​The lockdown worldwide has seen many of us being confined to our homes with limited movement outside these parameters. 
 
Albeit difficult to be cooped up at home, one has the luxury still to move around from one room to another. But imagine being confined to a room for 14 days… 35 square-metres of space. This is what I’m currently in as everyone entering Malaysia, will have to go through a mandatory quarantine to lower the risk of a second wave via imported cases.

​Still this is a luxury as I’m in a comfortable hotel in Kuala Lumpur with all the essential amenities provided, meals included, wi-fi and my gadgets to keep me connected to the outside world. And I don’t have to pay for this – it’s covered by the government (technically my tax money too). 
 
The first 48 hours was somewhat erratic. 

When I left to Sumba in Indonesia, little did I know that I would be some-what stranded there indefinitely. I was due to fly home in early April but within the first week of my arrival, my flight was cancelled and Malaysia commenced the Movement Control Order (MCO) on the 18th of March. 
 
At first, I didn’t think much of it as the MCO was to last 2 weeks and I would be back home just after the MCO lifts – so I thought. I couldn’t get through to the airlines at first. Panic was slowly creeping in as it’s been 2 days and I am not able to get through to Malindo Air. Almost a week later I received an email letting me know about my options and from the news, I got to know that the airlines have grounded all their flights till further notice – so I asked for a travel credit refund.

​We are living in strange times… air travel is almost at a standstill and staying in doors means staying safe. For a number of us, we are separated from loved ones with the uncertainly of when we will see them again, and for a selected few, we are stuck out in far-flung places looking for a way back home. 

I was the selected few stuck out on a remote island in Indonesia known as Sumba. Little did I know the severity of how this pandemic would affect air travel and the lives of everyone around the globe. Unless you’re about 100 years old, the last pandemic of this scale was the Spanish Flu. I under estimated the scale of impact it would have on my life when I left home. 
 
Although I felt relative safe being in an island that had very little tourist traffic, the uncertainty of when I could get home or if I can get home was, to say the least, daunting. If you are in the same situation as me, here are a few things you can do to think clearly. ​