For those who thought we would be in Malaysia now and this would be our first quarantine report: wrong! We're not and it's not, and yes it should have been. We're still in Belgium. So instead of quarantine stories, it's still travel stories for now - or actually mostly non-travel stories.
Let's start from the beginning. We were happily pedalling along in Taiwan in March, when suddenly Malaysia decided to close its borders to all foreigners - including those residing in Malaysia. We did not have enough time to fly back before the cut off, so decided to happily continue cycling in Taiwan, perhaps Japan, and just enjoy that for the time being. Little did we realise that Covid would only get worse and make things more and more difficult for a long time to come. Last minute, our trip to Japan had to be cancelled as well, because of - you guessed it - new entry restrictions. As we started to realise that we might get stuck for a long time in Taiwan, we studied our options, and made a dash for a quick return to Europe instead - on one of the last flights available. This was end of March. We have been here ever since.
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| Leaving Taiwan unexpectedly on 27 March, from a very empty airport - a sign of things to come |
Towards the middle of June, Malaysia was so kind (...) to allow its residents back into the country, albeit with a mandatory 14-day hotel quarantine. It was too early for us to return anyway, but staying for 2 weeks in a hotel room - you're literally not allowed to get out of your room - was not really (really not!!!) our favourite choice either. Some weeks later, good news: the hotel quarantine was abolished, and new arrivals were allowed to self quarantine at home. OK, that was something we could definitely live with. It was still too early to return for us, but at least this new rule was much more reasonable. Until... 24 July, things changed again, and hotel quarantine was imposed again - as too many people broke the home quarantine rules (up to 25%). Ouch!
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| No more home quarantine... |
Our plan had been to return towards the end of August, early September. With the MCO lasting until 31 August, we were hoping for a change in the policy towards foreign travellers, although we realised there was little chance. So eventually we bought return tickets for 7 September, hoping for the best. Unfortunately, there has been no change, and the mandatory hotel quarantine is still in place.
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| And yes, we have a ticket! |
Initially, we considered returning via Turkey, with a stopover to visit our friends Jochen & Sofie who have moved there recently. After some interactions with them, we decided it wasn't a smart thing to do. Travel in corona times is complicated as it is, so adding a stopover in a country that is still struggling to control the virus was looking for trouble. Our decision soon proved to be the right one. 4 days before our intended departure, Malaysia announced that people travelling from a list of 23 countries were no longer welcome in Malaysia - including Turkey (and hooray, NOT including Belgium)! It's not clear whether staying in Turkey for a couple of days would have posed a problem, but who knows... And flights may get cancelled, and so on.
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| The new travel advisory, luckily excluding Belgium |
So, we'd be flying from Brussels to KL, via Doha on Qatar Airways, 7 September. Saturday evening, 5 September, we have dinner with good friends. When we said farewells, we were still joking that we hadn't left yet - you never know what comes up next. So it did: by the time we got home, we had an email from Qatar Airways that our flight had been cancelled, with no news of a rebooking to another flight. By the morning however, we did have that information as well, with a new booking on 9 September! So here we go, we had 2 extra, unplanned days in Belgium and then hopefully we can travel! It was a bit weird; we had had this typical hectic last week, visiting family and friends for a last time - which is great and it's a week full of love and friendship (and food and drinks) (and more food), but on the other hand it wears you out and by the end of such a week you're ready to step on that plane and leave. And now suddenly, we had another 2 days - without appointments. Really weird...
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| Now you're travelling; now you're not. |
Meanwhile, Qatar Airways has confirmed tomorrow's flight, and they have even proactively checked our travel documents to be allowed entry into Malaysia - which have been approved. It seems all is set this time... If all goes well, we'll arrive in KL on 10 September afternoon, after which we can start our much anticipated 14-day hotel stay... And my challenge will be, to write a blog post every day. Even though there won't be much to write about, I'll still try. Let's see who has the guts to read the daily news!
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| If only this would be our quarantine location... We'll have to keep this for our wild dreams... |