The New Year begins quietly at the guesthouse. There are normally scores of families from neighbouring islands travelling around at this time of year, catching up with relatives in Lombok but this year only one family stay between Christmas and New Year and another family book 3 rooms on Jan 1 and stay for one night.
Then nothing.
It’s painfully dull sitting here day after day with nothing to do but the reason for the unseasonal lull soon becomes clear enough.
We start receiving a flurry of March bookings in mid-Jan and it’s immediately apparent that people are saving all their hard-earned rupiah in anticipation of the Indonesian Moto GP.
Indonesian’s go mad for MotGP and this will be the first time the international event is being held on Indonesian soil in over 25 years.
The Government has spent billions developing the Mandalika Circuit, overlooking the Indian Ocean on Lombok’s southern coastline.
Even though international tourism is is non-existent, this is going to be one of the most highly anticipated events in the country’s history and all thoughts of a global pandemic will be swept under the carpet in honour of it’s arrival.
I hate to say what could go wrong, but you know, let’s wait and see.
Cases of Omicron in Indonesia are at this stage only being reported on the island of Java and there doesn’t seem to be a huge appetite for overstating the speed of the new variant’s spread.
Flights into the country from most African countries were suspended in early December, after the first cases were detected there. France and the UK were added to the list soon after.
Australia on the other hand, is suddenly reporting some of the highest rates of transmission per capital of any country in the world.
Just months ago the country was one of the most locked down nations in the world before emerging as one of the most highly vaccinated places on the planet.
But just as restrictions are being wound back around the nation and state and federal governments are promising a dazed and jaded public that they are committed to learning to live with the virus, a new variant emerges which is thought to be several times more transmissible than the highly infectious Delta strain. What’s more, it appears able to evade detection by the body’s natural immune system and may even render the currently available vaccines ineffective.
ABC News in Australia describes the journey from state of lockdown to Omicron ground zero as “like the bus tour from hell”.
The most immediate impact of the new variant’s rapid spread is the impact on front line health care workers grappling with soaring hospital admissions.
But the most dramatic effect is also the least anticipated.
As interstate borders reopen in time for Christmas, tens of thousands of people rush covid testing stations around the country to obtain proof of their eligibility to travel. For many, it will be the first time they have been reunited with loved ones for nearly two years. This at the same time as Omicron cases begin pushing towards 20,000 cases per day in both Victoria and New South Wales.
Images of cars banked up for hours on major arterial roads, causing major disruptions to regular commuters and Christmas shoppers become the lead story on the nightly news. Within days, the requirement to provide a test result within three days of travel becomes unattainable as test results in some areas take up to a week to be processed. It is a logistical oversight of unprecedented proportions.
The federal government swiftly endeavours to ease pressure on the system by allowing people not planning to travel to undergo a rapid antigen test from home. But there is only one problem. There are virtually no rapid antigen test kits available and with surging global demand and pandemic induced supply chain delays it may be three months before adequate supplies are available.
The federal government says the situation is outside their control but it quickly becomes apparent that health officials made it clear that the transition to rapid antigen testing had been tabled back in September and the Government simply failed to act on the advice.
Yet another example of hubris mainifested as culpable neglect on the part of demagogue Scott Morrison and the country’s ruling elite.
To this point, I’ve successfully managed to avoid exposure to the virus and have not fallen victim to the dark thoughts that can consume a person during long stretches of isolation and inactivity. But to be honest, I’m starting to feel a little overwhelmed right now, wondering how much further this pandemic has to play out and whether it’s ever really going to end.
Forefront in my mind is the fact that I’ve been funding a loss-making guesthouse operation here for two years now and at some point my savings are going to run out. Am I kidding myself to think that international travellers will begin returning to Indonesia some time this year? Has my financial and personal investment in this project been anything short of reckless folly? In this early part of 2022, the spectre of impending failure looms large.
Still, the Indonesian Moto GP in eight weeks time is going to bring huge numbers of domestic tourists to Lombok and draw global attention to this dreamy little island. Hopefully I’ll have a better picture of what the future holds once that race has been run.
We follow the lead of other local accomodation operators and bump up our room prices extravagantly.
I’m booked to fly to Australia at the end of January, in readiness for a sinus operation mid-Feb but as the date approaches the Victorian state government announces a code red for the hospital system there and suspends elective surgery across most of the healthcare network, due to the overwhelming number of covid cases that require urgent care.
As luck would have it, the hospital I’m booked into for my procedure is a district hospital that is not tied to any of the major health networks. Still, the facility is being similarly impacted by the pandemic and I am advised that the surgery may be cancelled or postponed at short notice.
The week before I’m due to fly out, I am informed that my surgery has been postponed for a week and will now take place on the 21st of Feb, not the 14th as originally planned.
I toy with the idea of delaying my flight but decide against making any changes. Better to make do with the present arrangements than risk further disruption.
Still, as happened this time last year, my Lombok to Jakarta flight is cancelled, although unlike last year I’m advised of the change prior to arriving at the check-in counter.
I am offered an alternative flight but I will miss my Jakarta to Singapore connection.
Fortunately, a rival carrier still has seats available on a flight that matches my schedule and my previous booking can be refunded in full.
The only tricky part now, as I am flying out of Indonesia on a Monday but will leave Singapore for Australia on Tuesday, is to organise a PCR test over the weekend that covers both the Jakarta to Singapore and Singapore to Australia legs of my journey, all within 72 hours of departure.
Luck once again falls in my favor as both Australia and Singapore announce they will accept rapid antigen test results as proof of negative covid status, provided it is undertaken with an accredited test provider. Indonesia shines in the delivery of online health services. I’m able to book a test online, undergo the procedure on the the morning of my flight and walk away with results in around 20 minutes.
All at a cost of $7.50 Australian.
With that last piece of the puzzle falling neatly into place, I am ready once again to travel.