16th March 2021
Tired, exhausted, but elated I arrive at KLIA airport, Kuala Lumpur, after a rather stressful, deserted yet unremarkable 12-hour flight. Travelling in Covid-time is no joke. After negotiating what seem like endless tables and counters, and presenting numerous documents filled out and photocopied in triplicate to be signed and noisily stamped, I finally emerge into the warm and welcoming heat of the airport concours, luggage in tow, and presumably my driver somewhere ahead.
Here he is, my driver at last, as he screeches round the bend in front of the main arrivals area. He is a friendly Indian Malaysian driver who is to take me to my Hotel Quarantine (aka The Marriott, Putrajaya) for 7 days enforced solitary confinement, at great expense to, well, myself. My luggage is duly sprayed by a local, dressed from head to toe in a hazmat suit, with some anti-bug/disinfectant type deadly mist and then bundled unceremoniously into the boot of the white sedan. We roar away, driver hunched intently over the wheel, a/c on full blast, despite the window being wide open.
“How was your journey, ma’am,” he asks politely.
“Exhausting but okay,” I reply absent-mindedly from the back, gazing out of the window at this tropical tiger of a land, ready to pounce on me. He speeds out onto the highway, weaving between the traffic, as I super-focus on the road ahead, jaw clenched, twisting the unneeded jacket that rests on my lap. Clutching the door handle as he hurtles around another bend, I feel a knot of fear growing in my belly.
I am trying to stay calm as he careers through the traffic, ignoring all the speed limits and cutting across the bows of several trucks before then breaking suddenly as he nearly misses an exit. I’m too scared to tell him I’m scared…
I decide to engage him in conversation, as a distraction, and ask him where he’s been recently.
“I have just driven yesterday all the way to Kelantan, eight hours already, and then last night I drove all the way back. And then I came to pick you up, ma’am, to take you to your hotel.”
Watching the abundant, verdant tropical scenery whizzing past, I try to focus on orientating myself in this vaguely familiar, and soon-to-be-reacquainted land. Blissful in the knowledge that I’m finally here, leaving a rather grim and Covid-ridden Blighty behind, soon I’ll be soaking up the delights of this slightly less restricted Malaysian capital city, with all the noises, kicks and smells I’m keen to explore.
All of a sudden, he swerves to avoid another lorry and this time I’ve had enough. Remembering what my son had told me only a few days ago, if you feel scared you are entitled to say something to the driver, I pluck up the courage and say: “Sir, I believe we don’t have to go so fast; I am in no rush to get to the hotel, we still have time!”
“Oh, but ma’am, I cannot drive any slower. If I drive any slower ma’am, I will just fall asleep!” Welcome back to Malaysia. Selamat datang.
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