Rewind: Life in Quarantine: Adrie Mackay and Anastasia Sokyrka - S3 E2

Adrie, and roommate Anastasia, discuss what life in quarantine is like with host and fellow quarantee Niall.

Anastasia, originally from the Ukraine, has lived in Saigon for 5 years working in sales for a major hotel chain.

Her company sent her on an ill-fated dream trip to Australia for work on March 15th, 3 days after the pandemic was declared. As a result most of her business meetings went online and were then cancelled leaving her no reason to be in Australia and as borders closed every reason to get back to Vietnam as soon as possible. 

Flying on the same flight from Sydney as Niall and Adrie she found herself on the same problem at the Vietnamese border of being moment away from being sent back to Australia, a country she has no ties to. Before luckily being allowed in at midnight and sent to quarantine with a group of foreigners who'd never met before. There she paired up with Niall and Adrie, wanting to be with the only other female in the group.

Listen to more details about her story and what life has been like in quarantine for the three new friends. 

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Theme music composed by Lewis Wright.
Main Cover Art designed by Niall Mackay and Le Nguyen.
Episode art designed by Niall Mackay.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_04 0:37

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SPEAKER_05 2:31

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SPEAKER_04 2:37

Alright, welcome to the second episode of the special quarantine season of 7 million bikes. We have a special guest here today. She's all the way from Ukraine. She flew in from Australia especially to join us in quarantine. We're gonna welcome Anastasia Sorkirka. Sorkirka.

SPEAKER_06 2:58

That's correct.

SPEAKER_04 2:59

There you go. So Anastasia is in quarantine with me and Adri. Um, we have got very lucky somehow. There's only three of us in this room.

SPEAKER_03 3:08

Shh, don't tell anyone.

SPEAKER_04 3:10

Don't tell anyone. No, I mean, I think well, don't think we're the only people. Uh and we've we talked to some people, maybe some people think that foreigners get treated differently. We've not seen that to be the case because we know other foreigners that are in a room of like five, six, and seven. Um, we've not been treated any differently. If anything, we seem to get forgotten about and we get less stuff than um anyone else, but I think that's just by accident, not by design. Um in the room, it's quite a big room. We all socially distance from each other within the room. We basically just stay in our own corners all the time. At the moment, we've moved a little bit closer, so we are about a meter away from each other, but we actually all have face masks on at the moment, so uh we are trying to be as safe as possible. Um so if you listen to the last episode we made, we told you all about Adri and my drama getting from uh New Zealand back to Vietnam. And then Anastasia, before we tell everyone what life's like in quarantine, do you want to give a brief explanation of why did you end up how did you end up in quarantine?

SPEAKER_02 4:14

Yeah, sure. Hi everyone. Uh so my name is Anastasia, the short name is Nasta in the Ukrainian way. Uh I live in Vietnam for five years already. Uh I have been in Australia for business trip, sent by my company. I work in the hospitality industry. Uh, due to the closing the borders and situation getting more tough, I was coming back urgently to Vietnam. Same as the guys, I have a temporary resident card, labor contract, and rent apartment for two years. So suppose that I should arrive normally and smoothly, however, things went differently. We ended here uh for two weeks. Today, day number nine. So I'm Ukrainian, but I'm kind of Vietnamese for five years.

SPEAKER_04 5:02

So give it just give a little bit of a background because we explained. So, when did you get to Australia and what were your thoughts about being sent on a business trip at that time, considering you know what was going on in the world?

SPEAKER_02 5:14

Yeah, so I was sent by company. We have company registered in Sydney. So, in the worst case scenario, I knew that I will be covered by company in Australia. Uh, I was very close in touch with uh head office in Hanoi, checking whether I should go before my trip, and I got confirmation yes, you go. And then when I was in uh Sydney and the situation got more and more worrying, uh I checking with them daily basis, what should I do? Should I come back or should not? They asked me to stay and stay. If there is a war situation, you prolong there for two weeks more and then you come back. And then when I knew that the flight will be cancelling and Australia is locking down the borders for six months, uh, I request emergency return and the company check and confirm that I can come back. So when I was coming to Australia as a business trip, I was excited because it was my first time in uh Sydney, a trip of my dream. But uh at the same moment I knew that the situation may went wrong. However, I had the people covered both in company and my friends, so kind of I had no choice, but I was like excited in the same moment.

SPEAKER_04 6:32

So what date, what date did you fly to Australia?

SPEAKER_02 6:35

I arrived on 15, it was Sunday morning, and I flew back on Friday, 20th.

SPEAKER_04 6:43

Yeah, so only five days, and how long was the trip meant to be?

SPEAKER_02 6:46

Two weeks.

SPEAKER_04 6:46

Wow, and then explain what did you say to me about all your meetings and everything that you had planned?

