After the Korean trip was cancelled, we actually booked a trip to Thailand within 2 days of the cancellation! At that point, everything was still pretty calm and well-managed here in Malaysia and also in Thailand. I made sure to check with not only the Thai news portals but also with my friend who is currently living in Bangkok!
Everything was alright and despite the exam stress, I was pretty excited about the upcoming plans!
On Monday, 16th March, everything was cancelled once again - this time it was because of the second outbreak in Malaysia. And this time, the outbreak was massive and out of control. As I type, statistics from the Ministry of Health Malaysia stands at 1,030 cases with 3 deaths. Things are very serious.
Was I bummed out this time? Not exactly - prior to Monday, daily news was showing the rapidly increasing cases in Malaysia, and on Saturday I was already contacting our Airbnb hosts and Agoda to see if a refund was possible. No announcement from the government yet at that point so we just told each other that we will wait. At this point, over that weekend, relatives and friends were advising us to cancel our trip (I must record here that while the intentions were clear, the conveyance of message - not so. But this is for another day).
We came up to KL on Monday morning itself due to certain social obligation and to run some errands; and that night, the government announced a Restriction of Movement Order. We thus decided to stay put here.
We are well-stocked up for the 2 weeks of staying-at-home, and I have been waking up mid-noon everyday, eat lunch, shop on taobao, dinner, more taobao, and finally going to sleep sometime around 3AM - well, at least for the first four days we've been here. Oh, we've also been cleaning the house these four days :)
A day ago, I got myself a part-time job which I can do in the comfort of my bed - it's new to me, but I'm getting a hang of it and at least there's something to do in the midst of the RMO!
I also have some plans in mind, but these days I've learned to not talk of my plans before doing anything about them - so I shan't even write of them here! Just fingers crossed that they will materialize!
Also been looking at how other countries are handling this virus, and I'm very impressed at how the countries which one least expects to do well are managing the pandemic very admirably. Thailand, China, Cuba, Vietnam - all doing pretty well and better than say, USA, Italy, Malaysia. A post for another day too.
This is thus my update written on 20th March 2020, 10:39PM.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
