Friday December 6, 2019 my boyfriend Coen came home from work with life-changing news: his employer offered him a new job in Singapore. He could start in February 2020. I did not hesitate and told him that he should take the opportunity, but not without taking me. Of course, he agreed. That was the start of planning our new adventure; expat-life was around the corner. We arranged everything so I could come along, I quit my job, said goodbye to our friends and family and started packing.
But then came Corona…
The virus arrived in Singapore from China in January 2020. All signs were on hold: Coen’s employer did not want us to go until Singapore has the virus under control. But in February 2020 the Corona-virus arrived in The Netherlands. How weird this may sound, this was the window we were hoping for, because now also our home country was affected, while the infected cases in Singapore were under control. On March 10 we got a ‘go’ from the employer and booked a one way-ticket for March 17.
However, the virus arriving in Europe, was also the reason for Singapore to close the borders for foreigners from most European countries at midnight on March 15.
#whattoexpectwhenyoureexpatting
Then the rollercoaster really started; a phone call from Coen’s employer on Friday morning March 13, telling us that if we still wanted to go to Singapore, we should arrive no later than Sunday because of the border closings (two days later!). Coen and I looked at eachother and in a split second we decided we should leave the next day. So we started packing like crazy. Nothing was really packed yet, because we thought we still had a couple of days left. At 3 pm another phone call: Holland is not on yet on Singapore’s ‘Stay-home-notice’-list (a 14 day quarantine in a designated hotel), so we could still leave on March 17. That gave us a little bit more time to pack, buy some Dutch essentials (cheese, drop and stroopwafels), say goodbye and leave our house clean and tidy.
Again a phone call at 4:45 pm from Coen’s employer: “Are you leaving tomorrow or not? If you want to, you have to decide now, because Singapore is getting stricter every hour.” WHAT!? Okay, yes, let’s go!! Coen contacted the booking agency, I got back to packing. We packed until late that night and woke up early the next morning to get all our personal stuff out of our house. But we made it! At 4 pm the taxi arrived and we were ready to go to the airport. My parents came to the airport to say goodbye. Unfortunately, we could not hug and kiss my parents goodbye at the airport, because of the virus. So we waved at each other from a safe distance at the departure hall. We walked into an almost deserted airport; a very surreal experience.
Ready for departure
On Sunday March 15 the roller coaster came to an end, after a short stop-over in Kuala Lumpur. We arrived at the airport in Singapore, our visas were accepted, our body temperatures were perfectly normal and we picked up all our luggage at the belt. Right there at the luggage belt, we finally did a little happy dance. We made it!!
Positive point of Corona was that we did not have to wait a second for a taxi at Changi Airport and we were almost the only guests in the Grand Copthorne Waterfront Hotel. Finally, our expat-adventure could begin…
Marina Bay Sands and the Merlion
Since I’m living in Singapore right now, and due to COVID-19 it’s not possible to travel abroad, I’ll post a lot more tips for Singapore here. Read my post about starting a travel blog during a pandemic here. Or click on the highlighted destinations if you’re interested in more travel inspiration for other countries in Asia, like Malaysia, Thailand, China, Indonesia, Tibet or Japan.
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