去香港好艱難

我和愛妻是飛行常客，去過不少地方，但疫情下去香港，卻遇上前所未有的挑戰。

香港政府規定：需持有新冠疫苗接種證明書、檢疫酒店的訂房證明、起飛前四十八小時內核酸檢測陰性證明，再到政府網站辦理健康申報，取得二維碼才可以登機。

如此繁複的檢疫措施，滿以為去香港的人不會太多。若沒有急事要處理，我們也不會去。但我們錯了，六月的機票是天價般，而且一票難求。價錢貴，但總算可以買到。

檢疫酒店卻是一房難求。在官方網站，根本沒有辦法訂到房間。唯有托在香港的姐姐幫忙，她也要經中介公司才弄到一房間。價錢嗎？是官方定價的三倍。事後看新聞報道才知道，那段時間，檢疫酒店房間，都落在中介公司手中。也許是民怨沸騰，政府迅速採取行動，立法規定訂房要實名制、也不能高過官方定價……等等。若香港政府早點行動，我們就不會被中介公司賺了一大筆。

訂了機票和檢疫酒店，還要過核酸檢測這一關。幸好溫哥華機場有化驗所，提供核酸檢測服務。為免延誤，我和愛妻提早一天到化驗所。護士姐姐給我們提示：近日航機經常延誤，但檢測證明書以採樣時間發出，若採樣時間超過四十八小時，便不能上機。她建議明天早上才採樣，化驗所可即日發出證明書。這樣有足夠空間，萬一航機延誤，也能順利登機。特快的服務，當然要付出雙倍的費用。

不出所料，航機延誤了三個小時。終於登上飛機啦！要好好休息一下，十六小時後，惡夢才真正開始……令人疲於奔命的入境檢疫程序，及七天強制隔離。

Going to Hong Kong is Difficult

My wife and I are frequent flyers, having visited many places, but traveling to Hong Kong during the pandemic presented us with unprecedented challenges.

The Hong Kong government stipulated that travelers must possess a COVID-19 vaccination certificate, a booking confirmation for a quarantine hotel, a negative nucleic acid test result taken within 48 hours before departure, and then complete a health declaration on the government website to obtain a QR code before boarding the flight.

With such complicated quarantine measures, we assumed there wouldn’t be many people traveling to Hong Kong. If it weren’t for urgent matters, we wouldn’t have gone either. But we were wrong—flight tickets in June were exorbitantly priced and extremely hard to come by. They were expensive, but at least we managed to secure some.

Finding a quarantine hotel, however, was like searching for a needle in a haystack. On the official website, there was simply no way to book a room. We had to rely on my sister in Hong Kong for help, and even she could only secure a room through an intermediary company—at triple the official rate. It was only after reading news reports later that we learned quarantine hotel rooms during that period were largely controlled by these intermediaries. Perhaps due to public outrage, the government quickly acted, legislating that bookings must be made under real names and prices couldn’t exceed the official rates, among other measures. If the Hong Kong government had acted sooner, we wouldn’t have been fleeced by those middlemen.

Having booked the flight and quarantine hotel, we still had to pass the nucleic acid test hurdle. Fortunately, Vancouver Airport had a laboratory offering testing services. To avoid delays, my wife and I went to the lab a day early. The nurse gave us a tip: flights had been frequently delayed recently, but the test certificate was issued based on the sampling time. If the sampling time exceeded 48 hours, we wouldn’t be allowed to board. She suggested we do the test the next morning instead, as the lab could issue the certificate on the same day. This would give us enough leeway so that even if the flight was delayed, we could still board smoothly. Of course, this expedited service came at double the cost.

As expected, our flight was delayed by three hours. Finally, we boarded the plane! Time to get some rest—because 16 hours later, the real nightmare would begin: the exhausting entry quarantine procedures and seven days of mandatory isolation.