SPEAKER_02 6:51

Yeah, so we had a schedule both for two weeks, meeting potential partners uh for the hospitality for travel agencies, and uh schedule was quite busy. However, day by day, Australia trying to help their people understand the quarantine is important. So we have many meetings rescheduled from offline to online. I had to cancel traveling in uh Australia to Melbourne and Perth. So we moved all the scheduled online calls, but even that calls suddenly started to be cancelling because my partners they were not sure whether they have a job next day, and they were massive busy with the cancellation of the packages and everything that we are dealing with in the work. So basically there was nothing to do as a business. So and I was happy to stay in Australia as much as long as I can, having the company backup, but I understand that I residence in us in Vietnam. I have if I stay in uh Australia, I had to need to find a way how to legalize myself there. It's uh more painful, I think, than Vietnam. So I had a scenario 50-50 that I will my end in the quarantine, but as I check with a company that said you should be fine because you're resident and you have a working permit.

SPEAKER_04 8:12

So when you traveling back, your company, you thought there was a 50% chance that you would get to go home.

SPEAKER_02 8:17

My my own, my own quarantine. Yeah, but I thought it was not by company, it was my own feelings. Right, okay that I can get in quarantine 50%, 50%, and then one hour before fly, I already knew it would be 90%.

SPEAKER_04 8:32

I think we were about 90% for a couple of days that are viawheel like, but we were okay with that. Um so unraveled pretty quickly then. Um so we first met you, uh, kind of what Adrian was saying yesterday. We all got ushered over to the immigration desk as soon as we went to the quarantine or we went to the health check. Um, and I saw that you had a form. Do you want to explain about your medical form as well, similar to our experience?

SPEAKER_02 8:59

So I I knew that I need to fly from Sydney night before. I was not able to make uh amendment of my original ticket because it was fully booked already. So I had to buy a new fly in JSTR because originally I was supposed to fly Vietnam online, and that was night when already all hospitals and clinics closed, so I couldn't get to check what is a medical certificate because I saw there was a request about medical certificate. So I no choice, I had to go to the airport in the morning. I arrived a little bit earlier, and it was actually a good decision because I couldn't check in on the flight. I was rejected, and they said that I need to have a medical certificate. And luckily in the airport they have uh medical centers, so I have been sent there. Uh I visit the doctor, pay for the $90. And uh and I asked him, save my life because I basically need to come back somewhere. I can't go back to Ukraine, my borders closed. Uh, I can't I need to come back to Vietnam, I can't stay in Australia. So he was very calm. I think it was not the first person asking something like that. He asked me Steven the question, how long have you been here? Have you feel any fever? Have you been in contact with anyone? Uh check my temperature, check my nose, throat, uh, just visually. And then he writes me the letter that I have no symptoms, I haven't been in contact for two weeks with anyone, and I fit to fly. Basically, the certificate stated, I fit to fly. Uh, I asked if I can get tested for coronavirus. They say no one in the country in Australia will make it for you. You've never been in the contact, you don't have a symptom, so you cannot request even if you pay money. I told him that I was in OSC just five days ago, so it's one criteria I meet. Say no, you need to have a fever and other things, so nobody in Vietnam in Australia will give you that COVID test. So, anyway, I get the medical certificate, fit to fly, went to a checking desk again, they confirmed me that I should be fine. The guys at the checking counter they also said not sure because Vietnamese regulation is pretty confusing. They have like 20 pages of policy in this case, and in five minutes they were trying to find whether my certificate is okay or no. Because it's not stated anywhere that I need the COVID test. Uh, is really we found out when we arrived. Uh, in the policy that airlines get from Vietnam Authority, they were fine to check me, check me in for medical certificate that I fit to fly. So that is also my minus 10 points to the Vietnam government in this situation. Uh, because basically, 10 people arrive for us on that flight, and we originally were intended to be sent back. But our lines checking us, so they would also send the risk airlines. I think there's somebody needs to cover the cost to sending us back because we don't pay for the tickets.

SPEAKER_04 11:55

Yeah, I didn't understand at that point when we we mentioned in the last episode how we saw that the boarding passes had been taken, had been printed, right? And I was like, how, like, who's paying for this? Like, is it the airline? Are we paying for it? Like, we're just about to get packed back onto a plane. But I think what what this just highlights is uh these are just our story, and your story is just two stories worldwide of people just being trapped, situations changing, like you just mentioned, you couldn't fly back to Ukraine, we're from different countries. We there's there's just so many people around the world, I'm sure, have very similar stories where they were travelling or in a different country. I don't know if we mentioned, but obviously we talked to whether we went to New Zealand for a wedding, we had family that got trapped in New Zealand for a bit. There's still we have family that are still kind of trapped there for want of a better world, who live in Australia, but now at the moment they're just staying in New Zealand. So uh I know some people say we should have expected this, or why did you travel? Because we did an AMA and we've had some feedback as well from people, and uh I think like just nobody really expected like this to happen this quickly, right?

SPEAKER_03 13:04

Yeah, well, I mean it's also unprecedented, like that's the word we kept use keep using, but like there's nothing to refer to on the scale and like the sheer uh speed at which things have changed in the last two weeks, two and a half weeks.

