Part 2.
We reached the airport precisely at 06:45.
I had made sure to be prepared- At this point, I was fully kitted out in my mask(s) and PPE, and all my bags were tightly zipped up. We got our temps checked even before we entered the airport, and were given forms to fill, with every possible detail asked.
We made our way to the check-in counters, usually a decent 45 minutes, now took an hour and forty-five. Before even asking the destination, we were asked for a negative COVID report, which I expertly produced from my bag. I had done one with 48 hours to spare, the day before. This was a repatriation flight, I was going to be prepared—no margins for mistakes or overlooked areas.
They were turning away people with no test reports, so this was, in fact, a mandatory requirement now for flying.
Check in complete, I made my way through to immigration, where the first line of questioning started. Questions, I had no answers for.
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Cross questioned. That’s how I would describe immigration. I expect this coming into a country, but leaving it? I guess everyone has a job to do, and this man was following it to the letter of the law.
Finally, after being vetted out and deemed unthreatening, I was waved through and into the clutches of yet another exasperated security official, to show him my paperwork, and permission to enter.
Nauseated, I was finally through… to the security check, where, I was asked to undress and scatter the contents of my satchel backpack, because, of course, I forgot to take out my laptop from the bag.
I’m actually surprised they didn’t make me strip the motherboard from the chassis, the thoroughness of the searching methods they seem to insist upon.
2 hours later, and finally, I had made it to the boarding gates, stripped of all dignity, and sweating profusely, partially from all the layers of protection equipment, and partly from the weight of the stringent line of questioning I’d been subject to.
4 hours in, and I hadn’t even embarked the big metal bird.
(stay tuned for part 3!!)
The trip, documented:
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