How is a day in quarantine in Sri Lanka?

When you currently arrive in Sri Lanka — and are vaccinated — you first have to quarantine for one day in a Level 1 Safe & Secure Hotel.

We booked the hotel “Fairway Colombo”, because this is in Colombo and so close to the airport. Since there is currently also a lockdown in Sri Lanka, traveling outside the provinces is not possible. Therefore, we chose a hotel near the airport in Colombo.

Arrival at the hotel

We were taken directly from the airport to our quarantine hotel by a driver from the hotel — who was completely in protective clothing. This avoids unnecessary contact with local cab drivers. Arriving at the hotel, we are met by other staff members — also all in full protective clothing.

They ask us for our passports, in which name the booking takes place and check our vaccination certificates. Since I have a combination of the vaccines AstraZenenca and BionTech and the vaccinations are entered on two different pages of my vaccination certificate, I first have to explain that I am fully vaccinated.

We also have to give the hotel the address and a phone number of our next accommodation. For this we have to fill out a piece of paper and confirm there once again that we are vaccinated and that we will only leave the hotel if we have been tested negative. However, we had not booked any accommodation yet, because we cannot be sure that the test result will be negative. In case of a positive test, we would have to stay in the quarantine hotel until we are negative.

In order to save the costs of a cancellation, we wanted to book an accommodation only after the PCR test result. Luckily for us, we had already contacted a host from AirBnB and he was able to give us the address. We did not have to enter a phone number, or it was not asked again.

After all our data was checked, we were shown a piece of paper on which we can select our food for the next 24 hours. Since we are not allowed to leave the hotel or the hotel room until the result of the PCR test, we are fully catered for here. There is a choice of different breakfasts, lunches and dinners. From bread to yogurt, curries and fried rice, there is actually everything. Upon request, it is also possible to prepare any dish vegetarian.

Afterwards, we are taken to the elevators by a staff member. Our room is on the third floor and accessible via a smart card. Once upstairs, we walk down a long hallway to our room. The hallway is covered with soft carpet, which is unfortunately very disadvantageous for pushing the suitcases, because they sink into the carpet and thus always falter.

Our room is quite small. There is a small bathroom with toilet, sink and shower right next to the door. The room itself consists mainly of the bed at the foot of which is a TV on the wall. Next to it is a door that can be opened but only hides a black wall behind it. In the corner next to the window there is also a small desk with a kettle.

We look out onto a small street with a few stores and restaurants, but unfortunately they are all closed at the moment because of the lockdown. In front of the window panes there are metal bars sticking out of the ground. Probably to keep pigeons and birds away, since they can not land there. Unfortunately the windows can’t be opened either but for one day you can stand it here.

The PCR test

We landed in Sri Lanka around 5 am and were at the hotel around 06.30 am. We were told that the PCR test would take place at 8am. Since we couldn’t really sleep the night on the plane, we took a short nap until we were called to the test.

There is a knock on our door and a hotel employee asks us to come out into the hallway with our passports and mouth guards to take the PCR test. In the hallway, another staff member is waiting for us with a small bag.

There is a lonely chair in the hallway and a small table in front of it, on which the required materials for the test are now laid out. Once again, our passports are checked and then we start.

I take a seat on the chair first and am asked to pull down the mask. The employee asks me to put my head back and open my mouth. He tells me to keep my tongue down, which I don’t find easy at all. As soon as he wants to push the rod down my throat, my tongue tries to push it away. After a few attempts, however, it worked. Then the stick is pushed very deeply into both nostrils. This is very unpleasant, burns and triggers the tear reflex. But after a few seconds it’s over.

Now it’s Marc’s turn. He also has a few problems keeping his tongue down. After we have both been tested, we can go back to our room. The test result should be available within the next 24 hours. If we are then both negative, we are allowed to leave the hotel and travel on. At first only in the Western Province but that is due to the lockdown.

