I've seen this from different perspectives. When the virus broke out I was living in China in Shandong Province. I was immediately interested in it as many of my colleagues are obviously Chinese and I actually lived and worked in Wuhan in 2006/7. The Chinese New Year holiday started and all of the foreign staff flew off for our 3 week break, but kept in touch with work to see what was happening - it didn't feel like a normal break.
The lock downs started being announced, first in Hubei Province and then country-wide. My Chinese colleagues who stayed in China were forced to stay in their homes permanently and could only order stuff to be delivered (like food). Fortunately online shopping and food delivery are advanced and massive in China, you can order and have anything delivered to your door, from a take away to a case of wine to a laptop to a small electric scooter or car. Security was beefed up and lock downs strictly enforced, there was a huge concerted effort to keep everyone in and safe but still lots of delivery guys constantly buzzing around and medics going door to door. My flight from Bangkok back to China left without me on February 6th.
I stayed in Thailand until the end of March - about 8 weeks - and could walk or (more often) ride my motorbike around without any issues at all. A few people had masks on but supermarkets and malls were heaving with people, the bars and restaurants were still pretty full but you could get a seat in any, as the Chinese tourists had stopped coming. One hotel that exclusively catered to Chinese tour groups had 380 rooms but only 6 taken. When my extended visa was up I looked around and decided to go, for the first time, to Malaysia. Specifically Kuala Lumpur. I flew in and liked the ambiance of the airport, much more relaxed and cleaner than a lot of places I'd recently been to. I checked into my hotel in the city and three hours later they announced a country-wide lock down.
Okay, but I can still go shopping for food, go for walks in the city for exercise, and order stuff online, right? Not quite. Yes, you can have deliveries but my card doesn't work here except in the atm so cash only. Also you aren't allowed to go out unless it's to/from a supermarket or pharmacy. No going for strolls, runs, or bike rides. Definitely no renting a motorbike to tour around. So really all you can do is shop for food and medicine, which is a pretty strict lock down but not as severe as China. As I was staying in a hotel all I could do was order in food or walk to a nearby restaurant for take out. That quickly became boring so I started looking at leaving for somewhere else.
Vietnam had closed its borders to Brits and other nationalities, China was still not looking good, Cambodia was (and still is) suffering from blackouts daily, the Philippines had closed Manila, Indonesia was having big break outs of the virus, then Thailand shut its borders too, Myanmar also closed up, the flights to Laos dried up, Europe was a total no go because of the virus and lack of seats on flights there, Australasia was completely out of bounds as were south America, north America, Africa, the 'Stans, Russia, and I couldn't return home because my parents are very old and I'd been telling them to isolate way before the government announced it. Bearing in mind I was acutely aware of the issues in January, and read about them every day for hours since, there was no way I could return home without feeling at best apprehension, at worst survivors guilt.
So I rented an apartment in KL, walking around a supermarket (with face mask on, and having your temperature taken and hands steralised before you're allowed to enter - in small numbers only) I could shop for food to cook which feels pretty liberating now we're under such a strict lock down here. How long this will last is impossible to say. My month in my apartment is nearly up and my landlord wants to know if I will book another. Now China, particularly the province I work in, has zero new infections and I'd really like to go back to my apartment there after over 3 months away from my stuff. Unfortunately that isn't to be, so do I book another month? After spending 2 months constantly booking 'a few more days' in hotels, some permanency is pretty good. The thing is, another month is until the end of May when I left my place of work just after New Years. I can't totally comprehend this situation, it's always changing and so difficult to totally understand. I'll probably book another month, although I don't want to stay here because it's really boring and dull. But at least the apartment is lovely, really comfortable. I haven't spoken to anyone mask to mask in weeks, other than a quick trip to a hospital for a repeat prescription. Going a bit do lally, but that is normal for me.
