, in splendid isolation, waited for the arrival of my family.
The days were no longer very different from each other. On Saturday and Sunday I made long hikes for many kilometers in the forest, which, fortunately, is not far from home. The main thing is to reach the forest without approaching people. Labyrinths had to be overcome even those. It feels like I was the only one who wanted to keep the distance. My forest trips were quite eventful. Already on the first day I met 10 motorcyclists, a boxer, a man with a rifle and, most unexpectedly, two Chinese! And one Chinese with an interval of about an hour. Maybe it's the same one of course wandered.
On the second day, an equally curious situation occurred - the police "caught" me in the forest))) They were in a rather strange place with the car, I tried to understand why they were standing there. As a result, our views crossed. I realized with what curiosity I look at them from under the hood. I decided to pretend that I didn’t look at them at all, but it was precisely because of this that they decided to check me out to the fullest. The reason for the check turned out to be the following: "You somehow looked at us suspiciously. " But since I am clean before the law, after a few minutes of checking and talking, they let me go further into the forest for a walk.
The weekend is over, remote work has begun. Now only evenings are free. But in the evening there are quite a lot of people on the street. I waited for the hours of 21:00 and arranged for myself night hikes in the forest. In total darkness, there was no one there at all, not even the police. On the one hand, it's certainly good that I'm here myself, but on the other hand, it puts a little pressure on my nerves. I have already developed a whole route as I go to the forest, and then through the lakes I return home. So, day after day, I passed the first week, mentally being with my family in sunny Egypt.
Quarantine and self-isolation from March 21 to April 4
As planned earlier, now we are sitting at home for two weeks and cannot go anywhere. At first, we thought it would be difficult and boring. But they settled down pretty quickly. Now there is a lot of time for a measured and unhurried life. In the mornings, you can sleep longer, until the very beginning of the working day. After work, you can watch TV shows without reproaching yourself, play computer games with Misha and pass the time with other meaningless activities. Already in the first week, everything began to get used to and be perceived as normal life. Although in dreams and desires, just open the borders between countries - we are on our way right away! And while we save energy. From about the second week, many entertainment events began to move online, almost every day we go through online quests, participate in analogues of "What, where, when", quizzes and other similar entertainment. Life began to move online.
Two weeks have passed! You can walk! Early in the morning, while there are minimal people on the streets, we run into the forest! Birds are chirping, hedgehogs are snorting, so what street are you? Hey, why are so many people walking the streets without keeping their distance, not refraining from shaking hands? What are you, immortal? Okay, the main thing for us is to keep our distance from everyone and absolutely not touch anything. The main thing is to get to the forest. In the forest, we arranged a really large-scale and long-distance hike. But at the same time, an unfamiliar feeling appeared in the body. It was a fatigue that was unusual for us when walking. For two weeks, the body completely relaxed. When all this is over, we will increase the pace.
From the next day, walks were banned in some places, but the most important thing is that the forest did not fall under the ban. Only forested areas. But for complete reinsurance, I first called the Ukrainian WHO, from there I was redirected to call the National Guard. There I was able to learn in detail about our rights and realized that we can walk into the forest with a clear conscience. We also learned to distinguish forested areas from forests on the map. Now we know exactly which parts of our forest belong to the forest, and we can be there. The main thing is to choose a time and routes when there are a minimum number of people on the streets. And of course, a quarantine zone for clothes and showers upon return is mandatory. So now you can walk carefully.
As wonderful as life online would be, some things still require you to get offline. So, I had to visit a branch of my bank. But since the nearest working branch is located in the opposite part of the district, and we don’t use transport at all during quarantine, I had a great and long hike. Well, at least I managed to agree with the employees so that I had to show up to the department itself for just a couple of minutes.
Birthday
Now you can go back online. I had the most unusual birthday ever. We always try to somehow surprise with the format of birthdays, and this one was one of the coolest - online via video call. Apart from the toasts and the clinking of glasses to the camera, the birthday party consisted of three parts. In the first one, our friends completed an online quest that Dasha and I did. At the same time, everyone went through mini-teams of two people, and the tasks were drawn up so that everyone had to communicate with each other.
There were also two exclusive quests: from Dasha from the Closet and by Dishwasher Misha. Then there were real online hide-and-seek! Someone is hiding in his apartment, and his partner walks around with a laptop with the camera turned on. The rest of the friends all say where to go and what to check in order to find the hidden one.
We also tried playing rock, paper, scissors in a chat format. The third part was an online game over the network - Snake. There was a real hour-long battle for life. It was a very unusual birthday and I'm even glad that it was in an online format, it's definitely worth a try! And for the first time in my life, I will be able to celebrate a physical birthday in the warm season, somewhere in nature. So the celebration will continue in the summer.
About canceling hotels and flights
Recently, questions about canceled trips and refunds have become popular. A large number of trips have been hit, but nevertheless, airlines and hotels treat tourists very well. On the Internet, of course, there are a lot of indignations and loud statements from dissatisfied tourists, they say, they do not return money, etc. , but I will describe dry facts.
