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'It is like a living hell' - Wisbech woman who is a teacher in Wuhan stranded in Cambodia amid Coronavirus fears
Clare Butler
PUBLISHED: 17:39 30 January 2020 | UPDATED: 08:06 31 January 2020

A former Wisbech Grammar School student who moved to Wuhan to be a teacher is now stranded in Cambodia after airlines are in lockdown for fear of the Coronavirus spreading.

Cesca Nicole, who lived in Wisbech for 18 years, says that life is like a "living hell" after she was refused a flight out of Cambodia when airport staff saw that she had travelled from Wuhan.

The 23-year-old and her friend had been on holiday in the southeast Asia - where they are now left skipping between hostels.

The pair have lost more than £1,000 in attempts to book fights out of the country and say they have around £50 left between them.

"We are isolated, alone, scared and only have about two days of money left," Cesca told the Wisbech Standard.

"It's such a rough place where we are and at night we just hide in our room in the dark.

"It's like a living hell.

"There is a little pharmacy here with a bed in it but no doctors."

Cesca said that the pair were stranded in the airport in Cambodia for 12 hours as officials feared they could spread germs from Wuhan.

She continued: "We heard earlier today that everywhere is closing their borders.

"I'm attempting to get to Turkey as my parents live there but to get back to the UK would be great too."

Cesca had graduated from the University of Strathclyde in May last year before heading to Wuhan to fulfil her dream of being a teacher.

She had been in the city for just over two months when the virus broke out.

"Work were giving out messages saying to wear masks because there was a virus going around," Cesca said.

"Then it all went crazy and all of Wuhan went into lockdown.

"It's insane as old people there are battering each other just for food and it has turned into a ghost town.

"We have lots of friends in Wuhan who are stranded but because my phone was stolen I cannot keep up to date with what's going on.

In the past seven days that Cesca and her friend have been in Cambodia, she says that she has contacted the British Embassy several times but had little help.
https://www.wisbechstandard.co.uk/news/ ... -1-6491749

Kin Hell.........Should try living here full time.

There are such things as money transfers, credit cards, travel insurance , internet banking

Ummmmm this dont make sense, none is stopping flights to Wuhan just flights out all the indoor needs to do is get to Kuala lumpa or Singapore and be on her way.

This story doesn’t add up at all. Are the airport doing temperature checks on passengers even??

I think the young lady in question is just sounding the alarm bells for some attention for the fact she’s got no money left. The photo in the article shows a clinic with a dirt road in front.... possibly out near the airport? Or is this supposed to show that the capitol city doesn’t even have sealed roads? Lol it’s a joke tbh.
Let’s not forget the lady is staying in a hostel... not a guesthouse. And these are all pretty much located miles from an unsealed road!
Yeah maybe a few potholes but a dirt road? Come on.... are they seriously feeding their readers this crap?

Anyway.... I took the liberty of emailing the “journalist” in question but since no one likes being called out for doing a half assed job she may not reply.

Oh and I pointed out to her that the people who stay in hostels are pretty helpful types and would lend the stranded lady a laptop or phone etc so she could arrange a money transfer so that whole line about running out of money is just garbage.

Being stuck without resources in a foreign country can seem like hell no matter where you are. I went on a 3 month tour of Europe in a car in the early 90s with my girlfriend. Even though we had thousands in the bank we often had problems accessing it and had to scrape by on next to nothing a few times. These women probably took enough for their planned short trip but didn't figure on the effects of a major delay. Having to stay more than 2 hours transfering in any airport is like a living hell to me, especially if it's in the Emirates.

Accessing ones money while abroad back in the 90s would have been tiresome I agree.... but you have to agree that these days it’s just not the case.
Western Union if all else fails and they still have their passports by all accounts so just take the big hit in their commission and take the money.
WiFi is everywhere and certainly will be in the hostels they are staying at so come on..... it may be a “nightmare” to be stuck in Cambodia unexpectedly but it’s not the 90s anymore and access to money is really not that difficult... providing of course there is money to send!

IraHayes wrote: ↑Sun Feb 02, 2020 9:44 pm The photo in the article shows a clinic with a dirt road in front.... possibly out near the airport?

No, CT Polyclinic is on Kamakor Street in Sihanoukville, aka Shitsville, so yeah they are indeed in living hell, but not because they're in Cambodia, but because they're in the most f*cked up place in the country.

Singapore now refuses Chinese, even transiting Chinese, into the airport. Declaring that you were at the epicenter is even worse. Not sure about KL.

Agree with another poster, why not use credit cards and Western Union? At worst, there’s Go Fund Me.

Hope she gets home.

IraHayes wrote: ↑Sun Feb 02, 2020 10:09 pm Accessing ones money while abroad back in the 90s would have been tiresome I agree.... but you have to agree that these days it’s just not the case.
Western Union if all else fails and they still have their passports by all accounts so just take the big hit in their commission and take the money.
WiFi is everywhere and certainly will be in the hostels they are staying at so come on..... it may be a “nightmare” to be stuck in Cambodia unexpectedly but it’s not the 90s anymore and access to money is really not that difficult... providing of course there is money to send!

Tend to agree. I'd only need to make a whatsapp/facetime call/message to either my parents or my sister, and money would be on hand if necessary. The 90's? Yeah, that would have been a different ball-game. That said, me and a girlfriend got robbed on holiday in Gran Canaria in '95. Called my Mum, had £200 to collect at the hotel reception the next morning.