Overall, I consider my journey to Perth during the pandemic time to be like riding a roller coaster. My initial plan was to fly to Perth on February 17th because my orientation was due to start on 21st February. At that point, the Western Australian border was due to open on February 5th, so my flight date was perfect. Malaysia Airlines then changed my flight to February 19th with no reason given. The situation became even more complicated because I had to change my flight to February 10th because I then  received information that I had to quarantine for two weeks after arriving in Perth. Suddenly, on January 31st, I received an official email from Curtin University informing me that international students needed to come to Western Australia before 5th February as the border was no longer due to open on February 5th due to the increasing cases of COVID-19 in Perth. I was anxious about all of the changes because I needed to prepare everything in a short period of time, but I trusted that everything would be okay.

After I confirmed the announcement with my AUG agent and university representative, I checked all the airlines to book my flight and cancel my previous flight with Malaysia Airlines. There were so many airline websites that my friends and I visited. At last, we chose to fly with Singapore Airlines from Malaysia to Singapore and Sydney, as we needed to cross the interstate border in Australia before flying into Perth. I packed all of my things and gathered all of the documents, including the Australia Travel Declaration (ATD) form and G2G Pass. I also did a PCR test as the test was one of the requirements to fly overseas.

My friends and I chose to fly with Singapore Airlines on 3rd February from Malaysia to Singapore and transit in Singapore for 9 hours before continuing our journey to Sydney. At the Sydney airport, my friends and I only had about 4 hours to do everything, including declaration with the Australian Customs, waiting for our luggage, getting an Australian Sim Card, rushing to get the train to transfer from the international terminal to the domestic and check-in our luggage. We needed to move to a domestic terminal because we had booked a low-cost airline to Perth with Virgin Australia, which took about 5 hours flight.

Finally, on February 5th at 12.30 am, we arrived in Perth. I felt relieved to be in Perth, even though I had to quarantine for seven days. I remembered nothing different about the in-flight experience from before COVID-19 because all seats on the flight were seated and there was no social distancing. However, the new norm of the pandemic was visible when all the passengers wore a face mask and received a care kit on the flight.

While on the flight to Perth, I received an email from Curtin Student Services stating that they had arranged for me to complete my self-quarantine in the Nesuto Curtin Hotel at no further cost. They had also issued me a Cabcharge Digital Pass from Perth Airport to go to the hotel for quarantine. While my friends had to pay for their hotel and meals, I didn’t, because Curtin provided the room and all meals. I am so grateful for Curtin’s support.

In the end, I completed seven days of quarantine in the hotel instead of 14 days. I felt so blessed that the government had cut off the quarantine duration because I did not know what to do besides watching movies on Netflix, joining daily Zoom meetings with the StudyPerth team, and sleeping all day. I took a PCR test at the Fiona Stanley Hospital within 48 hours after arrival, and I also did the Covid self-test on day 7 of quarantine before checking out from the hotel.

 After checking out from the hotel, I called the Unilodge staff to help me with the check-in process into my student accommodation, Twin Dolphin Hall, which is located just opposite the hotel building. When I finally checked into Dolphin Hall after quarantining, I felt happy and excited. That afternoon, I went to Carousel with my new friends that I had met that day to buy essentials such as pillows.

In the end, my journey to Perth was quite fun, despite the many false hopes that I had received at first.