SEPANG: It was like winning a lottery ticket, says a young man from Klang, Selangor, when asked to describe his feelings upon arriving at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) from Melbourne, Australia, yesterday morning.
Ng Hou Jun, 26, who is working as a software engineer in Melbourne, said he was beyond ecstatic, and the feeling was indescribable after almost two years of not being able to return to Malaysia following the Covid-19 pandemic.
Although the Malaysian government had previously allowed locals residing abroad to return when the country’s borders were closed in March 2020, he decided not to return home due to the need to undergo quarantine, which he felt was quite burdensome.
“When I was finally ready to undergo quarantine, on March 1, my friend and I bought air tickets dated April 1.
“On March 8, I read on social media that the Malaysian government had agreed to reopen the borders and among other things, abolish the standard operating procedure and the need to quarantine.
“I feel very happy. It feels like I have won a lottery,” he told Bernama here yesterday.
Ng said he and his friend would be on holiday for a month in Malaysia before returning to Australia.
Meanwhile, a nasi kandar restaurant operator Mohamed Shafiq Riswan Waris greeted his grandparents, mother and uncle, who arrived from Chennai, India, at KLIA after not seeing them for almost a year.
As soon as his grandfather, Datuk Mohamed Salibu, 62, and other family members stepped out of the international arrival hall at 6:30am, Mohamed Shafiq, 25, and his four cousins rushed over to hug them.
“They were all in India to accompany my grandfather who was seeking medical treatment for kidney problems, and since then we have only communicated through our mobile phones,” said Mohamed Shafiq, who was excited to observe Ramadan with his grandfather and family members.
Meanwhile, Gary Crick, a 46-year-old teacher at an international school in Malaysia, described the arrival process as easy and fast as it took only an hour.
Another traveller, Manuel Villada, 29, from Mexico, said he flew in to KLIA from Dubai for a business meeting here.
“I chose April 1 because I wanted to avoid quarantine. Besides meetings, I plan to visit some tourist attractions here,” he said, adding that he will spend 10 days in the country.
Business traveller, Radu Lazar, 44, from Romania, said he had planned to visit Malaysia in December last year but postponed it due to a surge in Covid-19 cases during that time.
He praised the smooth process from the moment he stepped out of the plane until he got to the arrival gate.
On March 8, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob announced that the country’s borders would be reopened from April 1 in line with Malaysia’s plan to enter the transition period to the endemic phase of Covid-19.
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