How to Survive 14 Days Trapped in Hotel Quarantine in Singapore

Last Updated on April 7, 2024 by Adam Watts

Below is a day by day account of our 14 days trapped in hotel quarantine in Singapore. We stayed at JEN Hotel on Orchard Road. Hopefully the below is entertaining for everyone, but also helpful to anyone also looking for SHN information/experiences [stay home notices].

Day One – Tues, 1st Sep

We arrive at the hotel via bus from the airport. Everything is straightforward and organized and everything we expected Singapore would be. They even have colored stickers to make sure we go the right way out of the arrivals gate.

There are maybe four or five other people heading into quarantine with us, all individuals. Checking in at the hotel is as it would be in usual circumstances just with a temperature check. There’s also the ominous sounding warning that “the room key card only works one time”, i.e. once you’re in, you ain’t comin’ out.

We’re hoping, since it’s two of us, we could upgrade our cell (sorry, room) to two adjoining rooms or something with a bit more space, but no luck. We do get a king size bed though.

The room has a desk chair, a comfy chair, a TV, a marble counter-top desk, the aforementioned king size bed, and a nice bathroom with a big tub. As far as hotel rooms go, it’s comfortable, but we have two full weeks ahead of us just in this room. No fresh air, no stretching our legs up and down the corridor, no escape. This is going to be tough.

Day Two – Weds, 2nd Sep

Wow, 3 meals a day are delivered to us. Between 8-10am, 12-2pm, and 6-8pm, there’s a ding-dong at the door and packaged food is waiting for us on a chair outside and the person who brought it has scampered away into the shadows.

Breakfast of scrambled eggs, sausages, a few vegetables, an apple, a yoghurt, and a juice box. Very nice.

Lunch of rice/noodles, and vegetables, some form of meat, a side, and a square of sponge cake.

Dinner of… (see lunch).

Day Three – Thurs, 3rd Sep

This hotel TV really sucks. The sound is glitchy, the channels are limited, and the same episode of MasterChef Australia is playing for the fifth time in two days. Plus our Chromecast doesn’t work on this hotel WiFi.

We use a combination of foodpanda and Amazon to start smuggling goods into our room, starting with milk, soda, beer, and an HDMI cable so we can get some Netflix on TV. (And by smuggling, I actually mean that the lovely staff of the hotel bring us deliveries and leave them on the chair outside of our room ❤)

Oh, and we figure out a VPN to keep us supplied with Disney+ and Peacock should we want them. Shhh, nobody tell them.

Day Four – Fri, 4th Sep

Quiz night! Playing with 40 other people in quarantine in this hotel and others, we come 2nd in a Kahoot trivia game and win a free dessert off our menu. We’re torn, but of the two fantastic dessert options, we eventually settle on the “molten chocolate lava cake” over “selection of seasonal fruit in a cup”.

Day Five – Sat, 5th Sep

Starting to get sick of noodles and rice now, thank you very much. A juicy burger would hit the spot nicely, but I’ll settle for frickin’ macaroni.

Day Six – Sun, 6th Sep

I’m starting to worry that the ding-dong of the doorbell is Pavlovian conditioning.

Day Seven – Mon, 7th Sep

Codenames, Jackbox games, this random website where we learned to play Spades and competed very inadequately against other humans. Trapped in this place we need to keep our mind sharp and our lives connected to other humans.

Day Eight – Tues, 8th Sep

We’re into our second week of quarantine in Singapore and it’s starting with what I hereby term “sock-gate”.

The authorities of this hotel are as tough as Warden Norton from Shawshank. A few days ago they called us and coldly told us that we’d put our five allotted pieces of laundry out at 3:10 pm when the cut off time was 3 pm and so they would take it as the next day’s laundry. A bit mean, but whatever.

Today though, we get a call again about laundry, only this time we’ve apparently included six pieces instead of five and so they would be returning one, unwashed, to us.

Weird, but I guess we miscounted and added something extra by mistake. Let’s review the items and see if you count our mistake with us.

• Two T-shirts.
• One dress.
• One pair of shorts.
• One pair of socks.

