Life After the Coronavirus - Success and Failure
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Lockdown in Malaysia
The Movement Control Order (MCO)
Even before the MCO started, we noticed that our flight from New Zealand into Singapore on February 20th was almost completely empty. Then, the airport in Singapore had body temperature scanners for people coming into the airport - most civilians were already wearing masks as well.
When we arrived in Penang on February 21st, there were staff wearing gowns and masks and taking everyone's temperatures upon arrival. They also handed out slips of paper stating that if we had any symptoms we were to stay at home and call a hospital.
We stayed inside our Airbnb for the first 10 days after arrival anyway.
Then, we went into a hospital to get our son’s latest immunizations on March 3rd and noticed that hospital staff were wearing masks and taking everyone's temperatures prior to entry.
It was eerie when we saw almost nobody at a major shopping mall, Gurney Paragon, for the late afternoon on March 9th.
Point of fact: People in Malaysia were already being quite cautious, even without an official government mandate.
It was announced that MCO would begin on March 18th, so - as we didn't know when the pool would open back up at our Airbnb’s apartment complex - we enjoyed a family "pool day" together on March 16th. That beautiful day ended up being quite memorable. On the 17th, we made one final grocery run…
Then MCO started, and we found ourselves trapped at our Airbnb in Butterworth.
We didn't know exactly what to expect, but we had heard about the full scale lockdown in China as well as a few other lockdowns in other countries. The one in Malaysia was set to be less stringent than China's, but more serious than just about any of the Western countries.
We were at least a little better informed, as we had just done a ton of research about Covid-19 to publish our coronavirus article on February 25th, and had been keeping up with the news since then.
It wasn't as bad as we expected it would be. Yes, we had to stay home, but we made the best of it.
How Serious Was It?
The MCO barred Malaysians from leaving the country, and also barred all tourists and foreign visitors from entering into the country.
Mass movement and gatherings across the country were prohibited: including religious, sports, social and cultural activities. To enforce this prohibition, all houses of worship & business premises were closed, except for supermarkets, public markets, grocery stores and convenience stores selling everyday necessities (which could only be operated from 8AM till 8PM). We could not travel farther than 10km from our residence (6.2 miles).
All nurseries and schools were closed nationwide.
Additionally, all government and private premises except those involved in essential services (water, electricity, energy, telecommunications, postal, transportation, irrigation, oil, gas, fuel, lubricants, broadcasting, finance, banking, health, pharmacy, fire, prison, port, airport, safety, defence, cleaning, retail and food supply) were also closed.
The Royal Malaysia Police conducted road block operations along key points across the country, to monitor travellers and warn them to stay home and abide by the order. Malaysia's military forces were mobilised to augment the Royal Malaysian Police's MCO operations. Offenders, numbering 24,081, were arrested and remanded.
Our Life Under MCO
From what we understood, we were to stay home unless we needed to go to the grocery store, pharmacy, or hospital. Only one of us was allowed to go, and we had to wear a mask (we were lucky enough to be able to use this type of mask the entire time), get a temperature check, and use hand sanitizer before entry. When I got home, I'd undress - clothes immediately into the laundry - and shower.
We enjoyed life as best we could. Like most people, Netflix and wifi were our saviors. We published a couple of Disney-related Staycation articles to help other people find enjoyment at home as well.
The pool was closed, but we made it a point to walk around the building for a few hours each week, so that our son could get some time outside (although attached to us the whole time).
On May 3rd, just 47 days later, MCO ended and businesses began opening back up - in restricted capacity - on May 4th. In just under 7 weeks of full lockdown we already had a 9 day streak with ZERO new daily cases in the state of Penang, Malaysia. Just 5 days later, on May 8th, we were classified as a Green Zone - no new cases in 14 days.
Birth During Covid Lockdown
Expiring Visas & Canceled Flights
We found ourselves in quite a predicament during the MCO. One day after Malaysia started their MCO, Taiwan - the next country on our list - had officially started their lockdown as well, blocking all foreign flights into their country also. So, we assumed that we would not be able to go there on May 15th like we were expecting, and therefore we probably wouldn't be headed into the USA for the second half of 2020 either.
