Leeds family who sold up to travel world with kids give tips to cope with 'quarantine hotels'

Laura and Jon Linklater and their children Sophia, 6, Cary, 4 and two-year-old Theodore were forced to quarantine in a Vietnam hotel after uprooting their family from Otley to educate their children around the world.

Laura and Jon were both teachers in Yorkshire and have home educated their children from their base in Leeds.

However, in January 2020, they made the life changing decision to travel the globe with their children before "it was too late".

The Covid pandemic devastated their plans and they quickly made attempts to change tactic and ensure they could carry on with their attempts to leave the UK.

Jon got a job at the British International School in Ho Chi Minh City in January 2020 through a series of 5am interviews.

Seven months later, in August, the family sold all of their belongings in Otley, donated the rest to charity and headed off on their trip of a lifetime to a new base in Vietnam.

Despite the excitement, the family were forced to quarantine in a hotel on their arrival in Vietnam.

UK nationals or residents returning from 33 “red list” countries will be required to spend 10 days in a Government-designated hotel from Monday.

Mr Hancock told MPs that 16 hotels have been contracted for the hotel quarantine programme, and anyone who attempts to conceal that they have been in one of those destinations in the 10 days before arrival faces a prison sentence of up to 10 years.

He also confirmed the new “enhanced testing” regime for all international travellers, with two tests required during the quarantine process from Monday.

Laura told the Yorkshire Evening Post life in the quarantine hotel was "really tough".

She said the school where Jon was heading to work had to charter a plane for the Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh staff.

Laura said: "We had to wear masks the whole 16 hour [flight].

"The air crew were in hazmat suits, which scared the children a bit.

"We were bussed straight from the airport to the hotel and whizzed up to our rooms without any contact with anyone else.

"It was hard trying to play down our own anxieties for the children.

"We were given a large family room, which was great, but we were contained with no time outside and no opening windows (it was the 9th floor I think!) 24 hours a day for 14 days.

"Jon was actually given a room to work in as he did all of his new employee orientation online – when we got out, he had one day in our home and then he was straight into the new job!

"Jon’s school sent packages of snacks, tea, coffee and fruit shortly after we arrived. The next day, huge bags of toys and art materials arrived from the primary school campus on quarantine loan. I actually cried!

"Some of Jon’s new colleagues actually sent puzzles and dolls and things from their young children to help us through. It was tough keeping everyone entertained, and of course we watched a lot of Vietnamese-dubbed Cartoon Network, but we got through it.

"I won’t be rushing back to do it again in a hurry."

Laura said her children said the hotel stay was "boring".

She described how food was delivered three times a day by a person in a full protective suit.

Laura said: "They knocked on the door and ran away as we opened it.

"Again, the children didn’t seem particularly phased by this, but we found it disconcerting!

"We got to see everyone on our floor 3 times a week when we all had to line up for our Covid tests.

"Not the most fun, but they were very kind to the children and let me do their swabs under supervision of a CDC official (in full protective gear).

"We took our temperature three times a day with glass mercury thermometers – and of course our daughter dropped one on the floor on day 2, nearly causing a huge incident.

"That night, a full PPE-suited member of hotel staff had to crawl around the floor by our phone torchlight to suck up all the mercury drops without waking the children up! Oh the fun!

"The low point was Day 11, when our youngest, aged 2, fell off the top bunk and hit his head.

"We were told that if we left to go to hospital, we would have to start quarantine all over again!

"We had countless Zoom calls with amazing medical professionals.

"One of them was actually the school nurse, who was quarantining on the floor below us! We basically stared at him all night whilst he slept and the next morning the Zoom consultation was a bust because he was pretending to be an aeroplane so the consultant couldn’t get a good shot. He was all fine, apart from the shiner!

"When it was our time to leave, we got to the bottom of the elevator and Jon’s school leadership team was there to welcome us with applause and elbow bumps. It was ridiculously emotional, and all of us who went through quarantine are now firm friends!"

Laura blogged about her experience on her site LinklatersOnTheLoose.

She gave readers nine tips on the best way to cope with quarantine hotels.

They are:

Be Grateful - It’s not the most fun you’ve ever had, BUT remind yourself – you’re in quarantine because you’re travelling somewhere, or you got home, or you live somewhere with a medical system that takes health seriously. Think of the people who never get to leave where they were born.

Go to bed and get up at a decent time! - It’s tough, but if you don’t, the days will blur together and it will feel like a never-ending horror of boredom and claustrophobia. You’ll also be surprisingly tired, and then potentially ratty with your kids – and then we enter into a vicious cycle of grumpiness and parental intolerance. Sadly, there is just no escape for this short time – you can’t just go for a walk to get yourself together. You have to be thinking longer term mood and energy sustainability. Turn your phone/ device off by 9 and just sleep.

Stay hydrated and eat as well as you can - This is another tip about maintaining your energy and your body. We had room service three times a day, which you’d think was exotic and exciting. It was for the first two days. We would grin as the hazmat-suited staff member rapped on our door and shouted, “ROOM SERVICE,” through his mask before running away as we opened the door. It gets old fast, though. Not having control over what you eat is actually quite distressing.

Find out about local takeaways/ grocery deliveries - We were allowed to have food and groceries delivered to the hotel reception and then brought to our room, if we had no contact with the outside world. We found a good local pizza place as a Friday treat for the kids, and got some simple healthy snacks in, like apples and peanut butter. I also found a veggie and vegan place that delivered lentil burgers with cashew cheese (big thing here! Loving it!) and one day we even had gelato couriered over for all the kids on the floor. It helped psychologically to control a bit of our food intake and to have a few cheeky treats. Jon and I got Starbucks more times than I care to admit. You’d think we wouldn’t have spent any money for 2 weeks in one room. Wrong!

Audiobooks are your friend! - We watched a lot of TV in our 14 days ‘inside.’ But not as much as we could have. Combining art and crafts or Lego with audiobooks was a HUGE win for us. Audible has quite a wide selection of free books for younger and older children at a special site that they set up when schools closed. I can’t recommend Laurie Berkner’s Song and Story Kitchen enough – we have listened to it (no joke!) every day since the start of March! And it doesn’t drive me mad! It’s really great for small children.

Embrace The Arts and board games - We used our Artventure subscription A LOT. It was amazing! Kirsty, the artist and presenter teaches the children drawing skills and step-by-step painting tutorials, using simple pen or oil pastels and watercolours. Low in resources (paper, pens, oil pastels and watercolours), but high in fun and learning experiences. Plus the children feel really – rightly – proud of themselves when they’re created a recognisable painting.

Prioritise self care - This is always one of my recommendations, no matter what you’re doing! BUT you really do need to look after yourself in quarantine. More so as a parent. Your children are all going to be looking to you for their emotional support, your partner too – of course you will probably be supporting each other – and if you’re anything like us, you’ll still be sorting out moving admin and even working.

Pack a quarantine holdall - I strongly recommend packing specifically for quarantine if your baggage allowance permits.

Plan something special for 'after' - We made lists of what we would do when we got out, and talked and imagined what it would be like. It helped take our minds out of the hotel room and also got us talking and engaging instead of sitting in front of screens, which of course we did do a lot of as well.

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