New Normal of Travelling Home

 Salam w.b.t and hi dear readers, 

I am back in Malaysia, since Monday. I am still in 14-days quarantine in Kuala Lumpur, the result of the Covid-19 test is negative. Alhamdulillah. Today is Awal Muharram, 1442 Hijrah also. I hope we will become a better person every day.

 

What I want to write this time? Honestly, I have two ideas to write this time; (1) Journey of travelling back to Malaysia and (2) Review about two books recently, When to Jump by Mike Lewis and latest one is a very lovely piece, War Doctor by David Nott.

 

So, which one first I should write? Well, let's go by sequentially then - Journey of travelling back to Malaysia. The second idea, I will share it in the next entry - soon, InsyaAllah.

 

Let me start to the time when I decided to go home.

 

I was at the rig and I was hoping to have two months continuous hitch, so it will end sometimes end of August. Thus, I requested for vacation starting early of September. Off course, the work coordinator was quiet as he cannot plan anything in advance as usual. For me, it was expected reaction and it happened all the time so no-brainer. I have my timeline in place, and Malaysian government also already opened the country for returnee with strict SOP in place. However, it was just drilling one well and took only one month. Then by early of August I informed the coordinator, really I don’t mind going home early after that job finish. There is no point of me rotting in Doha waiting for nothing, at the same time spending money on food. I also take into account my mental wellbeing, if I stay I will be alone with none in my apartment and exploring out in Doha alone is really boring. At the same time, I really don’t want to go to the office or base and meeting everybody with fake smile as I was burnout already. Better to stay put at the apartment, minding my own business rather than lashing my attitude and affect others. Finally, I booked my flight home early August and decided to travel on 17th August.

 

I got off from the rig on 10th August, and I spent me-time in Doha for one week. It was just nice as I got time to adjust my sleeping time, packing my stuff, shopping for things I want to bring home, ensuring all the departure procedures are cleared, and finally just relaxing at my apartment. I was called (actually emailed and asked) to come to the base for basket test (tools preparation) but I declined to come as I decided this week is me-time. I did the routine dental check-up, all good.

 

Sometimes on 24th July, new announcement from Malaysia government that we will not require to perform the Swab test at the departure country. Before that, it was mandatory and I was ready to do it. Then, cancelled as it is no longer required.

 

So, what to prepare before departure?

 

Book your flight ticket

This is basic, but be careful when you book your flight ticket especially during this pandemic time. I am used to book through the travel agent website like Skyscanner and this time I was a bit hesitant because I was not sure if suddenly the travel route got cancelled for any reasons. I did comparison either to book directly to the airline website or via travel site. I ended up using the travel site because the risk of travel cancellation was relatively low for Doha-KL route. The thing is sometimes, if you book via travel website, when the flight is cancelled, you will not be rescheduled automatically unless you paid for extra option. It happened to me before, despite the extra service I paid, it was really time consuming process and to many terms and conditions that I did not meet. So I ended up buy another flight ticket.

 

Letter of Undertaking (LoU)

Right, this is very important. You can find the details here. 

You will need this and fill it up, send it to the embassy before they issue the Permission to Travel. Otherwise, you will not get the letter that approved your travel to Malaysia.

 

Permission to Travel

This is a letter issued by the embassy. It mentioned here that the letter is valid for 1 month period, so traveler can make a journey within one month. At first, I did not know this because I thought it was valid for one particular day. So I booked my flight before sending the request to travel to embassy. After I sent the request, it only took me one day to get the reply from them.

 

Basically, I am all set to travel now.

 

Install MySejahtera

It is advisable to install MySejahtera in advance prior travel, let say you can do it at your home. I installed on my phone and activated it via phone. Afterwards, I logged in straight away and kept getting error. I thought I did not install it correctly. Eventually, it took some time for the app to be activated on your mobile. If you install, then activated it on laptop via website, it said the activation will be straight away. That’s the workaround suggested. Anyway, try your best to install and ensure it is activated before start travelling.

Otherwise, you probably will be struggling later on.

 

Food in hand carry

My flight was after midnight, so I went to the airport around 8PM. At the airport, there were still food and shops available and you can buy there. No issues.

The flight duration was about 7 hours and 40 minutes. In the flight, 1 hour after we took off, we were served with a light meal - Chicken pie, and juice. I was sleeping after that and woke up about 2 hours before touch down. I was really hungry, I thought I missed the big meal that normally served in the middle of the flight. I checked around at other passengers seats, I saw the leftover rubbishes of the light meal we had earlier was still not collected. Therefore, I believed I did not miss the meal and actually they did not serve it. Normally we will have the meal but I guess in this Covid-19 period, the airline no longer served it. I don’t know what is the different though, because they still served another light meal. 1 hour before touched down, we were served with a breakfast and luckily there is option Thai Fried Rice. I took it as I was starving.

 

The dumb thing I did was, I did bring some bread BUT I put it in my luggage. Lesson learned, put some food in your hand carry.

 

Extra clothes in hand carry bag

I did not think about this initially. I had a phone call with my mother in the morning of travel day. We were discussing about cases in Malaysia, travel restriction, and viral news in Malaysia. She mentioned briefly about there was one flight arrived in Malaysia but all the passengers in that flight was not allow to disembark. The reason was the authority was not informed about this flight arrival. As a result, they was put on hold probably hours before proceed to disembark.

 

I don’t know the real details or if it is actually true news. However, my mother advised to pack extra in my bag. She mentioned about food. I only remember about cloth. Afterwards, I immediately packed one pair of cloth in my bag pack. Long sleeve shirt, tracksuit, and head scarf. Suffice for one day if I happened to get stuck anywhere in the process.

 

Enough money

What is this money for in particular? This is for swab test and hotel quarantine. The payment for the swab test at the airport was RM150. Whereas, the payment of the hotel for the quarantine. On the website, any announcements I could find said the cost for 14-days at designated hotel will be RM1,050. Also, mentioned here at the embassy website. I was expecting that figure, but at the check-in it costed RM1,890. RM135 per night for 14-days. My local debit card got rejected at least three times, so I had to use Qatar card. I find it is weird because the same card worked just fine when paying for the swab test at the airport 4 hours earlier. Anyway, when we lined up at the hotel check-in and first thing they asked was how to make a payment. I saw several persons struggling. For example, I think she was a student and she said the cost will be paid by the sponsor and even showed the email. Yes, in the email mentioned about the sponsor but still need to pay in advance. Basically, pay first and claim later. At the same time, another foreigner guy wanted to make money exchange probably he had another currency.

 

Oh, and one more thing. We did not know in advance which hotel we will be located at. I only know when I arrived there.

 

Personally, I would say it was stressing situation. Even for my card has been rejected after three times, I was starting to feel annoyed. Imagined the others who experienced worse than me. You know, after arrival everyone just want to go home and lay down in bed and rest. Not to go through these situations.

 

Therefore, it is better you ensure have enough money to pay upfront.

 

Face Shield and Face Mask at all time

Finally I checked in and lay down in the be, Alhamdulillah.

 

So yeah, hopefully this will give insight to you about the process of travelling back to country. Towards the end of my quarantine, I will share the details of the quarantine, result of the test etc., daily routine etc.

 

Take care and see you guys next time.

 

Take care and Salam w.b.t.

 

P/S - I asked a question to my colleague after she shared her achievement. I was happy for her of course. "What is next?". I did not expect anything solid from her. Actually, this question is more direct to me, "What is next?". It is a broad perspective but I need to figure it out.