Our visas were only good until May 21st (90 days), so - during MCO - we started thinking about changing our plans, but we were still hopeful that Taiwan might open back up for us by May 15th.
The Surprise
However, on April 9th, just over 3 weeks after MCO began - and about a week or so after Jenny started feeling unusually sick (but no symptoms of Covid-19) - we took a pregnancy test and learned that we were expecting another child. It was really exciting, but also very stressful given our situation.
How could we continue to travel when our visas were only good for up to 90 days, but also when most countries were closing their borders? How would we manage to make that work while pregnant and searching for a safe place to have a baby?
Even though we were considering whether to return to the USA, we decided that we should probably still consider other options at this point because Covid-19 was being taken much less seriously in the USA. But, if it didn't work out, we'd just book flights to Hawaii - which had been starting to take the virus much more seriously - thanks to Lt. Governor Dr. Josh Green - to avoid having the visa problem during the pandemic.
So, on April 15th, we booked a second flight, this one going to Cape Town - where our first baby was born - as we really enjoyed the birthing experience with the midwives out there!
Leaving Malaysia?
A few days later, on April 22nd, we learned that our flight to Taipei, Taiwan had officially been canceled, as we expected that it would be.
Additionally, around the same time, it was announced that South Africa was going to be closing all borders to non-citizens until 2021; So, it was unlikely that we'd be going there either.
To save ourselves the trouble, on April 26th we booked our 3rd flight out of Malaysia - this time to Hawaii departing in June.
We were now worried about staying later than May 21st. It's not always safe to run past your visa date as you could be fined and/or arrested. And now we were now counting on obtaining a 30-day visa extension to allow us to to fly out on June 18th instead of May 15th, something we were planning to get as soon as MCO ended on May 3rd. If approved, we'd be good until June 20th.
Needless to day, it was a stressful 9 days.
The Conditional MCO
However, while the MCO ended on May 3rd, the Conditional MCO (CMCO) began on May 4th. Along with it came the automatic extension of all foreign visas that expired during the MCO, or even during CMCO. Our visas were now good until 14 business days after the CMCO was to end - a date that was then unknown.
So, while we knew we were now safe on the visa situation, we still didn't know for how long.
Despite this good luck of automatic visa extension, our flight to Hawaii was also canceled a few days later, on May 8th.
The CMCO received backlash by politicians, health experts, and the general public over concerns of a possible resurgence of COVID-19 cases in Malaysia due to the seemingly reckless and unnecessary relaxation of the MCO - not every state had made it to zero new cases yet.
The federal government responded by stating that the CMCO is still stricter than relaxation measures taken in other countries. By 3 May, over 420,000 members of the public had signed a petition of objection to the conditional MCO and urged the government to stay with the MCO.
Regardless, the "CMCO" began. Penang, where we were, decided to slowly step into CMCO with a 3-step process between May 4th and May 13th. Two states decided to only open limited sectors while 5 other states decided not to move into CMCO at all.
Real Freedom, without Covid-19
However, we were now allowed to go to restaurants - although with limited seating - and even shop for clothes - although we couldn't “try anything on” first. But, that meant that we could now explore a bit of Penang.
We immediately moved to George Town, which was completely blocked off during the initial MCO - as a long bridge crossing was required to get there and it was thus over the 10km limitation.
We had to extend our stay in Malaysia anyway, due to the fact that many countries were now closed off and all of our flights had been canceled, so we chose George Town because it was a much more developed area to be in than Butterworth.
We headed to the Gleneagles hospital to have our first check up for the pregnancy, and we enjoyed a few restaurants in the area while we were there - plenty of social distancing and spacing as you can see (photo below). Then, on May 18th, we learned that our flight to Cape Town was officially canceled as well.
Staying in Malaysia
We figured that we were likely destined to stay in Malaysia, so why fight it? After all, it is quite safe! Thus, we extended our stay a little longer, confused at what we should do next.
As the coronavirus outbreaks started rolling across the entire USA, we were concerned for our family and friends back in the USA… but, we also began to feel lucky to be in Malaysia!