SPEAKER_04 13:19

Because we were talking today, we've we've lived through SARS and we've lived through MELS, but like that is not even comparable to what's happened right now. So we're gonna go back to the story and we're gonna give you an update on what life is like in quarantine. We're not gonna give you a day-by-day blow because every day is the same. Um there's not really much to tell there, and we can't tell what was three days or five days ago. I said something to someone I was like, Oh, yeah, this happened two days ago, and Adri was like, That was this morning. Um, but so we left off, we got bused to quarantine that we met, uh Anastasia, we kind of bumped into you at immigration, we hadn't really started talking to you yet, and then Adrian, take it from there. So we got the bus travel got lost, which was just absolutely comical, and then we got into the quarantine facilities. So, Adrian, what happened next? What time was it as well?

SPEAKER_03 14:12

Yeah, well, so our bus was just one of a handful of buses that had left the airport around the same time. Um, all coming to the the university dorms. We pulled up when our bus driver finally found the right place to go, we pulled up to one of the dorm buildings, um, and it must have been by this point one or two in the morning by the time we actually got here. Um we pretty much just sat on the bus waiting for some further direction as to what to do. And as the buses in front of us were offloading and getting disinfected and checking in and stuff, the building eventually filled up. So we all were told to go back on the bus, and then the bus moved round to another building, at which point they started to offload us. It was a little bit confusing. No one really knew what to do apart from get off the bus and get your bags.

SPEAKER_04 15:07

There was nobody. I think we maybe mentioned, I don't know if we mentioned this yesterday, even since we've been here, there's been nobody like that's in charge, as far as we can tell. Like there's nobody, like there's no contact person, there's no, even when you look about, there's nobody that looks like they're in charge.

SPEAKER_03 15:20

There's no one with a clipboard, but walking around directing us what to do and where to go.

SPEAKER_04 15:26

You saw someone with a clipboard in a high vis vest, they would be the highest ranking person here. For I mean have we got a clipboard? Maybe I'll just start walking around with it and people who start asking me questions. But anyway, so we got ushered into the building.

SPEAKER_03 15:39

Um yeah, it was a little bit um, I wouldn't say completely disorganized, but it was clear that um, as we had read in the in the media, that the the buildings had only very recently been cleared out. It was a bit, they're they're quite dirty. Um we're given a piece of paper to fill out. It was all in Vietnamese, so luckily some of the Vietnamese people that traveled um could speak English and could translate for us. Um it was voice down, yeah. Yeah, we got our bags disinfected, which was just like a combination of probably diluted bleach. Uh, so some people's clothes were instantly ruined. Um and then, yeah, there were a few people in the kind of hazmat suits that were directing us and telling us where to go in terms of like what rooms to go into. Um, and originally there was a fourth person, um, but they kept putting us into rooms that only had three beds, so um he eventually got separated, and I don't know what became of him.

SPEAKER_04 16:42

Yeah, we've never seen him since that way. Um, so it was all it was all really chaotic because again, no one's really telling us what to do. I have to say that what amazed me was just everyone was just so calm. I don't know if it would be like that in the UK or America or Ukraine, but everyone just was chilled out, going with the flow, like this is what we have to do. We had one woman on our bus who was the definition of a self-entitled, obnoxious lady, uh, who was demand almost like demanding to speak to the manager, and she was like, Ah, I have to expedite this, why are we waiting? It's four in the morning, and you I had to try and talk to her and be like, Lady, this like we've all been quarantined. I don't think she expected to be quarantined, so she was kind of like, Why am I here? And it's like, You're gonna be here for two weeks. So she stormed off, and we've never seen her since. So I don't know. She either managed to get shipped out to a hotel or she's just hiding under her bed somewhere. So um hope she's fine. Hope she's fine, yeah. Hope she's fine, but I hope she's learned a lesson to not be so self-entitled and obnoxious. But anyway, right, so eventually the three of us got shipped into the room. Anastasia, tell us what was the room like when we first arrived.

SPEAKER_02 17:53

Uh first let me update on the timing because I have everything filmed. So we were on the bus uh we still were in the airport at 1 a.m. when we get our first cross-cent and cheese. Oh, you're looking this up. Yes, and then we were on the bus at 1:50 a.m. going to somewhere, and we haven't been told any address. I have a photo of address in Vietnamese that one Vietnamese asked the driver because he didn't tell us that before. Uh 3 50 a.m. we were sending outside of our first building that we were never been inside because we were waiting and full. So 3 40 3 50 a.m. We were still not inside the room.

SPEAKER_06 18:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 18:34

And the the picture that I take with the room with my bag inside here was 5 40 a.m.

SPEAKER_04 18:41

It didn't feel that late. Maybe because I'd slept on the plane on the way over. It didn't I don't I don't remember feeling like tiled or like I just remember just I don't know, waiting. But anyway, we got in the room eventually, 5 40 a.m.

SPEAKER_02 18:55

Yes, and then uh it was 9 a.m. I saw some pictures uh of the quarantine facilities that Vietnamese put uh Korean uh because the Korean uh nation were the first who were banned and requested to be quarantined. It was maybe two or three weeks before our happening. So they were already in social media uh complaining and showing conditions where uh government pulled the people who arrived from Korea. So I knew what we could expect, so I was a little bit shocked. Uh, but I was preparing for the worst. And then when they told us that it would be DOM, a unidome, it sounded like maybe better than I can.

