KUALA LUMPUR, July 13 — A British online entrepreneur and YouTuber who has been stranded in Malaysia since March has commended the country for its efficient handling of the Covid-19 pandemic.
In an eight-minute-long video, Darren Cronian shared his quarantine experience as a foreigner which began shortly after he arrived in Kuala Lumpur nearly five months ago.
The Englishman previously made headlines late last year after flying 9,600km from Athens to Kuala Lumpur just to satisfy his nasi lemak cravings.
Cronian, who has been to Malaysia before, had intentions of exploring the country as much as possible but the situation changed rapidly due to the virus and the movement control order (MCO) came into effect.
“I sat there thinking do I go back home or do I stay here in Malaysia?” he said in the video.
The clip titled A Foreigner’s Message to Malaysia was posted on Saturday and has been viewed over 72,000 times at the time of writing with hundreds of comments.
Cronian added that it was a difficult decision to make, particularly because he had family back home and didn’t want to risk infecting them.
“I knew if I went back into the UK, I had to live with my parents and I wouldn’t want to bring any virus into their home.”
“When I saw Malaysia jumped into action, whilst the UK was kind of still open for business, I made the decision that I am going to strand myself in Malaysia and stay here and see it through whatever amount of time it was going to take.
Cronian thought he was going to be stranded for a couple of weeks, saying he didn’t think he was going to be under lockdown for 11 weeks.
“I have been incredibly impressed with how Malaysia has handled the Covid-19.
“All of the state borders had police and army making sure people were not moving around, you could only go for food and essential items.
“You need to have strong leadership and I feel like the Health ministry dealt with it fantastically, the frontliners dealt with it amazingly,” he said.
Cronian added that what Malaysia has been doing to curb the spread of Covid-19 is a model for the rest of the world.
He also shared his quarantine routine in the clip which included shadowboxing to the iconic Rocky theme, weightlifting with water bottles and spending lots of time looking out his window.
He said he was thankful to the people in Malaysia who contacted him on his social media platforms to ask how he was doing or if he needed anything despite not knowing him personally.
“That didn’t make me feel as alone, that made me feel better that I had people that were looking out for me,” he said.
“I just want to say thank you Malaysia for looking out for me…for giving me a safe home to live in over these last five months nearly.”
Cronian concluded the video with an update for his 18,200 subscribers saying he will embark on a four-week road trip very soon.