In fact, even inside a “Green Zone”, we were still wearing masks and social distancing. However, we were also able to shop at the mall, eat at a number of restaurants, and enjoy some other public areas for a change. Life was getting better for us while it was getting worse in the USA and the UK.
On June 9th, new coronavirus cases were in the single digits for the entire country (7). Malaysia ended their CMCO and began the Recovery Movement Control Order (RMCO).
Note: Masks were removed to take this photo. Additionally, we checked to be sure nobody was nearby!
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Recovery MCO
Malaysia opened up interstate travel (to different states within Malaysia), movie theaters (limited seating), water parks, etc. beginning with the Recovery Movement Control Order (RMCO) on June 10th, as new cases had been at zero for many weeks in most states in Malaysia - and in the single digits for the entire country.
Exploring Penang
This gave us the opportunity to explore more of Penang, including the TOP, Penang Hill, the Habitat, and even the Wall Art around the city of George Town. We even had a few meet-ups with other travelers who became stranded in Malaysia.
Feeling a little cooped-up, and as our visas were once again automatically extended until mid-September, we decided to take a bit of a trip down the western coast of Malaysia and solidified it by renting a car from Penang to Kuala Lumpur. Our trip follows the path of this tour through Malaysia.
A Malaysian Adventure
Our first stop was in Ipoh, Perak, where we explored a few Cave Temples, a separate Cave System, and The Lost World of Tambun - a waterpark / petting zoo set in this amazing mountain area, reminiscent of the floating mountains in the movie Avatar - which has been one of our favorite stops so far in all of Malaysia!
Next stop was in the Cameron Highlands, where we explored a Tea Plantation, the amazing Mossy Forest, a Strawberry Farm, and a couple of Old English style restaurants for High Tea.
*note: many of these photos were taken using this camera.
When we arrived in Kuala Lumpur we were a bit more cautious because there was a moderate outbreak there before MCO started, and cases were still not completely at zero yet.
However, we still managed to safely explore a little bit of Kuala Lumpur - including KLCC’s aquarium, park, mall, and the symphony lake water show in the park next to the mall. Interestingly, we also got to try some German and Irish food in Kuala Lumpur!
*note: many of these photos were taken using this camera.
More Covid Cases
Sadly, some people who have recently come into Malaysia on business matters, or were simply returning home from abroad, decided to skip their required quarantines. This has caused new daily cases in Malaysia to jump back up into the 30s. People were understandably frustrated.
Now the government requires all people returning to Malaysia to stay in government facilitated quarantine instead of trusting them to do it themselves. Additionally, they once again mandated the use of masks in all public places starting on August 1st.
So, to keep safe and socially distant, we opted not to take a train or a bus down to Melaka, and instead took a 2 hour Grab ride (like Uber but much cheaper in Malaysia). The total fare was about $74, including tolls and tip. The driver, and both of us, wore masks the entire time. Our son, faced the rear of the vehicle in his car seat (too young for a mask in Malaysia).
The Journey Continues
Our place in Melaka is a water park resort - it was on “mega sale” when we booked it for $16 per night because the water parks were still mandated to remain closed at the point that we booked it. However, now that they are open, we found ourselves in a bittersweet and jaded emotional mess on whether we should try it or not.
They are checking everyone's temperature prior to entry AND Melaka currently has ZERO active cases of Covid-19… but, again, it is a holiday weekend so we don't know where everyone came from. We have this lingering feeling in our guts. Even though it seems safe here, and we are excited to try it out, there are just so many people in one area that it makes us nervous. Coronavirus has definitely effected us mentally.
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We are “Security Cats”
We use the phrase "Security Cats" because it sounds nicer than the other phrase... But, what would you do if you were in our situation?
That, and now we just heard about another outbreak in one of the states up north next to Penang, where we came from (this one in Kedah). Another man, who returned to Malaysia from India just prior to the official change to government-facility quarantine, decided to skip his quarantine as well, so that he could operate his restaurant over the holiday. Over 20 people have so far been confirmed to have contracted it from that place. Additionally, he also failed to follow proper tracing procedure and thus has no record of who attended his restaurant. That man is currently hospitalized, but he's going to be prosecuted by the government.