SPEAKER_04 19:37

That's what I thought we had. There was gonna be a uni dome. I was like, oh.

SPEAKER_02 19:41

And they sent us some articles, a Vietnamese friend, they sent an article from local media where they announced the decision of the government that the unidorm will be used for the facility of the quarantine. And the picture they put there it was like our classic European dorms with a mattress. So I was like, okay, maybe we're more lucky than Korean a few weeks ago. And then when we entered in the building on the first floor, we couldn't understand what is that because it's massive. And then when there were two girls upstairs and I saw the first open door, I saw exactly the same picture as I saw at the army camp. Same birds, same kids, if we can say that with a military printed blanket, I don't know what it said, the bump mattress. Exactly the same. So I was already I lost hope by that time already. Uh so I no, no, I just wanted to be sure that I stay in the not the clean room, forget about it, but I saw two desperate foreigners, same as me. And I followed them because there was only one female except me and everyone called the boss um lady. So I underalized that for my survival I need to follow the woman. And she attached to the man, which is okay. Um so yeah, and we they show us a few rooms, I think. I don't know what they the guy who was escorting us, he couldn't speak English, so he showed us a few rooms. I think we we we we stayed in one for a few minutes and then he called us back again and we moved to exactly the same crap room on the same floor. Yeah, yeah, and we have one guy also, I think he's Japanese. So we were four of us, and then they were trying to put us in one room because I think they thought that because we together we may be two couples, and then uh when they were realized that there's only one married couple and I'm just lonely soul. And I asked that guy, can you can I stay with them? And I very lucky, I don't know his name, he gave up and he I think he was he was now in the room with ten people or something like that. But he could stay with us only, but he they took him away, and the guy the the who was escorting us, I think he didn't couldn't understand who we are, why we three of us. He asked if you're married, so you say yeah, we're married. And then I saw I asked him, Well, can we stay together? And then he was looking like what? And then I asked guys, Are you okay with stay with you? They say yes. I don't know if you mean it, but you say yes. And then the guy who was confused, I mean the Vietnamese guy, he was confused and he just left us. Three of us. And I think that was the luckiest uh so far we get.

SPEAKER_04 22:31

Yeah, so uh there's nobody with ten people in them. You mentioned a room and ten. I don't think there's anyone with ten. I think here anyway. Not here in this facility. I think maybe most six. We got really lucky, I think, just through the confusion, maybe because me and Adrian are married, I don't know. But first couple of nights we we had heard that they were trying to add more people to other rooms, and we got really scared because for one, we'd cleaned the place, we we were, as I mentioned, self-isolating in the different corners of the room and staying away from each other. And then we didn't want some strangers coming in that we didn't know where they'd come from, we didn't know which flights which flight they'd been on, and blah blah blah. So we first couple of nights were a bit scary. But when we came in, so we got given a mosquito net, we got given a camel blanket and a straw mat, and that was it.

SPEAKER_02 23:15

No pillow, no pillow, no pillows. No t-shirts, no mask.

SPEAKER_04 23:18

Yeah, no masks, no soap, no nothing.

SPEAKER_02 23:20

I don't remember giving did they give us water first night or no?

SPEAKER_04 23:23

I think there was water already here, those big blue doctors. Yeah, so we we got to sleep because we had to. It's like about this point six in the morning, and we all just pretty much put our stuff down and passed out. I don't remember what time we woke up, but uh I woke up seven.

SPEAKER_05 23:43

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SPEAKER_04 24:43

And then why has she not got any new clients while she's sitting in quarantine and the whole world is closed down?

SPEAKER_03 24:48

Yeah, especially to travel.

SPEAKER_04 24:50

Yes, especially to travel. So uh that was the first night, first day. Uh we were able to arrange some care packages, thankfully. We had so many people were just like from Anastasia's work, from her friends, just messaging, like, what do you need? What can we get you? At that point, you could get stuff delivered, but again, we were told no information, like there was no apparently I've read and been told that you're meant to be appointed a translator. There's only about we what yeah, that's what someone told me. Yeah, in other facilities, foreigners get appointed a not like an individual translator, but there's a translator available for the foreigners. So that we think there's maybe at most 15 to 20 foreigners in this whole facility, and there's probably a few thousand people here, so there's not many others. Um, but we've just been told like nothing from day one, like zero information, so we just kind of figure it out ourselves, and we hear second-hand reports. So that first day, no one told us about deliveries, but we knew we could get them. So luckily, Anastasia's work sent a couple of packages. We'd friends sent them up. We got cleaning supplies, was the first thing we got. Everyone wanted to sell it, send us alcohol and booze, which we were just a that we didn't really need, and we still don't we still don't need, we've not really drank a bottle. Um and then what day one we got down to cleaning? Was that yeah? We don't need to go through day by day, right? But we we gave the place like a deep clean. If you follow me or if you know me and you see my Facebook, you saw that we cleaned the fans, the fans were caked and dirt, it looked like they'd never been cleaned before.