Did you count them? It’s been eight days in one room so maybe I’m not as mentally sound as I might be normally, but I’m pretty sure that 2 + 1 + 1 + 1 is 5, right? Math hasn’t changed in the eight days I’ve been here?

As it turns out, the Laundry Authorities in this hotel count socks individually, which is the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard.

Day Nine – Weds, 9th Sep

Dear Diary, this is day nine of quarantine in Singapore and I’m

booooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooored.

Day Ten – Thurs, 10th Sep

It’s Kahoot trivia night again. We come fifth so no desserts tonight. Boo.

Day Eleven – Fri, 11th Sep

For people who like things stuffed up your nose, today is the day for you. COVID-19 Test Day!

We wake up and ate breakfast as normal, but excited by the prospect of leaving our room for the first day in a week and a half. Our test is happening three floors up in the hotel so it’s not like we’re getting fresh air or anything. In some ways, even prisoners have it better than us.

At five minutes to ten we put on shoes, which, I have to remind myself, are those things that go on your feet to protect them and help with walking.

We’re first at the elevator and a security person with mask and face shield tells us to wait. Over the next few minutes other people tentatively creep out of their rooms and get in line behind us, six feet apart.

At a minute past the hour, we’re allowed into the elevators, four people at a time, standing inside yellow markings, all of us facing the wall like misbehaving children.

Upstairs, we follow yellow arrows on the ground into a registration room, where we provide names, date of births, identity numbers, and aunt’s mother’s maiden names. Then in turn we’re led through an adjoining room and into a makeshift testing room with a few chairs and a table of equipment, around which half a dozen people in scrubs, gloves, masks and face shields are standing.

[Warning: for anyone squeamish, skip the next couple of paragraphs.]

I was guided into a seat and one of the testers asked the following, in order: “Do you have any current injuries in or around your nose?” No. “Any nose surgery?” No. “Any recent nose bleeds?” No. “Any reason you don’t want us to shove this giant swab right through your nostrils and deep inside you?”

Before I could query that last point, a cotton-tipped swab was shoved inside one of my nostrils and the tester started counting to ten. It’s not painful in any way, but it is deeply uncomfortable.

Going in, it feels super invasive and icky and I absolutely hated it; coming out, it felt like the world’s most epic bogey finally being set free. And then they did the other nostril.

After both are done, they shoo me on my way back to the elevators. My nasal cavities are tingling and abused and I couldn’t help but sneeze violently inside my mask. I’m sure I wasn’t the only one.

And that’s all the excitement for today. For dinner we take one look at the plastic tray of rice and fish and vegetables and order Pizza Hut. Thank you and goodnight.

Day Twelve – Sat, 12th Sep

The calendar says it’s the weekend. But what even is a weekend? The end of a week? What’s a week?

Please help, I’m losing my mind.

Three days to go. I’m trying to stay positive.

Positive, no, what if the COVID test comes back positive?

Day Thirteen – Sun, 13th Sep

Sometimes I forget that we’re in Singapore. It still doesn’t feel real. And maybe it’s not.

Maybe our flight from the US to Singapore actually crashed over the Pacific and this hotel quarantine is purgatory between Heaven and Hell, Valhalla and Nifleheim, the Good Place and the Bad Place, and whoever is in charge is still reviewing our case. Come to think of it, our flight number was 815….

But our tests come back today and we’re both negative and we’re officially told we’re leaving on Tuesday. Our exit time is oddly-specific at 12:25 pm.

The leaving packet comes with a sweet note saying the hotel staff have enjoyed taking care of us, and has space for us to write a return note. I assume there’s a collage of everyone’s notes somewhere.

Day Fourteen – Mon, 14th Sep

You know, I’m actually going to miss this place. Maybe I’ve become institutionalized, but other than the repetitive food, quarantine is pretty reasonable. Not having any responsibilities is great. No laundry, no decisions to make about what to eat, no work, just the specter of “future life” hanging over us.

I would like some fresh air though. I don’t think I’ve ever spent a week without fresh air before, let alone two. Quarantining in a room with a balcony would be ideal, which some lucky folks get serving their SHN time at Rasa Sentosa Resort & Spa.

But this is it. One more night’s sleep now, then we’re done with quarantine in Singapore and it’s back to the real world. Wish us luck.