How to Survive Quarantine

 

COVID in Taiwan

A year ago, I decided to begin the arduous process of applying for a Fulbright to Taiwan, because it has been a dream of mine to live in Taipei.  I received the award to complete a two-year Master's of Science in Global Health from the National Taiwan University, while on temporary leave from medical school.  Taiwan, with one of the most effective national health systems in the world, provides an excellent backdrop for me to study global health immersed in a non-Western perspective.  Additionally, I am eager to improve my Chinese so that I can speak fluently with my future patients and research collaborators.  My Fulbright experience will lay the foundation for my career's work as a doctor and researcher practicing on an international level.

The first hurdle was traveling internationally in the time of COVID.

New COVID cases in Taiwan

Taiwan has managed its COVID situation remarkably well, instituting serious, universal public health measures with alacrity.  For a country of 23.5 million people, there have been only 16,000 reported positive cases (less than 0.07% of the population, compared to 12.88% in the United States) and 840 deaths.  The tragic spike that you can see on the graph May through June resulted in the borders being closed to all noncitizens, thus delaying my visa and entry for about a month.  Although the border restrictions have been loosened slightly, visas are only being issued on a special case-by-case basis, prioritizing students.

Vaccinations in Taiwan

The greatest barrier to controlling the epidemic in Taiwan has been access to the vaccine.  Due to political tensions, they were unable to get Pfizer or Moderna vaccines early on and were developing their own domestic vaccine.  Currently, about 7% of the population is fully vaccinated against COVID, but about 50% has received one dose, and many more are eagerly awaiting their turns.

My almost entirely empty international flight

Taipei airport

Passengers marked for quarantine after deplaning

COVID testing at the airport

Everyone sanitized before getting in the taxis

One of the most powerful tools employed by the government against the pandemic is the quarantine.  All travelers must quarantine for two weeks upon entry to Taiwan.  Unlike quarantines imposed by some states in the US, this one is very strict and more logical.  As soon as I dismounted the plane, my phone was registered with the government so they can track my location and monitor my health daily.  After taking another COVID test (the first being a day before I travelled) and having all my luggage and clothes spritzed with disinfectant, I was individually driven in a special "disease-prevention taxi" to my quarantine hotel.  In the quarantine hotel, I am not allowed to step outside my room for 15 days.  Three meals a day are delivered to my door.  Twice a day, I have to take my temperature and report any symptoms.  After I am released from isolation, I will have to take another "disease-prevention taxi" to a different hotel, where I will stay for a week for a Self-Health Management period.  During this period, I'll be allowed to go out so long as I wear a mask, although guests are encouraged to stay in.  My temperature, symptoms, and contacts will still be tracked.  After 22 days, I will finally be delivered from quarantine and allowed to move into my dorm at NTU.  I will still have to abide by the universal mask mandate.

Hiatus in Hawaii

There will probably be few episodes in my lifetime that cause me to throw out my routines and my meticulous plans so entirely as I did this year because of COVID.  I was planning to study for my board exam then return to Hopkins to begin work in the hospital.  Instead, I ended up living in rural Hawaii for several months.  It is true what they say that being on an island makes everyone more relaxed, and for me it was an extremely surreal experience.

Richardson Bay

My days were filled with long hikes with a surfboard balanced on my head, biking from the top of a volcano to the ocean for an early morning swim with dolphins, scuba diving with my housemates (divemasters out of jobs), learning tropical horticulture, how to dig up a banana pup and transplant it, making herb beds out of lava rocks, baking from scratch, using “vegan roadkill” like fallen coconuts or sugar cane found on the side of the road, and catching giant brown spiders after sunset dinners on the lanai.

In classic Hawaiian style, the governor made it clear surfing and otherwise being in the ocean was still allowed under quarantine, just no sitting on the beach.  Parking lots and roads to beaches were closed off so sometimes we had to hike down a ways to get to enormous empty beaches abandoned by tourists.  The reefs were suddenly so clear; they likely had not seen a day without being trampled in decades.

Waikoloa

Giant monstera that are usually tiny houseplants in the mainland

Spotted on evening jog: Turkey Trot

Entering a lava tube where we hiked in the pitch black

Making a lei for a friend, from plumeria flowers gathered by the side of the road

A beautiful natural wave pool at the bottom of an amphitheater of green sand

One of the best days was driving with a couple friends to the southernmost tip of the island (also happens to be the southernmost tip of the entire United States) in search of a famed green sand beach.  Where the roads disintegrated into lava rocks, we ditched the Prius to hike the rest of the way.  Partway along our long walk, an old lifted truck with enormous wheels emerged from the ruts behind us and offered us a ride in the bed of the truck.  The driver was born and raised in the area, usually made a living bringing tourists to the green sand beach, but that day was going simply to enjoy the ocean himself.