UIA. At the moment, all the money paid to the bank card for two failed trips has been fully returned. For the first tickets, I still managed to request a refund through the call center the day before the quarantine, for the second tickets, already on the new rules, I requested through the online form. Moreover, the ticket was at a non-refundable low-cost fare. About the UIA response speed. For example, today I received an operator's response to the mail three hours after the request was created, according to the departure date, which should be in 9 days.
Wizz. They are generally handsome. If nothing is done, then 120% of the amount paid will be credited to the account for a period of 2 years. If you call them, and they pick up the phone, in any case, the English-speaking center took it, you can request money on the card in the amount of 100% of the amount spent.
Germany hotels. Two hotels that were paid for under non-refundable conditions returned their money due to the epidemic. The reason for the return is as stated. By the way, there was a funny fact when the hotel returned the money after deducting it from me a year ago. In the bank statements, misunderstandings began, because they did not immediately notice what year the transaction was marked with, and the number coincided with tomorrow.
Booking. com. Those guys are cute too. If the trip cannot be made due to the epidemic, then the booked hotel goes into free cancellation mode with the return of all money to the card. If the hotel does not get in touch, and some hotels have disappeared without a trace, then booking from your account returns all the money paid to the card.
Flixbus. Everything is simple here: you cancel more than a month in advance, they give you a voucher for a year, more than 14 days in advance - minus 1 euro. And so on to reduce the amount of the refund. The voucher can be used by yourself or cashed out through friends' future bookings.
But there is clearly a large number of correspondence with hotels and airlines ahead, but the main thing is that during such a force majeure, everyone retained a human attitude towards each other. Although, according to the rules, all of the above services could refer to force majeure, and no one would receive anything.
Tour operators. Here I did not encounter cancellations and changes. But I'm really upset about the attitude of tourists to tour operators on the Internet. The fact is that each tourist, when buying a tour, puts his signature in the contract, where he agrees with conditions that are obviously unfavorable for himself in the event that the operator begins to have difficulties. But despite this, many topics are created where they are looking for lawyers and are indignant at the conditions of the operator, with which they themselves agreed when signing the contract. Compliance with the terms of contracts is very important in our world. If the tourist signed the contract, then you will have to follow the contract, there's nothing to be done.
What did you do for yourself during quarantine
In addition to the total "doing nothing useful", there are still pluses. I have already done two things that I have long wanted to do: I wrote a calculator program and learned to play the piano. Of course, you can study here endlessly, but at least I can already play a long composition in two hands. But it's only been a month, let's see what else we can do)
What has been done for the world during quarantine
We actively participate in charitable foundations to combat coronavirus. There are such funds at Rozetka and ubb.
Our computer tirelessly helps the Stanford Institute research the virus.
My observations and conclusions regarding the quarantine situation
The epidemic, of course, has not yet passed and it is not completely clear what the consequences will be in terms of human casualties, but there are also positive aspects. Medicine is now clearly taking a big step forward. At least the network of distributed computing Folding home has grown more than five times in terms of power. In short, this is a program that, using the free resources of your computer, helps to simulate biological processes for the study of diseases. Also, many services have finally switched to online mode, for example, chess courses.
What I miss
During the epidemic, we do not go to the store and, accordingly, the fresh loaf, which I love so much, is now only in my memories. Bread can be stored in the refrigerator for a very long time, but it loses all its freshness almost immediately. We order delivery every one and a half weeks, fortunately, courier services for the first deliveries for new customers are free, so we can stretch the quarantine like this. And, to be honest, it’s better to pay 70 UAH every 10 days and significantly reduce your risk of catching the virus. All payments are made only online, so contact through money is completely excluded. Couriers deliver packages to the floor, I pick them up only after they leave. And of course, some of the products are sent to the quarantine zone after that.
I also miss listening to audio on youtube channels. When I was driving home from work or going to lunch, I was always told something interesting through my headphones. At home from a computer, you can also, but this is a little different from the format that I'm used to.
Evening walks. They are severely lacking. If at the beginning of the quarantine it was still possible to get out, now there is some kind of dust storm and the smell of burning on the streets. In general, complete isolation has come.
And, of course, travel is the first thing to miss. It would seem that only a month has passed, but for our plans and our pace, this is already simple. Our second trip will be canceled in a few days. And the weather would already allow to travel around Ukraine with might and main. By the way, yes, one trip around Ukraine has already failed)
Dreams
Somewhere at the beginning of the epidemic, I often dreamed about traveling. The most vivid dream was about how I rode a Ferrari in the Maldives. Moreover, the island had hills with panoramas and a paved road. Shortly before the start of the epidemic, I had a dream in which I saw the northern lights. I don’t know why, but for some reason, every time I understand that I can’t go anywhere now, I remember the image of that radiance. I really want to be on one of two trips again now: in the beautiful valleys of Cappadocia or rushing on a high-speed train to another Japanese city. Oddly enough, until recently, Japan was on my list of trips that I didn’t plan to return to. But now, for some reason, everything has changed. I think it started when I was cleaning my closet and I found old Japanese train passes.
In second place I have a gastronomic hunger for Georgian cuisine. Even before quarantine, it was so affordable, these Georgian cafes are now at every step, but now this, like many other things, is gone. We do not use the delivery of ready-made food - we only cook ourselves to minimize the risks of infection.
In general, dreams are quite simple, and as soon as the quarantine is over, we’ll go right away!