24 hours in quarantine

After we had our PCR test in the morning, we now spend the day in our hotel room. We receive our breakfast in 2 paper bags, which are handed to us at the room door by a hotel employee.

In the paper bags are many small bowls with our food. The bread as well as the disposable cutlery are also packed separately. There are two slices of bread, two sweet rolls, a small bowl of butter and jam each, a drink packet with juice as well as omelet with sausage, a small yogurt, some fruit and two small pieces of cake.

Since we only have the small desk with a chair, I just eat in bed. In order not to mess up the sheet, I tore the paper bag and use it as a base. The bread as well as the rolls are unfortunately very dry and the butter as well as the jam are at most enough for a roll. Since we have not eaten directly after we received the breakfast, the egg is unfortunately already cold and tastes accordingly not so good.

The fruit and the cake we put back for later and eat first a slice of bread and the yogurt. Since we are still tired, we lie down in bed again after breakfast and sleep a few more hours. You can’t really do anything better in the small room anyway.

Around noon we wanted to try to do some work. Unfortunately, the WLAN of the Fairway Colombo Hotel is so bad that it is absolutely impossible to do anything. Even the Whatsapp messages go out only with difficulty. No chance to work or stream something on the I-Pad.

At 12 o’clock comes also already the lunch. Again it knocks on the door and we get again two paper bags with the boxes filled with various dishes. This time there is rice with vegetables, a curry sauce with meat or just vegetables, a beet salad and a kind of pudding. This one, however, tastes a bit like soap. Marc says he would actually taste like rose but for me the taste resembles soap. :-D

After lunch I edit some pictures offline on the PC while Marc watches an X-Men movie in English on the hotel TV. Before that we had seen the rest of an Ice Age movie, also in English. When the X-Men movie is over, we zap through the programs again and land on a documentary channel. There is a documentary about sharks, which we watch.

We are already a bit bored. Not to be able to go out at all in such a small room which consists quasi only of the bed and then also still without Internet is already somehow doof. But it is only for one day.

Since we have no water and thus nothing more to drink, we call the reception and ask for new water. They tell us that they would send someone over. After an hour we still haven’t received anything and there is no water in front of the room door, so we call again. After another 30 minutes of waiting, still nothing. So another call, this time a bit more urgent. Again without success. After our fourth — now already somewhat annoyed call — we then receive two bottles of water.

Shortly after that, dinner arrives. Potato wedges, ketchup, vegetables and a curry for me. Marc has the same only instead of potato wedges with rice. We spend the evening with more documentaries until we finally watch the last episodes of a series on the iPad, which we had downloaded for the flight.
The next morning we are woken up at 7 by a knock on the door. Breakfast has arrived. Today we have paratha instead of egg and otherwise the same as yesterday. Bread, jam, butter, yogurt, drink packets and fruit. We eat the paratha directly, because they taste much better warm and sleep again until half past eight.

Now we are actually only waiting for our test result and the associated permission to leave the hotel.

The “dismissal”

Around half past nine we get a call in our room that the result of our test is there. Since we were not told whether it was positive or negative, we assumed that someone would bring the result to our room. Especially since we are not supposed to leave this until we are officially negative.

Since around 10 o’clock still no one was there, we call again at the reception and ask. We learn that we should come down, since we are negative and then we can check out directly. We have to check out by 12 noon. Due to the lockdown, it is currently not allowed to several people daußen on the road. Apart from the fact that one can go nowhere because everything is closed. Therefore, we quickly booked an accommodation and can check in there fortunately already around half past midnight.

So quickly hopped under the shower, our things packed again and then down to the reception. Of course with mask! :-D There we receive a letter confirming that our PCR tests were negative.

From now on, we always have to carry this letter with us, as confirmation that we are allowed to move freely within Sri Lanka. At least as soon as the lockdown is over.

That was it. We are officially released and are allowed to leave the hotel. Via Uber, we book a driver who takes us to our new accommodation and off we go on our first real day in Sri Lanka.