Another favorite day was hiking into the Waipeo valley.  At the bottom of the valley, the beach was a misty forest on the edge of a wide expanse of very shallow water you could walk out onto.  We forded a river to climb up the other side of the valley for a beautiful view of the ocean.

Seaside run at sunset

I've never seen the departures board at LAX so empty

Video from Last Summer

Turkish Food

Shopping in the Grand Bazaar and Spice Market

Simit: popular street vendor bread served with nutella

Fresh squeezed orange juice

Dolma: pickled grape leaves stuffed with rice

Entrees cooked in clay pots that the diner then cracks open to eat

Typical Turkish breakfast at the hotel

One afternoon/evening in Istanbul, we went on a guided food tour of the city (both continents).  It was a suggestion by the trip master (my dad) well-received by the trip serfs.

Lentil soup (special for me instead of lamb soup)

Oysters sold on the street with choice of different sauces

Eggplant with sizzling butter drizzle (instead of lamb gyros for me)

Lavas: flatbread filled with hot air, very popular

Typical Turkish small dishes (all vegetarian)

Another typical Turkish vegetarian sampler

And another!

Sticky dessert surreptitiously made from chicken

Rice pudding and more

Baklava was abundant

So many different Turkish Delight options

Dondurma: goat's milk ice cream made extremely thick by ground orchid flowers,
similar to the "stretchy" ice cream popularly sold by rambunctious Turkish street vendors

Turkey

On the way back from South Africa, I joined the Legacy of Lombardo Travelers in Istanbul for one last week of international travel. Living up the legacy, when I took the bus into the city and made my way to their hotel room, both were still in bed sleeping.  Overall it was an incredible trip, one of the best, made special by the company of my dad and grandma.

Assume photo credits to my gorgeous grandma for all photos of me.

First thing that morning we visited Topkapi Palace, including its terraces, gardens, libraries, baths, and harem quarters.

The stunning Topkapi Palace

Fun fact: the word for the animal turkey in Turkish is hindi.

The one and only Hagia Sophia (the pink building up front is the incredibly beautiful restored bathhouse we bathed in)

The bathhouse entrance for the men's side (the women's entrance was around the back); it was surreal being bathed and massaged by attendants there

Interior of a bathhouse no longer in use; the one we went to was EVEN more beautiful

View of the Blue Mosque from Hagia Sophia

Men washing their feet outside a mosque

Inside Hagia Sophia

A concealed library inside Hagia Sophia

Top floor of Hagia Sophia

I loved the city of Istanbul because

     1) it is beautiful (the most stunning architecture of anywhere I’ve been),

     2) it is metropolitan (people from all over, in European dress or burqas),

     3) it has extremely convenient public transportation (to name one example, the tram went right by our hotel in the middle of the old city).

We took the barge to visit both continents straddled by the city.  In fact the Asian side is actually more liberal, younger, and more modern.

Interior of a random mosque that turned out NOT to be the historical one for which we were wandering the neighborhood

Tremendous gold mosaic in Chora Church (Kariye Museum)

Traditional tea served in tulip-shaped glasses that everyone drinks on the street

Teatime in the hotel

Typical nightlife in the old city in Istanbul

My least favorite aspects of Turkey:

• Although the food is super healthy, especially if one isn’t eating all the meat as a vegetarian, there is not much variety.  Barely any restaurants serve any cuisine besides Turkish.  Turkish people generally think their own food is far superior anyway!
• As one travels further away from Istanbul into more provincial areas, the burqas begin to outnumber the crop tops, as people are more religious.  There is a growing conservative faction in the country.

Prayer area separated from tourist area; every woman has to wear hijab in the mosques

Süleymaniye Mosque

Compare and contrast the below photos of the Grand Bazaar; what a RIOTOUS time my grandma and I had bargaining our little booties off versus what a PAINED time my dad had trying to navigate us out of there as quickly as possible.

We flew to Cappadocia for our final days in Turkey

Staying in a cave hotel, traditionally how people lived in Cappadocia

Dad dying of heat and using excessive AC, a theme for this trip

View from our last dinner in Turkey; could hear the call to prayer loud and clear

Ancient monastic settlements carved into rock at the World Heritage Site

Preparing to go up in a hot air balloon at 4 am

"Fairy chimneys" of the original cave houses