KUALA LUMPUR, March 18 — The restricted movement order Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin announced on Monday may not have been that surprising to Malaysians but it has certainly caught some foreign tourists by surprise.

An elderly couple from Germany, Margit and Joachim Hommes, have had their fun cut short on many segments of their two-month vacation, leaving them rather disappointed over the whole ordeal.

“We wanted to go home (after the prime minister’s announcement) but the price for an earlier flight was too high. It costs us €1,000 (RM4,800) per person to change our flight on Qatar Airways,” Joachim told Malay Mail when approached at KL Sentral this morning.

He and his wife, Margit, had just arrived from Ipoh. Originally, the couple who came to Malaysia on January 31 had planned a holiday to China.

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However, they were forced to find other options after China closed its borders to prevent the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) pandemic from worsening.

Margit and Joachim decided to travel around Malaysia instead and even visited Borneo.

Unfortunately, bad luck seems to dog the Hommes during their trip as their accommodation in Pangkor Island, Perak was cancelled at the very last minute following the restricted movement order which is taking place today.

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“Difficult... it’s been very difficult,” Margit lamented.

“We came (here today) from Ipoh. We wanted to go to Pangkor Island. We had a hotel booked on the island but they closed the hotel. Then we wanted to go to Ipoh but they cancelled our booking too, because of the coronavirus.”

Luckily, she and her husband managed to get a booking with Airbnb in the nation’s capital. They expect to return home on March 25 and hope that their flight will not be cancelled as well.