SPEAKER_03 26:21

I don't think we did that until day two or three.

SPEAKER_04 26:24

But the place, so the students evacuated or were moved out of here the night before, but we don't think they were moved out of every room because this room was so dusty, like had grime all over it. It didn't seem that anyone had been living here for months. So that was the first day was just getting rid of grime and dirt before we even really could get down to cleaning. Or that first day we got the pillow, we got pillows sent. That was the biggest thing. I would be struggling without a pillow.

SPEAKER_06 26:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 26:51

Um, I'd say we got lots of snacks sent, we we've got like power outlets, so we needed um and then since then, so Adri tell us then we don't need to go through day by day what's life like in quarantine.

SPEAKER_03 27:03

That's a very broad general question. Um yeah, I mean the days actually go by surprisingly quickly. Um it's a lot of uh well, first of all, we wake up in the morning. The first couple days were a little bit um less routine because the meals kind of came at random times. But since probably day three, the meals have consistently come at about 6:30 in the morning. We get breakfast, we get a big knock on the door. Uh lunch comes about 11:30, and dinner comes about 4.30. Um, and basically it's like what do we do to fill in the time in between the meals? Uh we clean quite often, at least every other day, uh, after our big massive clean. Um we spend a lot of time on our phones and social media. We all have uh like uh 4G and the Wi-Fi is sometimes good, but um yeah, without internet we'd probably go crazy.

SPEAKER_04 28:08

Yeah, those first couple of days, I think the three of us were just communicating with the outside world that we didn't really communicate with each other because we were just communicating with friends and family around the world, just updating people, um figuring things out. So that was that was a bit weird, I think, almost. And then I don't I remember on the second, was that the second day, I had a massive, my one and only downtime. Um I started talking to some family on the phone and started to appreciate the seriousness of the situation. Now that we finally got back to Vietnam, we've got into quarantine, then everything else from the outside world started really playing on my mind. Obviously, job security, world economy, everything just got on top of me. So I I had a bit of a a down moment, and then I could sense that you stay Anastasia, you were pretty much the same, right? I could tell that Anastasia looked like she'd just dropped. Avy was fine, which was awesome. She was no, you were positive though. You weren't you didn't have that.

SPEAKER_03 29:04

Uh I think like I as I said to you earlier today, I'm a bit numb. It's day nine. Um if we go back to the routine, like every day, a significant portion of the day is spent reading news and updates, and that's pretty depressing. But I mean, we're here, we're safe, we're relatively comfortable. Um, it's really just about getting through this, and and everyone around the world is having their own things to get through, so I don't think we're in a special situation, it's a unique situation for sure, and it's very surreal. Every every bit of it, you kind of like if I pinch myself while I wake up, it seems like we're living, I wouldn't call it a nightmare, but it's just it's completely again unprecedented, it's very strange. Um, but I think the only way to get through it is just to keep keep keep going. Like, you can't really be anything other than kind of positive.

SPEAKER_04 29:58

Yeah, so I I had that little bit of a down moment. I think Anastasia did as well. And then we came back up, so we we like check in on each other. We kind of like, right, how's everyone doing? We're just really lucky, like you said. We we said yes, even if we didn't want to. We we did we were okay to say yes that you could share with us. We have lucked out not only as the three of us, like we as you can probably hear from the conversation, we got on really well with Anastasia. Um, we all kind of like know when to shut up and just do our own thing and just stare at our phones or colour or read or whatever, watch a movie, and then at other times we would sit and have a laugh. If you follow any of us on social media, it probably maybe looks like we're having a better time than we actually are because we only post the fun stuff, so we we have done some random fun things. We've made up our own polling alley and out of old water bottles and things like that. But the majority of the day that's a loud plane, just wrong overhead. The majority of the day we uh are pretty much just staring at our phones. And I'm playing WADs with friends, I've been playing a lot of that.

SPEAKER_03 30:58

Um I mean, there there have been like cockroach moments, very dramatic cockroach moments.

SPEAKER_02 31:52

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 31:53

We have to I mean cockroaches at one time. I'm not complaining, but like we have to hand wash our clothes, and the first couple days we didn't have a basin to do it in.

SPEAKER_04 32:00

Or the shower doesn't work, there's not enough water pressure for the shower head, so it comes out the tap, which is at your knees, but doesn't come out the shower head, so we have to do the old scoop. We have to get a scoop delivered in a bucket. So, yeah, I mean, even though we show that we have fun and we're not complaining and it's not a nightmare. The reality is we all sleep on a wooden bed, we don't have a proper shower, we have to hand wash our clothes, we're terrified that there's COVID on every surface.

SPEAKER_02 32:25

I keep every second meal because I can't eat the food.

SPEAKER_04 32:29

Yeah, Anastasia is fussier than the rest of us. So uh she got noodles delivered on the first day, a lot of noodles. So Anastasia is surviving on noodles. It's rice for every meal, which is actually I'm okay with that. Rice is pretty good, but it's it's repetitive.

SPEAKER_03 32:43

There's no air con, so it's like we're just pretty much sweating all the time.

