Chinese New Year, Singapore, Corona Virus

Finally, the first half of the year is done, and our children in China received their first report cards. Both children did very well and can be very satisfied. Now it’s time for vacation!! Off to Singapore and Malaysia.

We flew to Singapore via Hong Kong. A wonderfully tropical country awaited us. Over 30 degrees Celsius, lots of sunshine. We chose a hotel that was a bit outside of the city and by the sea, and it also had an amazing water park. We spent wonderful days by and in the water and explored the city.

One of the most impressive things was the Marina Bay Sands. A luxury hotel right by the harbor with the world’s largest infinity pool and a gigantic observation deck. Unfortunately, we couldn’t go in the pool. It’s reserved for hotel guests. But the observation deck was also impressive.

We took a hop on hop off bus to explore all of Singapore: from the huge ferris wheel to the amusement island Sentosa, we saw it all. One day, we took a long-distance bus (first class, business, or economy booking was possible) to Kuala Lumpur. The supposed 3-4 hour trip took 5 hours. That was really annoying, because it meant we lost hours on site. However, the bus was really great. Lots of space for everyone...and food and drinks included.

Kuala Lumpur, on the other hand, really disappointed us. It’s a rather grubby city without any charm. Here, too, we took a hop on hop off bus. Only the Twin Towers were impressive. We also had some tasty food. The trip back was even worse traffic-wise. It was basically stop and go the whole way. So we didn’t arrive back in Singapore until late at night. We definitely don’t need to go to Kuala Lumpur again. However, all four of us were so impressed by Singapore that we will definitely come back.

During our days in Singapore, we followed (with some concern) in the media how a new virus, called the Corona Virus, is spreading. It apparently originated from Wuhan, China, which is 2000 km away from Beijing. It is spreading from the very famous delicacy market in Wuhan, where there are all sorts of wild animals (thanks to the large amount of travel now during the New Year season).

Wuhan has about 12,000,000 inhabitants. Many of them are currently traveling through the country.

China has implemented all measures to prevent any further spread. That’s why we found out 2 days before school was supposed to start that the school, as well as all public institutions in Beijing, will remain closed for the time being. The school will teach all students online. All VW employees are working from home.

We decided to return to Germany for now. To wait and see how things develop. The media is going crazy over this topic, and we had to realize that many people in Germany are unsure. Some assume that anyone coming from China carries the virus. That is definitely not the case.

Nevertheless, the situation is bizarre for us, and the online school system is very comprehensive. We often work on it until late in the afternoon. Rene has been back in Beijing for two days now. The three of us have been in Braunschweig for the 3rd week already.

No one can predict the future, but no one expected anything like this. We don’t know exactly how things will proceed. We are waiting and seeing.

That is why the travel blog is on hold as of today (18.02.19) until further notice.

We will get back to you when we know how things will continue.

All the best