REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, KUALA LUMPUR -- Residents in Malaysia are taking advantage of the 1446 Eid al-Fitri holiday to return to Indonesia. Indonesian Citizen (WNI) from East Java, Muhammad Abdul Khodir when he met ANTARA at Kuala Lumpur International Airport 2 (KLIA 2), Sepang, on Friday (28/3), said he would return to his hometown in Sampang this year.
He said Lebaran this time was the moment he was waiting for, because the last time he returned home was in 2023.
Abdul has spent five years working in the construction sector in Malaysia. He said this time he would take advantage of the month-long leave to reunite with his wife and son in his hometown.
He appeared to be carrying a lot of luggage that, according to him, contained souvenirs for his son, wife, and brother in the village.
Another settler from East Java, Roh also returned to his homeland this time. He claimed to have worked for about two years in Malaysia, in the restaurant service sector and only this time returned to his homeland.
He took advantage of air transport via KLIA directly to Surabaya before continuing on his way to his hometown in Sampang, Madura, along with a number of other WNI.
Foreigners come home
It is not only the local people who go home to fly. A number of foreigners who did live in Malaysia also returned home to Indonesia.
Zoey Phillips, 23, a sixth-semester student at HELP University in Kuala Lumpur, who is a U.S. citizen will also be heading to Jakarta to fly there.
He said she would celebrate Eid with her mother and younger sibling who had already returned to Jakarta. Meanwhile, her father and older sibling are currently in the United States.
Zoey, who has lived in Kuala Lumpur since she was little, admitted that she often goes home to Indonesia, specifically around Tanjung Priok, to celebrate Eid with her mother's extended family, to meet her grandparents and other relatives there.
Opor ayam and siomay made by her mother are the menus that she can't wait to enjoy during Eid.
That afternoon, she said she deliberately came early to KLIA, even though TransNusa airlines that would fly her to Jakarta had rescheduled their flight which was supposed to be around 14:48 Malaysian time, to around 18:25.
Meanwhile, Malaysian citizen Ahmad Zakaria said he would also go home to celebrate Eid in his wife's hometown in Cimahi, West Java. And usually four days after celebrating Eid in Indonesia, he will take his wife and children to Kuala Lumpur and then head to his hometown in Muar, Johor.
Ahmad, who still has Indonesian blood, precisely from Karanganyar, Central Java, admitted that he often goes to Indonesia. Usually, he will go to Cimahi twice a month to meet his wife and child.
Usually, he takes a flight from KLIA 2 to Kertajati, but this time he had to go through Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Tangerang because the flight route to Kertajati that he usually takes is no longer available.
Agencies and offices in Malaysia have started to close for the Eid celebrations from Friday to Sunday (6/4). The flow of people returning to their hometowns in Malaysia has started to be felt on Thursday (27/3) night, and it is estimated that the return flow will occur on April 5 and 6.
Ikuti Whatsapp Channel Republika