Sharing stories of nomads during the coronavirus pandemic (Vol. 5)

We’ve been reaching out to our nomadic friends to make sure they are safe, healthy and offered them to share their stories on our blog as everyone’s situation is very different, especially when you don’t have a fixed home. Since we’ve received a few of these stories, we decided to publish every Wednesday. (Make sure to sign-up to our newsletter to get these stories are soon as we publish them).

This week we are sharing the story of Emily & Ryan who are currently in Malaysia. Through their story, you will learn about how they ended up where they are today, how they are currently handling this pandemic and what’s next for them.

Emily & Ryan 

Before we get into our story about how the COVID-19 has impacted our lives personally, we want to recognize that the inconvenience we are going through is very minor compared to those who have experienced this horrible virus first hand. Our thoughts and prayers go out to all of those who are now suffering.

Introduction To The Coronavirus

Emily has a medical background and began following the news about COVID-19 the first week of January. We stayed alert and knew that we needed to remain flexible. We continued on with our plans of traveling through Laos, Bangkok, and Siem Reap.

But about half-way through our time in Siem Reap the spread of the virus around the world really started picking up, and we knew needed to adjust our plans. We quickly ruled out returning home. The virus was not being taken seriously in the US at that time, and we would run the risk of being stranded at a connecting country if travel restrictions went into place while we were in transit. We also ruled out continuing onto Vietnam because the government was adding more and more restrictions for entry. We thought it would be best not to stay in Cambodia because our visa was expiring soon and the health care system is not well-developed.

We were planning to go to Malaysia sometime later in our Southeast Asia travel itinerary, and going to Malaysia now seemed like a good idea. We knew that Malaysia has a great health-care system, and most of the COVID-19 cases in the country at the time were directly related to one particular religious event. We found a cheap non-stop flight from Siem Reap to Kuala Lumpur.

Things Became Real Very Fast

We were in the mountain town of Cameron Highlands when the country implemented a complete 14-day lock-down. There was a short period of chaos as we tried to figure out what to do. Do we stay here in Cameron Highlands for two weeks, or do we try to leave now while we still can? The hostel where we were staying said that they would remain open during the lock-down, so we decided to stay put for the 14-day lock-down. But then the next day, the hostel owner suddenly posted a sign in the lobby saying that they would be closing. What!?!? They had just extended our reservation for the full two week period!

Emily quickly got on Airbnb to see if there were any available apartments to rent. While we were waiting to hear back from an Airbnb host, we decided to head over to the bus station to see if there were any tickets out of Cameron Highlands. There were tickets on an afternoon bus for the next day, but the lock-down was supposed to start at noon the next day. We were worried that the bus company might end up canceling the bus. But at the same time, we had nowhere to stay here! What do we do? And the ticket window at the bus station was closing for the night so we had to make a quick decision!

We were able to check Airbnb while we were at the bus station to see if the host had accepted our reservation request. We were elated to see the “Reservation Accepted” message! With a huge sigh or relief, we left the bus station and headed back to our hostel to pack and get ready to leave the next day.

What’s Next?

So, here we are today, living in an apartment in the Cameron Highlands until the lock-down is over (we just found out that the lock-down has been extended for an additional two weeks, and fortunately we have been able to extend our reservation with our lovely Airbnb host). Our hosts left a huge amount of food and supplies for us to have here. Only one of us is allowed to leave the apartment, but only to go to the grocery store. The weather here in the mountains is perfect (not that we are allowed to go outside and enjoy it, but it’s nice to have the windows open to get some fresh air.) We’re not sure where we’ll be headed next. We are taking everything one day at a time right now.  

Want to read other stories?

Check out the previous stories we published on our blog:

• Volume 1: James & Emily (Cyprus) & Michelle (Australia)
• Volume 2: Shoshannah (Arizona, USA) & Eric (Michigan, USA)
• Volume 3: Ali & Alison (San Miguel de Allende, Mexico)
• Volume 4: Eric & Katie (Da Nang, Vietnam)

Do you want to share your story?

We are living in an unprecedented time and we would love to share your story with our audience and connect with our community. So if you are interested to share your story, please reach out to us. (We created a story outline template if you are looking for guidance about what to discuss).