A few days after checking out the water park, we learned that Sunday would be much less busy as most people would be headed home. So, we decided to go on Sunday a few hours before it was going to close - and be sure to social distance. Luckily for us, there were hardly any people when we went.
We also found a couple of days to explore the main historical area of Melaka before we left, which was incredibly amazing!
Constant Indecision
We were planning to go to Johor after Melaka; However, the recent uptick in cases has put a damper on our plans again. We went into a little panic and thought that the entire country might end up moving back into CMCO, or even MCO, very soon, due to these events. However, it strikes us now how lucky we are to think that a 21-person cluster is a big event when it's so small compared to everywhere else. So, it'll likely just extend RMCO until the end of the year.
Regardless, we found ourselves deciding whether to cancel our plans to go to Johor - and run back to Kuala Lumpur prior to another lockdown - or stick with our current plans. Both areas have fantastic hospitals, but the only US Embassy in Malaysia is located in Kuala Lumpur - and we needed to get the new baby a passport as soon as she was born.
We did decide to continue onto Johor, to the Nusajaya area, for a month. Then we were thinking to head on to Malaysian Borneo for another month (in Sabah) and back to Kuala Lumpur before Jenny reached 36-weeks pregnant (the cutoff for AirAsia flights).
However, having the baby in Borneo or Kuala Lumpur were dependent on RMCO being extended (so that our visas would also be extended). If not, we were planning to fly to the Big Island of Hawaii - as long as those flights don’t get cancelled.
When we went through having Three Hospitals in the Third Trimester for our first baby, we thought it couldn’t get much more difficult than that. We were wrong.
Lessons for the World
This world still has a lot of lessons to learn before we are completely out of the woods in this pandemic.
However, the model that Malaysia took to get out of the pandemic and past Covid-19 could be applied to any country.
The important thing to realize and consider is that without going through this process, economies are likely to continue on indefinitely in a quasi-shutdown state. Even after being at less than 20-30 cases per day in the entire country for many months, we are still all wearing masks in Malaysia until - perhaps - it's completely gone.
We hear people saying that the economies need to be opened up as permanent business closings are starting to pile up.
However, people are unlikely to want to risk permanent life-long irreversible damage to their bodies, or death, simply to go to work and earn money. At least not all of them. Thus, unless the covid issue is dealt with first, the economies of the world may never go back to full operation again. It will always be between 60-90% at best.
In fact, the “Head Economist” in the USA, “Jerome Powell, the chairman of the Federal Reserve, said as much recently. ‘The path forward for the economy is extraordinarily uncertain and will depend in large part on our success in keeping the virus in check,’ he said at a July 29 news conference. He added: ‘A full recovery is unlikely until people are confident that it is safe to re-engage in a broad range of activities.’” (source)
Thus, to get your countries economies going again, consider going through the steps described in this article. It is one way to success.
Additionally, successful countries will need to create an economic trade and travel bubble between themselves, barring - or quarantining - those countries that have not yet eradicated covid.
Travelers like us depend on having countries open to tourism and allowing us to come in. We don't mind staying in quarantine, and would be happy to do it for 2-4 weeks in any new country that we travel to - to keep this world safe.
However, it appears that putting a tracking app on your phone - if they want to offer you the ability to “quarantine from home” - doesn't work well based on the experiences learned here in Malaysia. And a forced quarantine in a government facility might be a bit harsh as well.
So, we might recommend that countries offer the option of the government facility on one hand, and perhaps a kind of ankle bracelet that people on probation receive on the other - so that they can actually quarantine from home, but also so they can't cheat and skip the quarantine ultimately risking the whole country's success.
We wish you all as much success as we've had in this crazy time.
UPDATE: We ended up staying in Johor and having our baby there as cases increased rapidly in Sabah after a public election was held there. We went up to Kuala Lumpur for her passport and then ended up flying to Turkey when Malaysia stopped extending our visas.
How has your experience been, compared to ours?
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