Turkey! Insulation! Arbitrariness!
My wife and I arrived at this hotel from Moscow, we took a ticket to Coral Travel, the cost of the ticket was 159 thousand for 10 nights. We arrived on 09/07/2020, quite early, there were no problems with accommodation, despite an early arrival at 7 in the morning. The room is not bad, in general, we liked the hotel and its territory. The rest is on, we met with the guide on 08.09, took several excursions: to the water park, rides on quadrics, buggies and rafting.
We are enjoying our vacation, everything is fine until black Thursday 09/10/2020 has come. At 5 pm, when we were on the beach, our hotel guide writes to me that we urgently need to go to the reception. I am blown up from a deck chair, I run to them alone, I go up, the hotel representative says that I also need a spouse. I ask something happened, why is she, here I am, you can decide everything with me, no - the answer is the hotel, drag your wife here.
Okay, we gathered from the beach, we came together. The Russian-speaking manager, let's call her Ivanka, together with the Turkish-speaking Zuleikha (not the one who opens her eyes in the book) begin to explain to us that there was a person with a coronovirus infection on the bus that took us from the airport, and they must isolate us according to local laws. We will not be able to continue a good rest until we pass the covid test. Okay, I say that we are ready to pass this test as soon as possible, Ivanka translates this to Zuleikha, Zuleikha "changes shoes in the air", says that there is no hotel again - the answer is, even a negative test result suggests our isolation in a separate hotel building until the end of our stay, then re-test 48 hours before departure, if all the windows are free, leave sunny Turkey on all four sides.
In parallel, both insist that we must isolate ourselves as soon as possible and leave the room in which we lived (room number 1403). On emotions, we go upstairs, the cards are already blocked, we go down, take a new one, go in, collect things that were laid out throughout the room for the entire duration of the vacation. In a hurry we collect things, the wife is hysterical from the information received. Somehow we come to our senses, but there are constant calls to the phone in the room demanding to get together as soon as possible, otherwise a fine from the local Ministry of Health and other troubles await us. We hurriedly packed the unfolded things into suitcases, threw everything we needed into a backpack with us, and went downstairs to surrender. Zuleikha withdrew herself, a Russian-speaking young lady walked us to the building with the proud name Garden Chalet.
All the way, sweet fables were sung to us that she would be in touch with us 24/7, fulfill all our wishes and whims, food / drink in the room would be brought to us on demand. She also said that employees of the local Ministry of Health would come to us daily to check our compliance with the self-isolation regime, if we violate it, a fine of 3.000 Euros, the possibility of criminal prosecution, and so on. Of course, my wife and I continue to be in prostration, the first time we "stuck" like this on vacation, but we try to stay as calm as possible.
We ask you to provide an official document from the hotel confirming our status as isolated, so that later we have something to present to the tour operator for possible compensation, and just have documentary evidence of our forced imprisonment. "Yes, yes, everything will be, if not today, then tomorrow. "
They asked about our wishes for dinner, what we drink from alcohol, we indicated our preferences, and on that we parted. Soon food and drinks were brought to us, a young man in a mask left a tray outside the door of the room, knocked, left, without any complaints.
We sit, listen, sit, digest the situation and the consumed food.
Yes, they got stuck, yes, it's unpleasant, but so far it doesn't seem to be fatal. It's a pity, of course, for a beloved vacation at sea, in which there were no 3.5 years, but the situation is not so critical yet. We informed the representative of the tour operator, she shook her head in WhatsApp, confirmed that the hotel is authorized to do this with us, we ask how we should proceed, we agree that she will find out information with her office and keep us in touch.
The next day, in the morning, a more complete awareness of the scale of the disaster is already coming, we contact the hotel again, we remind you to provide official confirmation, in response - yes, yes, we remember, we love, we mourn. I note right away that we did not use any obscene vocabulary, even raising our voice in a conversation / caps lock in correspondence with hotel representatives. Time passes, there is no paper, when asked what to do next, the answer is that they are dealing with our tour operator (Anex Tour, by the way). They say there are two options: 1) pass the test, get a negative result, and fly to Moscow early, 2) Pass the test, get a negative result, stay in a hotel in this room without the possibility of going out. I deliberately do not write the option with a positive test, because then a hospital is supposed, a 14-day quarantine with treatment, this is covered by insurance. The hotel continues to remain silent about the official letter.
In the meantime, it turned out that we have acquaintances in Turkey (acquaintances of acquaintances, rather), who volunteered to help on a voluntary basis, and clarify issues with the hotel in the official language of the host country. After they called the reception, hello Zuleikha! ), it turned out that the information previously provided to us is slightly different, we can pass the test, in case of a negative result, leave the isolation facility and continue to enjoy the beauties of Turkey in general and the hotel in particular.
Ok, we write to our Russian-speaking hotel manager, how is it, why the information is communicated differently. And here the most interesting begins, for some reason the representatives of the hotel were offended. The next day, in a conversation with our Turkish acquaintances, Zuleikha said with indignation in her voice that we got drunk like pigs, called them at odd hours and carried all sorts of nonsense and constantly changed demands, just like terrorists unsure of their desires. What was said to our Turkish friends yesterday is no longer applicable, you can only pass the test and leave Turkey.
Yes, I will not dissemble, we really drank the whiskey that the hotel provided, but under such stress, alcohol, like many others in such a situation, did not really hook us. Of course, there were no threats, no drunken delirium, and there were only two calls asking us to provide us with a letter about our isolation.
The attitude of the hotel has changed dramatically, when calling the reception, the phones are not picked up for half an hour or more, we are denied alcohol (the concept of food we paid for, ultra all inclusive, for a second), all communication with the hotel goes only through a representative of the tour operator (who, by the way, it also strives for the level of hotel service, but still falls short).
They brought 5 pages of forms in English (terrible English, by the way) for taking the test, without translation. Taking into account the level of my language proficiency, I realized that, in fact, this is an analogue of our decision on isolation, only not issued by the authorized body, such as the RPN, but the isolationist's own initiative. In which the signatory signs that he assumes all obligations for self-isolation, for violation of a fine of up to 3.150 Turkish liras, or the opportunity to leave for local bunk beds for a period of two months to a year. I am writing to the hotel manager whether it is possible for us to provide forms in Russian, and whether so many pages are needed for a voluntary test. The answer of the hotel, as it is already clear, is no, these forms were given to them by the local hospital in Kemer, there is nothing in Russian, use Google translator, as all 20 people who signed earlier did. We write to the tour operator, who cannot decide anything on the spot, calls the office for every sneeze, the regional director of Anexa calls back, says that everything is only in English, until we sign, there will be no test, respectively, departure too. I ask you to officially confirm in WhatsApp that no information for the test can be provided in Russian, in order to contact the Consulate of the Russian Federation in Antalya with this. He clarifies again, oh no, it’s possible in Russian, don’t sign anything yet. They find out the details with the insurance and the hotel so that the doctor can come to our room on the territory of the hotel and there are no problems with the insurance. Three hours pass, I pull this regional director, he says you need to contact the insurance yourself, but we did a great job, agreed with the offended hotel about the possibility of a doctor entering the territory. Ok, we call the insurance, it is impossible to arrange a visit on the same day
There has been no response to official email requests for grounds for our isolation. I wrote several letters, including in English, with a request to register this appeal, assign an incoming number and give an official response. Silence.