Malaysia Quarantine - Day 3

Day 3. Time flies when you're having fun! In fact, it has honestly been fine so far, haven't been bored at all (yet?). I guess, having prepared for this mentally for a while, we're just ready and so that is the attitude we have taken. The only thing that has been a bit boring so far, is... the food. Maybe that's because of the opposite, we've been looking forward to the delicious Malaysian food and so far, it's been a bit disappointing. Or maybe we have just become too Malaysian... You'll see in a minute.

As we're in the food episode, you might be wondering if we have coffee. Yes, we do! We brought our own french press, because the other option would have been 3-in-1 Nescafe (yikes!). Our stovetop ("Bialetti") was no option, as we have no stove - rather essential for a stovetop coffee maker. To be complete: we do have our camp stove with us, but no gas - you can't take that on a plane!

I mentioned it before. Food is delivered at the door, between set times. Once the food is dropped off, the doorbell is rung and we "rush" outside to get our meal - and discover which surprise we received this time. The times vary, but the morning bell has twice been very early - today even before 7am. That would be OK, except that jetlag-wise we're typical deep asleep at that time. So this morning (6.55am!) we just collected the breakfast and went back to sleep for another 2 hours or so. It meant we had to eat a cold breakfast, cold omelet, cold sausages, cold beans... Not nice.

Yesterday's (day 2) breakfast: roti canai! Very happy with that!

If we behave well, we get a little dessert.

Still in the food section: drinks. The only drink we have (except for tea and coffee), is drinking water. As with everything, the room has been stocked up on water for the entire 14 days - using 500ml plastic bottles unfortunately.

Luckily we brought our own cutlery, otherwise we'd have to use the daily package with plastic stuff and tissue; we just leave the plastic stuff outside now and they don't put more of it. Anything that goes into the room will probably be thrown away (annihilated, incinerated) anyway, whether used or not...

We're only the third day into the quarantine, but so far the menu has been a bit boring. We've had fried rice once, with chicken, the first evening. We've had chicken rice once - that was nice! And we've had plain, dry rice (lots of it) 3 times, with a little side dish: once with fish, once with (3) squid rings and once with chicken (so that makes 3 times chicken in 3 days - but that's something you know to expect in Malaysia - and 5 times rice). Plus always a little portion of vegetables, very little for people like us who are used to eating lots of veggies but OK. Oh yes, we had 3 times a piece of fruit so far: 3 times an apple... So we're hoping for a bit more variation, but then again it's not an easy thing to do as it needs to be food that's acceptable for everyone. Breakfasts have been fine so far nonetheless: even roti canai yesterday, yay! We had considered to ask for vegetarian food, we didn't because we were concerned it would be extremely limited and boring; it seems very likely that would have been the case.

Fried rice with... fried chicken

Rice with fried fish (nice and spicy!) and some veggies too

Apple number 1 of 3

No problem, it's all OK, and although we're longing for all that really delicious Malaysian food, it'll be OK for those 14 days. And if we really do get tired of it, there are all kinds of rescue options. There is some room service available, as well as a few snack packages we can order. We can also do food delivery, but as you will see, options are very very limited - although maybe good as comfort food if needed. And finally, we also brought some stuff with us, which has been a nice treat so far.

Our collection of imported treats

What's better than a few pieces of crispbread with a good layer of Nutella on top. That's called make-me-happy-in-quarantine food!

So far, absolutely not tempted to go for room delivery - but you never know! And it's good to know that the option is there...

So we've had our breakfast twice at the early side, and dinner usually towards the end of the period

The food delivery options... For some reason it is limited to some unattractive unhealthy options. On top of that, the chances of receiving cold food are very high. So this is not really option, unless we're absolutely desperate. Won't happen!

A nice ice cream and a soft drink however...

Not food related: the entertainment show today was taken care of by 3 fishermen, using the canal below as their fishing ground.

Not sure how clean this water is (might be fine with all the recent rains) and how big the fish are (from what we see up here, not very big). Nevertheless, it was good entertainment, and they clearly caught something! Also notice the dirt sitting on the little "island", mostly plastic. Soon, this will be carried further, to eventually finish in the ocean...

Tomorrow: an episode about what we do here while in quarantine... And to finish for today, some silly "arty" (really???) photographs. Just to prove the point: I have A LOT of time on my hands here! You may want to try to guess what these are!...