SPEAKER_04 32:47

Yeah, and we go out, me and Adrian will try and go out for a walk two or three times a day just to stretch our legs, and that's where it becomes the most surreal point because there's a quite a lot of people go out walking, but everyone, most people are social distancing from each other, no one talks to each other, we're in this university dorm, it's not a prison, but we can't leave. Um yeah, so I think uh overall we're not complaining, and we're but we're looking forward to uh Day number 14. To an actress. The thing is, I don't know for you guys, for me, I'm now getting to the point I'm gonna be scared to leave because there's gonna be so another whole set of circumstances to deal with.

SPEAKER_02 33:26

Like Vietnam is entering to lockdown since yesterday, so everything is closed except of the groceries and pharmacies. Uh it may also the down point and frustration reading the policy of the Vietnam local government saying that if there is a confirmed case in your residence apartment, the whole building can be locked down, or even all residents may be sent to quarantine. So just thinking about going something similar again, uh making me really very stressed. Yeah. And I was lucky to prepare some food in my fridge before I left Australia because I was assuming the possibility of I will be quarantined at home for 14 days, so I'm not worried that I come back home now and how I survive having everything is closed. However, one week we still must stay here, and God knows what change. Situation is really unpredictable, and you can't forecast anything. I'm not worried about toilet paper.

SPEAKER_04 34:30

Well, toilet paper situation is amazing. We got Anastasia got some delivered uh on the first day, and then they then they brought us some. So, again, in the beginning, we got given nothing, they didn't give us any cleaning supplies. We had to use an old mop. Um, luckily, as I said, some stuffed cleaning supplies got sent from Anastasia's work, which she works in hospitality and they sent like hospitality grid cleaning materials, which was good. After a few days, we we saw we no one told us we just saw like buckets and mops downstairs, and we're like, Oh, can we get some of these?

SPEAKER_02 35:04

Um, maybe if we understand language, maybe we feel better and that we treated something normal. But having now isolation, I have more isolation in the information internally, outside we know everything we're happening. But in this facility, we have no information. We like if we have a group chat with other foreigners and we have Vietnamese there who update us if anything happening, but uh is not having better treatment, even more struggling because of language uh barrier, and we not complain. We all of us live in Vietnam for a long time, so we were a little bit familiar with the culture and people mindset here. So the people were calm on the first day, I think because they all knew they would come to here. It was not shock for most of them, and even if it was shock for them, they are fine to accept uh because the system and the education and everything, their day-to-day life is basically do what you're told to do. So we a little bit different, but we are here for a long time, so we are not complaining and we accept the situation just from the moment that we are accepted to Vietnam. It was lucky uh enough to be inside the country, not sent back to Australia.

SPEAKER_04 36:23

Yeah, and so just so you know as well, the majority from what we can see of the other inmates, no, no, no, not inmates, the other people that are here are Vietnamese students from overseas who obviously were trying to get back as soon as they can as the rules were changing, and then they were gonna walk the borders to even Vietnamese citizens. So that's from what we can see is the majority of them. People here are Vietnamese students, let's say young people, uh, as we said, maybe 20 foreigners at most. And um, yeah. So, right, I think we've covered it all. Let's finish off with some questions. We're gonna do firsts. Alright, Anastasia, what's the first thing you want to drink when you leave quarantine?

SPEAKER_03 37:04

Ice water. Uh to drink literally anything with ice. I'll take an iced coffee, I'll take a tiger with ice, I'll take water with ice, I'll take like a fresh juice with ice, I don't care. Just put some ice in it and I'll drink it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 37:22

I think I'd be the same. Anything, not an iced coffee though. We we luckily we have lots of coffee here, and I'm I'm not getting sick of coffee, but I just want something else. We are we drink only water or coffee or a vitamin C beer. So, yeah, I'd be the same, just anything iced, uh, and then after that, yeah, cold beer would be good. I want to eat, I said to Adrian's, I just want a cold frosty draft beer, and then she's like, Oh, the bars are closed. I was like, Oh, I can't even get draft beer when I get out. But that's alright. Alright, Anastasia, what's the first meal that you're gonna you want to eat when you get?

SPEAKER_02 37:55

Oh, anything vegetable or fruit, something fresh. I wonder something not cooked, not steamed, not boiled, something fresh, cold, vegetables or fruits.

SPEAKER_04 38:07

Alright.

SPEAKER_03 38:09

I mean, uh this is gonna sound boring, but I like the same. I just want a salad, like with some fresh raw, crispy vegetables and lettuce, just a beautiful salad. It would be amazing.

SPEAKER_04 38:21

I want some rice. I'm not sick of rice yet, but I might be in a few days. Uh well, I'll have to choose something different. I do again I want the same. I want like a salad, I want fresh vegetables, I want cold tomatoes, I want like you can have a wrap instead. A wrap, a grued chicken wrap with rice sour, don't do that. How a BOT or I'm getting hungry now. What's that New York bagel? How a pizza. Oh, yesterday I was crazy. New York Eagle.

SPEAKER_03 38:48

Indian food, but I want to hold the rice though.

