8th APRIL 2020 ` It had been weeks since I last went to Pasar Borong Pandan [translate: Pandan Wholesale Market]. Why this place? It is near to my house, within 5 minutes' drive if the traffic is clear. And the prices of food items sold here are much cheaper than the ordinary market. This is because this market is meant to be a wholesale market and it is still opened to the public and allows customers to buy in small quantity.
The normal operating hours is actually at 5:00 p.m. until an hour past midnight. However, during the MCO period, the market is operating from 8:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. I was there a few minutes before 7:00 a.m. because a neighbour told me it would start business at 4:00 a.m. 😁
The gate was still closed but there were already people who had arrived much earlier than me. I was in dilemma, whether to stay and wait or just go back as I would have to wait for an hour. Soon more people were arriving and they started to form a queue in front of the gate and I decided to just join the crowd. Furthermore I was at the front part of the line so I should be let in earlier.
One good thing was people were all wearing face masks and they observe the rule of social distancing. Unfortunately while I was queuing up, there were these two inconsiderate men who were puffing away their cigarettes without feeling guilty at all. We were all standing near to each other in a confined area so there would be no way for the cigarette's smoke to escape. I was about to tell them to go somewhere else to smoke but they might get offended and this could create an ugly scene there. Luckily I did not do that because after that I saw one senior police officer was also smoking at the gate. 😐
By 7:30 a.m. the line had grown longer, and people were already standing on the main road.
Finally the gate was opened at 7:45 a.m. The police officer did the temperature check first before letting us in.
There were lesser people doing business transaction as they tried to have only 60 customers in the market at one time.
I managed to get my supply of fish and vegetables for two weeks from the market in less than 30 minutes. The queuing took much longer than the shopping. As I marched out happily from the building, there were still people waiting for their turn in a long line outside. In one aspect, MCO has at least taught Malaysians to be more obedient, disciplined and patient, and we know together we can win this fight against COVID-19.
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