Langkawi, Malaysia
We’ve been in lock-down, here in Malaysia for 72 days now. I don’t know if it feels like longer than that or not, I just know it feels like a long time regardless of how many days it’s actually been.
Officially the original MCO (Movement Control Order) has now been relaxed to a CMCO (Conditional Movement Control Order). I know, a whole bunch of letters right? What it means though is that things have been slightly relaxed. We can both go to the shops on the motorbike. When it was the original MCO there was only myself able to go as just one person from each household was allowed to go out. Also Dani can’t ride the bike so she was stranded in our digs for about 6 weeks or so. That’s been a nice change for us, both of us able to get out and about a little.
Despite things being slightly relaxed though we still don’t really venture out too much. Not many people do to be honest. When the rules were relaxed slightly and Ramadan started there was a noticeable increase in the traffic on the roads but that quickly died away again and you still don’t see many folks out and about. Most people here are generally following the advice and keeping themselves safe and at home.
Since February there have only been 3 cases on the island in total and 2 of those were Chinese tourists all the way back in February. Overall it feels safe being here and still feels like we made the right decision not to return home.
The other good thing is that the authorities here have said that if your visa expires during the lock-down it doesn’t matter. You have until 14 days after the lock-down is officially lifted to get yourself out of Malaysia. That currently means we can stay here until at least the 23rd of June. Most likely longer as I suspect they will extend the MCO yet again.
This is good news for us but at the same time we would love to be able to move on somewhere else for a change. Apart from the 2 weeks we had in Thailand for a visa run back in February we have now been in Malaysia for the last 6 months! We would love to get back to our adventures. Heading off in new and exciting places in search of what we can find. But we know that reality is now completely different. The world has changed and it will be quite some time before things get back to how they were before. Still we would like to move off to pastures new even if it’s just to park up somewhere again.
We are checking every day for updates. We would love to be able to head off to Bali and settle there for a while but it doesn’t look like Indonesia are going to be opening their borders for quite some time.
Similarly Thailand would be a nice option and despite the fact their cases and deaths are now incredibly low they have already announced this week that they are extending their current lock-down rules until July. That’s what gives us the gut feeling that Malaysia will extend their restrictions as well. We could be stuck in Malaysia for quite some time yet. Still to us that is always better than having to head back home for many reasons.
Since the MCO was relaxed a little we are now allowed to go back to help out at the Lassie animal shelter. We have been along a handful of times to see the dogs and cats which has been nice but now we can’t commit to moving back their permanently. With all the free time we have had on our hands due to the lock-down we have been productive and obtained our TEFL qualifications. Enabling us to teach English to foreign language students. We need good internet and a quiet environment to work and that’s something we can’t get back at the shelter.
It’s going quite well so far. We are currently working through a company called Palfish who operate an English learning app for students in China. The money is good, even by back home standards. £13 an hour is what they are paying and despite the fact we don’t have a huge amount of lessons so far it is still providing us enough income to keep us going.
The rent where we are staying is great at £178 a month and with just 2 to 3 hours teaching a day we have enough to get by. Hopefully our hours increase and it will allow us to stay on the road and to eventually explore some new places once everything settles a bit more.
We have been speaking with an English couple who are currently locked down in Vietnam via our travel instagram. They have been teaching via the same Palfish app for around 6 weeks longer than us and are currently raking in between 4-5k a month! They are working crazy hours to get that much. 10 hour days every single day, a lot more than we would ever commit to but it just shows how some simple online work can be enough to keep you traveling indefinitely. With what they are currently earning they could do that for 2 months and have enough to live comfortably in Asia for the next year. Quite remarkable.
So we are going to keep that up and give it our best shot. Ideally we would like to continue doing the teaching and live in Bali for a while. That would be a dream scenario to work only a few hours a day and to have Bali as your home for a year or so. We will see how it plays out but I guess that’s something for us to drive towards. Either way somewhere to park up for a while, enjoy settling in and get some more cash to be able to explore when things are much more open again further down the line.
It’s been quite hard trying to pull any kind of blog entry together really. Doesn’t feel like much has happened, and guess that’s the same for most folks the world over. I know I have drank far too much. It’s cheap here and with not much else to do in the way of entertainment it’s been an easy thing to turn to. The other morning I woke up with my head on the table and as I moved I managed to knock a full can of beer all over my laptop. Not my best move ever but thankfully it still seems to be working…..at least until components start to corrode I guess!
Sunday night Zoom quizzes with Dani’s family have been fun and I’m almost caught up now with all the Marvel films (see, I really am struggling for any decent kind of blog content!). I’ve done a lot of sketching and art as well to keep me entertained, most of it done with a can in my hand but hey.
That’s about it really. If anything interesting or exciting happens I’ll certainly pull another another post together. If not then expect of the same in about a months time.
Stay safe all and hopefully we get through this sooner rather than later.