SPEAKER_04 38:50

Hold the rice. What about the nan bread?

SPEAKER_03 38:53

Yeah, I'll take the nan.

SPEAKER_04 38:55

Alright, what's gonna be the first thing you do when you get home, Anasthesia?

SPEAKER_02 39:00

Shower in hot water. I shower in cold water all my life. I need hot water. And sleep in my bed in mattress.

SPEAKER_04 39:09

Yeah. I've got a feeling this might be similar, but we'll go around anyway, Adri.

SPEAKER_03 39:15

Uh well, hopefully get smothered with slobber from my biscuit, my puppy, my dog.

SPEAKER_04 39:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 39:21

And then after that, put on a load of laundry and then take a shower.

SPEAKER_04 39:26

Yeah, and I'm probably the same as Adri. Uh, any other questions? Do you want to ask? Can you guys think of any questions? That's the only three I've got.

SPEAKER_03 39:35

Um yeah, okay, so despite the stuff that we received, which has been amazing, and our first two days before they um banned deliveries.

SPEAKER_04 39:45

Oh, we didn't say that, so they banned deliveries after two days because I think mainly lots of these overseas Vietnamese students, parents, went crazy and sent them like we've we've seen pictures of sent mini fridges, AC units, people like the first two days the deliveries just went crazy.

SPEAKER_03 40:05

Yeah, then the local media got wind of it and it it did it was a shit show. Like they should have cut, they should have shut it down. So, rightly so. Yeah, yeah, we got it. Uh luckily we got a few uh essentials, but if there was anything else for the next five things, five days, sorry, what would you what would you get?

SPEAKER_04 40:22

I don't know. Fruits. Fruit. We got fruit though, we got some we got some oranges. Oh, yesterday they came and knocked on our door, and it was really nice. We went to the door and they were like presents, and they were going around giving everyone a bag of fresh cold fruit, which we stupidly didn't eat right away, and then it wasn't cold anymore, which we were like, ah, we should have eaten it cold. Um I actually don't know if I what else I would need. A mattress? Well, yeah, if uh if we could still get delivery, I would have got asked for someone to send a mattress, yeah. That'd be my biggest thing, Anastasia.

SPEAKER_02 40:55

Yeah, so I I was lucky with the company send me the pillow and kind of blanket from the hotel. So I would ask only for fresh fruits because I feel that we don't get enough nutritious from the food we get. From white rice. Yeah, from rice and meat and very limited steamed cooked vegetables, which already don't have any nutritious inside. I would get some vitamins that is from because Vietnam is blessed with uh vegetables and fruits and natural vitamins. So that's a shame that we can't get it and we take the supplement from the vitamin C, which make no support your system, actually. Yeah, so I would say for some fresh vitamins and vegetables and fruits.

SPEAKER_04 41:39

And you do answer your own question.

SPEAKER_03 41:40

Um so I've had the unfortunate luck that my headphones broke on day two or three. I had that. And my flip-flops broke on day like four. So I don't need flip-flops, I'm a guy for that, but a pair of headphones would be pretty good. I know that's like uh entitled, but it would be kind of nice.

SPEAKER_04 41:58

So we've got bail necessities, it's amazing. And I think we forgot to mention as well, we work out every couple of well, me and Adri walk a lot, uh, and we've done some room workouts as well. So we're trying to stay fit, we're trying to stay healthy. I think we've all lost weight, so um that's good. Alright, anything else to add, anyone?

SPEAKER_02 42:16

At least five positive things that you can take from this situation.

SPEAKER_04 42:20

Oh, five? Yeah. Okay. Alright, well, new friend is number one. Um I'm struggling now, isn't it? Five things positive from this? I mean, I'm just trying to think. Yeah, on you go. And I'll copy you. Yeah, collective five. Five is a lot to think on your own.

SPEAKER_03 42:45

Um well, I think which has been echoed uh through social media. Um that the volunteers or the people who work here, I don't know if the volunteers are paid or what, but they're just incredible. Um if I had to be in their position doing that job, it would be not fun. Um but I think the appreciation, and as you can see, everyone around the world is appreciating the people that are on the front line helping, but like the deep appreciation being in this experience, if we were just in our apartments, like we wouldn't see this first hand. Um and they come to our room with like a smile on their face, they give us the food, like they're just so they're just so nice and well they have a mask on, but we think it looks like they'll smile. Well, they're smizing with their eyes. But yeah, I think the appreciation of the people who are on the front line, I know we're not like at the hospital or anything, but um it's really and really nice to see.

SPEAKER_04 43:38

I think as well the Vietnamese people, because I just think I mean maybe I'm wrong, but I feel like if this was in the UK, it would be like Lord of the Flies, and there'd be roaming gangs going around like stealing your toilet paper and your food. I think I don't think people would handle it as well. But I may be wrong, maybe I'm making a wrong assumption, but I feel like I think the Vietnamese people are amazing that it's like okay, this is the situation, we deal with it. I've not seen anyone, and you don't often see Vietnamese people lose their temper, you don't see anyone getting angry, raising the voice. Nobody looks like this is a problem, everyone just deals with it, and I think that's just testament to Vietnam, and also to the Vietnamese authorities that they've done this and they've they've it seems like they've locked it down and the the infection in Vietnam. I think today was 193. I think I read this morning.

