With Planet Earth in lockdown, our industry at a standstill and many of us in self-isolation or quarantine at home, or grounded, this is our blog for you – it’s a way to share stories within our community, to form solidarity and foster a sense of belonging.
Short essays on what we are each doing, how we are getting through this darkest hour in travel, how are we handling withdrawal symptoms from travel, what we intend to do with this down time, a word we want to focus on, a wish we have or simply, an important topic you want to share with your travel friends at this time.
Josh Porter, guest relations manager, Cempedak Private Island
The quarantine order – a day in the life of Cempedak
As dusk approached, I was scanning through articles related to immunity. Next to me sat four pots of supplements that I’d been knocking back throughout the day. Vitamin C, French Pine Bark, Multi Vit and Lysine… Corona wasn’t going to catch me unprepared.
I glanced at my watch and realised it was time to meet with guests at the dodo bar to watch the sun set and discuss the strangeness going on in the outside world. Here guests existed in a bubble of calm and cocktails, a much needed escape from the corona and chaos in the their home countries.
That was all about to come to an abrupt end…
My phone flickered silently as a message came through. I considered pocketing it till after the sunset, but seeing the sender caused me to change my mind.
“Andrew Dixon – COVID-19: Stay-home notices for all travellers entering Singapore from ASEAN countries…”
I bolted upright, grabbing my phone from the desk. One ring and Andrew answered:
“Singapore has just issued a statement saying anyone coming from ASEAN countries has to be self quarantined for two weeks if they enter after 23:59 Monday 16th…”
Christ, that’s tomorrow.
The disruptive tentacles of COVID-19 had finally wrapped themselves around our island, around Cempedak. Indonesia is an ASEAN country, and all of our guests would be affected by this order.
I sprinted to the restaurant, wincing as the fracture in my fibula gave me a gentle reminder that I should probably walk. This was no time for doctor’s orders though. I burst through the kitchen door to see island manager Jimmy with a furrowed brow, staring at his phone.
“Have you seen the news? We need a plan.”
Luckily half the island was leaving on Monday anyway as the weekend revellers had to return to work. The other half needed to be informed though, and fast.
We quickly identified the nine couples that were due to stay past Monday and began to track them down. As the situation was explained to them, glasses were placed down and smiles began to drop. They would exchange glances of acceptance and ask what the plan going forward was. There was no drama, just people getting on with it.
Cempedak guests are great – I thought to myself
The plan was for them to quickly book tickets on the last ferries leaving from Bintan to Singapore on Monday, and we would get them to the terminal.
As I checked the ferry-booking site I was alarmed at the rate seats were being snapped up. In every resort in Bintan, guests were probably doing the same thing. We hastily ticked guests off our list till we were left with three villas.
Daniel and Lucie, on their babymoon, didn’t mind the quarantine. In fact we told them about the situation and they extended their stay for an extra week. They shrugged and said:
“If we’re gonna stay we may as well go all in.”
Two to go.
Patrick and Carmen from Switzerland:
“We’ll just change our flight home from Singapore to Jakarta. We’re staying.”
Well at least Cempedak wasn’t going to be a complete ghost town. It was going to take more than a measly global pandemic to force these guests to go home.
Lastly we came to Annet and Camila, trying to get back to Munich.
“Guys there’s a bit of an issue. Singapore has outright travel banned people who have been to Germany in the past 14 days. So we can’t even get you in tomorrow.”
“We’ll call our embassy in Jakarta and see what we can do.”
“You could fly from Bintan to Jakarta then back to Munich from there?”
With great efficiency, Annet and Camila had got themselves onto a 13:00 flight on Monday to Jakarta and were confident of getting home.
Although there was a collective sense of disappointment amongst our guests there was also a real feeling of togetherness. We’d all found ourselves on a tiny island in this bizarre situation and somehow had gotten everything straightened out in a matter of hours.
The Cempedak staff were typically exemplary. Dutifully accepting the situation and their responsibility towards their guests. I could not have been more proud. The final task of the evening rested on Rudi, our receptionist saviour. Rudi coordinated all boat/airport transfers, car pickups and bill alterations. What a guy to have on our side.
The next day the best news I could give guests was “Unsurprisingly, all our check-ins are cancelled so you all have late check-out”, this was met with good-natured smiles and thanks for the work we had done the night before.
Every guest that shook my hand as they walked off the jetty onto Mana 4 was in good spirits. Most of them even casually remarked, “We’ll be back when this all blows over”
Amidst the largest crisis to hit the hospitality industry in the 21st century, Cempedak had been lucky enough to host a group of couples that had worked with us seamlessly to achieve the goal of getting them home safely.
As Mana 4 sped off towards base I stood on the jetty surrounded by the Cempedak team. I looked at Gayus, smiling and said, “There goes the last chopper out of Saigon”. This was going to be a strange couple of months for Cempedak, but there’s no team I would rather be part of.
Note: We will be running this blog for as long as we need to, to get us through this. If you wish to contribute, please send your essays to Siew Hoon. Send images too, it’s your story.
