The Midnight Break

March 28, 2022

We were going to flee this coup not a second after midnight. That was the plan concocted during another one of these endless laps biking around the compound.

Get me out of this jail. God, how this covid policy is so ridiculous

Well the food is great, thanks to both of us who've honed cooking skills

It turns out the gates opened at 10pm sharp. Just like that, boom, I got out on the bicycle and straight to the vegetable market. Not surprisingly, the entire neighborhood had the same idea but thanks to the bicycle I got there first. The plan was to buy a small initial round of key supplies then rendezvous with my wife. She would continue the food operation on foot while I went further out in search of something else to tide down the imminent next lockdown: alcohol and soda.

The panic fever in the air was intense. With all these people crowding and thronging the stores and market, you'd think that this would be a covid spreading ground. Ironically, people could care less about this virus, they just wanted food even though these whole shenanigans were supposed to be about stopping covid. I made sure not to be one of those panic-stricken idiots going around hoarding all the supplies and so I left plenty for others. My wife did the exact same. Later I learned the markets and stores sold out of provisions within 20 minutes. As sickening as that was, at least I could go to bed knowing that we did our part and we got enough to survive.

Who doesn't miss Hong Kong now. This is actually a secret bar that opened up down the street from my compound. Not so secret anymore, this is of course closed for the lockdown.

This I later found out was a queue to get inside the hospital. Because of the upcoming lockdown, people were rushing inside to get treatment and tide their time ahead of the appointments. This was the only thing they could do, as later during the lockdown it would be impossible to leave their house for hospital visits.

One of many conveniences stores that got mobbed for supplies. This one wasn't as bad as others. My wife had the smart idea to hit the gas station instead. Some of the really busy places had police outside to keep order

After all that we could finally get a chance to eat something. This meal had been earlier abandoned mid-announcement when the compound was released

So in the end we got our midnight break but not in the way anyone expected. This panic buying we saw was ridiculous to be honest, and quite reminiscent of 2020 in many other parts of the world that have already moved on from covid.

There was plenty of evidence of almost every convenience store and/or supermarket we saw being thronged with people stocking up for an imminent lockdown. Yes, this was just mere hours after the 'release' of our compound and several others. Not all compounds even got released, we saw some remaining sealed off with police cars at the gate, most likely because there were confirmed cases found.

Today's ride: 8 km (5 miles)
Total: 28 km (17 miles)

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Scott AndersonAnother coup for the bicycle! Great that you got there first.
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2 years ago

Fit SteveTo Scott AndersonDefinitely a win for the bicycle. There's more coming up with that, stay tuned.
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2 years ago