SPEAKER_03 44:27

93.

SPEAKER_04 44:28

193, I think.

SPEAKER_03 44:29

That is 79? I don't know.

SPEAKER_04 44:31

Alright, well we're in the high 100s regardless, so um that's still pretty amazing. Alright, we have three things, Anastasia.

SPEAKER_02 44:38

My thing is uh it's a good chance to take it easy uh to learn how to accept uh life situations is uh we are not the the owners of this world and even the owner of our lives right now. So we just need to learn how to accept and behave in the way what is good for everyone. Uh don't make any uh complaint or trouble that also upset yourself first, stress yours, your family, your people who take care about you. So I learn to not complain much about the situation I am to my family, to my mom, first of all, to not hurt her because it's my Much more people, many people are us in the worst condition, so we must be lucky that we here we're safe, we they take care about us as much as they can for the country we are here. And as I mentioned, if I were in Ukraine and similar situation, it would be not much better uh condition of treating the people, maybe even worse. But it would be my my shit, so familiar with that. So just handling something different way, it's also good for life experience, it's a unique life experience. We can write a book after that. Yes, making new friends, uh appreciate the people around you who try their best. I heard that most of them are volunteers so they're not paid and they put themselves in the risk and they're still smiling and you know they don't run away, they don't freak out about you, they still come to you every single day, a few times a day, say hello, they remember our meal preferences, and we have one vegetarian. So to know more deeply the people that we live in the country is very, very good because we're so busy with work and we just you know day-to-day life is the same. But to attach again to local people to understand their beautiful hearts and efforts uh is also very good, positive thing. And the most important thing we're lucky to get soon that medical certificate that we negative for the COVID-19. Not everyone in this world can get yeah, yes.

SPEAKER_04 46:50

We've had one COVID test so far. We hope to get another one, and apparently we get a certificate at the end of a clean bill of health, which we're all gonna frame. And I'm gonna hang it around my neck and just walk about with it so people can see it. Yeah, just wave it about. And just some of the kind of common questions I've had from some friends, they've kind of asked, like, um, are there many soldiers here? Is it military prison, or is it like it's like it's not like that at all. Like, we haven't even really seen any soldiers. There's some people in green uniform, but they don't seem like soldiers, they seem like teenagers, there's people in blue uniforms or blue PPE outfits that um they're obviously they don't seem like soldiers either. There's no one going about guns. That's how I got asked that question as well, my friend. Like, there's well, not like physically kept in. There's not like if we wanted to jump the fence and go, uh we probably could, but we're probably not gonna get very far and we'd get I wouldn't recommend it. No, I know, yeah, yeah. But I'm saying it's not it's not like there's a guard there at the door with a gun, it's everyone just knows what they have to do.

SPEAKER_02 47:47

There's only one in the airport.

SPEAKER_04 47:49

One in the airport, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 47:52

Yeah, it's only one.

SPEAKER_04 47:53

Which I think they're there normally anyway. I think they're every day, anyway. So um, yeah, just again, common questions. Foreigners and locals, I think we get treated the same from at this facility anyway, it doesn't really seem to be treated that differently. We get fed three times a day, we get water, we have toilet paper.

SPEAKER_02 48:09

Um we have Wi-Fi.

SPEAKER_04 48:11

We have Wi-Fi, so uh if anyone does have any questions, you know where to go. The 7 million bikes Facebook page. You can send us a message there. We'll be happy to answer any questions because we don't have anything else to do.

SPEAKER_03 48:21

Especially in the next five days.

SPEAKER_04 48:23

Yeah, we got five days left. So I think that's us finished. I hope you enjoyed that. Um, I'm gonna try and maybe if I can get the technology to work, do another episode, and maybe we're gonna try and do it on the phone with somebody, and hopefully, we'll get some more perspectives of how life is right now uh around the world or in Vietnam from someone because everyone right now, I think we mentioned earlier, is having their own unique experience. Um, this is unprecedented, no one knows what the hell is going on, but I think I've said it before, we'll get through it together. So, thanks for listening, and uh stay safe and healthy. There you go, stay safe and healthy. Adri, finish it off for us.

SPEAKER_03 48:58

Uh stay the fuck home.

SPEAKER_04 49:01

Hey.

SPEAKER_00 49:05

John and I have been planning our podcast, Connect Empower, for many, many months. And everything about it was challenging, especially editing and trying to figure out the script. I honestly felt defeated, frustrated, and ready to give up. It even challenged our partnership. After we started working with Neil with 7 million bikes podcasts, I can't describe the relief. We don't feel like failures anymore.

SPEAKER_01 49:29

The time Neil has taken to not only teach us, but his random texts and phone call support has been incredible. He's more than a mentor. He's become a friend, a huge supporter, and you'd be stupid not to use him. You will become better because of his guidance, care, and love for his client success. We're so grateful. Thank you.