Traveling during COVID19 Pandemic with a KID

It was sooo stressful traveling during a pandemic.

My journey began at 5AM, I had to drive myself to the airport (and leave the car parked there for a month).

A couple of weeks ago when I went to Hamanako, my Navi kept on telling me to take the tolls, so I set the Navi to avoid tolls. On my way to Nagoya airport, I forgot to turn it on, I realized it after a 1-hour drive...

But luckily we arrived 2 hours before departure, and still had to wait another 45 minutes to be able to check-in.

I had my PCR test prepared 2 days prior, it’s a requirement.

If you do the test in a clinic, the price range from ¥25000-¥40000.

I did it in a lab of a construction company, I got the info from an administration staff at work. It cost ¥13000 for a PCR saliva test with an English certificate, the result comes out in 6 hours.

Altho it’s still expensive, it’s the cheapest in town. Well unless you’d go to a big city like Nagoya/Osaka/Tokyo to do it in a Corona PCR test center for ¥3000, a lady in the Indonesian community said that her husband did this test and was accepted by Singapore Airlines.

At first, I was worried if this test will be accepted too but turned out they (SQ staff and Indonesian airport staff) accepted it with no questions.

Baggage is always something to worry about when my family travel, we always packed too much.

SQ allowed 30kg baggage per passenger. One of my suitcases weighs 28.5kg and the other one is 22.5kg, tho it’s full.... half of it consists of Ichiran cups (bowls) ramen.

Then 2 tiny suitcases ~7kg for mine and Yui’s clothes. A backpack for my laptop, GoPros, passport, and money.

Passing thru Nagoya custom. No other passenger is around, we went to the X-Ray line. There were 5 staff at that time.

Learned from my previous experience where they always asked me to get my drone’s batteries out to be checked separately, this time I put all the batteries in one pouch.

Then instead of going thru a metal detector door, we had to stand in the middle of this round thingy, raise both our hands to be scanned.

Then one of the female staff told Yui that she’ll body checked. After that, she’ll body checked me. I told her I had my car key in my pocket (tiny bulge), she asked me to get it out and examine it in my hand.

All done, waiting for the bags to come out from the x-ray machine.

3 staff were staring at the screen and pointed few items in my bags.

Then they took aside my backpack and Yui’s suitcase. Whaaa...

They asked if they can open it, I said “sure”. (I watched too many “locked up abroad”, series about drug traffickers who got busted. And they always so tense when the customs officers check their bag) I thought I’m not bringing any drugs, so check away.

They took out my sunblock, 2 tiny alcohol gel bottles, 4 alcohol spray bottles, Yui’s toothpaste, my toothpaste.

One of the staff was asking “what is this while holding one of the alcohol spray bottles.”

Me: those are all alcohol spray, you know traveling with a kid, they touched everything.

(Yes EVERYTHING, even after she promised me that she won’t touch anything).

One of the staff took out my Aquafresh toothpaste saying that it’s not allowed, because it’s bigger than 100ml.

Last-minute before I left home, I grabbed that toothpaste and throw it in my cabin bag, because all the big suitcases were already being plastic wrapped.

Anyway, we then walked to immigration.

The officer checks our documents and told us to take off our mask for 3 seconds just to confirm.

The flight to Singapore was empty. There are probably 10 passengers on board.

Yui complained that she’s hungry. I asked the stewardess to bring us her meal earlier.

Yui opened the meal, saw that it’s macaroni and cheese, “why they gave me yucky food??” And proceed to eat only the KitKat and snacks.

Her macaroni and cheese were left untouched because I don’t even want it.

So much cheese, sticky, and smells like cheese.

Yui was watching Croods and playing games on the monitor touch screen. I had to disinfectant wiped everything she touches.

But then she slept for 5 hours (in 7 hours flight).

Arrived at the Singapore airport, so many shops were closed. Even with some that open, we can’t shop anything, we had to follow an officer guiding all passengers transferring to another terminal.

Altho not as many people, as usual, Changi is still more crowded than Chubu.

The plane from Changi to Jakarta was 60% full, like why there are still many people traveling?? There were 10 monks on board.

This time Yui ate 70% of her meal, pasta, and meatballs.

Arriving at CGK, we were guided to this area where there are lots of chairs, 1 meter apart from each other, passengers were filling some document. Then we had to download this app called eHac, which I downloaded prior I depart.

I got my suitcases and out of nowhere, Yui starts running as if she was chasing something on the conveyor belt. I yelled to call her “Yui! Yui! YUI!!”. She completely ignored me and go on running around the big conveyor belt, then came back and said “I can’t find my stroller”.

Me: your stroller is on the other conveyor.

There are many Indonesian soldiers. I told one of the customs officers that the reason I’m coming home was that my father really ill, and I might not have 5 days to be quarantined.

They asked if I bring documents that stated my dad’s illness, family registration card, etc.

I do. The night before my departure, Vic sent them all to me.

I talked to 3 officers, and one of the staff asked me for details about Pap, like lab tests and family registration card, and my passport.

But then Vic texted me that I’m not allowed to go home until I take my PCR test (the next day) and have the resulting negative.

Vic: “I don’t want papa to get any virus from others again! And mom is also still vulnerable (tho she had her first vaccine).”

So here I am, in a hotel being quarantined and gonna take a PCR test tomorrow at a nearby hospital. Indonesian law requires you to be quarantined for 5 days and be tested on your first and fifth day of arrival.

Vic: “when you and Yui arrived at the hotel, DO NOT touch the bed, go straight to the shower!”

Yeah, my younger brother has to be the responsible one because his big sister is irresponsible and ignorant of these things.