Borneo at times of Covid 19 Part 1
Chronology of COVID-19 outbreak as experienced by Bike and Tours
(written by Itisha Ismail)
Part 1 of 2: Pre-Movement Control Order
13 March 2020: Before the Movement Control Order.
I don’t know where to start…………..
Too many happenings in just a short time span. March 2020 started rather bumpy for us due to the malicious act by one of our business partner cum “friend”. Ok maybe malicious is a strong word. Let’s just say we had a royally unpleasant divide!
I remember clearly, about 7 years ago, when we first moved to Sabah one of the seasoned industry players warned us that the tourism industry here is filled with green eyed monsters! I tried to be neutral and told him, “Well I don’t think it is jealousy. I think it is just the plain fact that everyone needs to be competitive to succeed. It is not about being jealous of each other. Healthy competition is always good for all of us”. He snickered, looked at me with a poker face and said, “well when you see the head of your cat being hung on your gate, then perhaps you could relate to what I just told you”. I kept mum at his response, not too sure if he was being serious or just pulling my leg.
Fast-forward to 2020, we still see the tourism industry as competitive and not a field sprinkled with green-eyed monsters. Collaboration between partners are much needed in order to offer and deliver great unique tours for travelers. That was until March 2020 rolled in. Well nothing dramatic – my cat’s head is still intact – thankfully. It was a great divide that we could handle. No doubt challenging during the moment in time but manageable. I shall not go into detail on this as it would not be irrelevant to the title above.
Today, almost 2 weeks after the situation took place, we describe the happening as a blessing in disguise. On top of us being independent in some ways, it also opened up opportunities to collaborate with others. Sadly, partnership and friendship parted ways. Moving on…..
Early March was a busy time. We conducted tours, entertained guests, went for recce tours to Sungai Bule (blog on this coming up soon), successfully handled damage control incidents and as planned we blocked a few days in mid-March to celebrate my 42nd Birthday. We bid farewell to our last few guests that early morning of 13 March 2020 before departing Lahad Datu for our Sungai Kapur – Kinabatangan 5 days river excursion.
Indeed the 5 days river excursion was a great birthday escape. It was an eye-opening experience to some of the places that we have been to in the past but seen from a different angle. The river cruise from Sungai Kapur to community village at Kampung Dagat had a touching story that reminded me to always be humble and hospitable no matter what the situation. Although faced with hard challenges, there are still some beautiful souls within the younger generation that pushes the broken spirits of their elderly to continue with the community tourism homestay project.
Our excursion proceeded to a few nights stay in the beautiful and tastefully built chalets in Kinabatangan Wetlands Resort (KWR) in Abai. Located away from tourist crowd and right smack in the mangrove forest. Ohhh how I love this place. A place where you can inhale nature from sight, smell, mind and soul. The perfect place to celebrate my 42nd Birthday. We have always come here with guests. Which means – even if the guests are our close friends or relatives, HOST mode was automatically on alert. But this time around we don’t have anyone to take care of and after back to back tours, it was time to let loose. As selfish as it sounds, I believe only people in the hospitality industry could relate to this. The friendly and warm team at KWR including managers Sheng and JR made our stay there extra special. In fact, we finally spent some time with Sheng at the resort. This was a rare occasion as she is based in Sandakan and most of the time busy. So, I felt honored that she was there and we got to celebrate my birthday together.
There were only about 15 guests on the resort including our family of 4 pax. Density wise, we had a huge space for social distancing! We had a nature guide to take us for river cruises, but we decided to skip it as we had our very own wildlife safari from Sungai Kapur to Dagat to Abai.
Instead we chose to unwind by going for a relaxing stroll at the boardwalk. On our own, we saw a few bearded wild boars, squirrels, lemur and a giant monitor lizard. In the room, our girls were excited with the outdoor shower and found amusement from the readily available “electronic nanny” = cable tv which offers various cartoon channels. While the girls were occupied, Simon and I found our own “me” time. One of us enjoyed the luxury of sipping a few cups of coffee at the balcony overlooking the amazing green view of the forest and I had my “me” time reading a book at the huge sofa bed set next to the glass wall window. Everyone had their own zen time at this amazing resort.
KWR is a place where one will never get hungry. Delicious local and western styled buffet meals are there to warm the tummy, heart and soul during your stay. Kudos to the Chef and kitchen team with the different type of dishes presented to the guests. Over dinner with Sheng and JR we spoke about the recent Corona virus. They experienced last minute cancellations within that time. But It was too last minute a cancellation for the guests to be refunded.
We shared the same experience but at that stage we only had 1 cancellation from our American guests. They could not make it, as their flight was cancelled and to source for new flight was far too expensive. They were levelheaded when we offered to postpone the tour to another date but preferred to cancel and claim from their insurance. I remembered telling Sheng “We are not too effected as most of our guests are from Switzerland, Germany and UK”. Our first cancellations come from American guests and conversations from other industry players indicated that the flight cancellations came mainly from the American sector…….
Little did I know that this situation was about to change……
17 March 2020 - A day before Movement Control Order….
We arrived Lahad Datu on the 17 March 2020. Refreshed, recharged and inspired from our long weekend getaway. As most of the places we’ve been to were remote jungle, we had intermittent internet access and I truly appreciated being disconnected during that point. However, were we in for a big “surprise” when we arrived home. Message alerts from different channels – SMS, WhatsApp, emails, Facebook were rhythm coming from our mobile phones.
Rhythm or warning? My gut feelings told me that it definitely has something to do with the corona virus. Yet, I was not ready for bad news. It’s too soon to spoil my perfect long weekend experience. I was as curious as a cat but I kept calm and mentally controlled myself from checking my inbox. Instead, I checked Facebook – a platform where most busy intellectuals would regard as a stage for those who have all the time in the world to frequent to. And there I was. I read posts after posts from friends’ walls on the Movement Control Order (MCO) or Restriction of Movement Order (RMO) announced by the Malaysian Government to combat the Covid-19 outbreak. This was set to roll out tomorrow 18 March 2020 to 31 March 2020.
To be continued...