Yeah that’s right, while everybody else is staying at home and the world still isn’t the same as it was, I’m just gonna piss right off to participate in my universitys exchange program and study one semester abroad in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia!
The last few months were loaded with paperwork I had to do so I could leave my country and enter Malaysia. Thankfully everything worked out almost in time. It was such a relief sitting down in the plane, knowing that very little could go wrong now and it was the biggest relief when I finally worked my way through immigration and knew for a fact that I made it and nothing could go wrong at this point!
The flight was very good, it was so awesome to finally experience the excitement of traveling somewhere again! Although I really don’t get the safety concepts on board. On my first flight to Dubai I sat next to a couple, while the row in front of us was completely empty. The same could be seen all around the plane, many rows where completely empty while strangers had to sit together. Maybe they tried to separate rows from each other, but I didn’t really get it. Also there where pop-ups on the entertainment system telling people to protect yourself and others by having your mask on at all times …while food was handed out. The timing was too comedic on this one^^
But I’m not really that mad or anything with the many strict orders put out by various governments, the airlines will surely have a plan and know what they’re doing. Also prior to the flight every passenger has to present a negative covid test result which isn’t older that 72 hrs, so technically the risk should be minimal to start with.
On the second flight the crew was a bit more cautious, the pilot announced that before we lift of the stewards will go through the plane and sanitize it. Which meant that they sprayed disinfectant from the height of the luggage shelf. We were informed that some may get slight skin irritations and people with contacts where encouraged to close their eyes while the crew was spraying.
After landing in Kuala Lumpur I had to spend almost 3h in immigrations going from desk to desk, presenting different documents, filling out more documents, waiting to be called up to show and fill out even more documents and finally be through and collecting my luggage! Even though it took so long, they set up the different stations very nicely with enough staff to handle the crowd of people in an acceptable speed. Sadly I couldn’t take pictures of any of this as you are forbidden to take pictures at a border.
After collecting the luggage we were guided outside, where our hands and luggage were deeply sanitized. From this point on until now, I only saw people in plastic onesies , face masks and sometimes those plastic face shields. Malaysia is making no joke with foreign arrivals. They do their very best to ensure nothing has a chance to be spread from people coming into Malaysia. I was really impressed by this, until now I never seen these type of measures. In my country most people just have to go home and quarantine for two weeks when they come from another country.
My driver Mandonna was very kind and even lightened up my waiting time by teaching me basic Malayan sentences 🙂
On the way to my Quarantine Hotel he also updated me on the newest regulations and told me a few things about the city and its buildings, which was very interesting and made the 50 min ride feel way shorter.
Driving with Mandonna reminded me of the scenes with Hamburger Man from Mr Robot 😅. Fortunatley with a bit more talking than in the show^^
Arriving at the hotel, my luggage was handed to a colleague from Mandonna, he was completely sprayed with sanitizer and headed back to the Airport while I was guided to my room. The whole hotel was closed shut from outside, the installed a high wooden wall which separated everything else from me and the elevator. I was taken to the 17th level and brought to my room. because of all the safety measures I really felt like I was in a movie where a zombie virus had broken out^^ everybody in some kind of hazmat suit and bags with the biohazard sign on it, it felt a bit surreal^^
My room itself is super comfy and I have everything I need, the food is local and tastes good so far and the hotel service is very nice and helpful on the phone. I think I can deal living in this room for a week 😋
