Delivery driver captures rare scenes of empty KL streets during extended MCO

Since Malaysia's government implemented the Movement Control Order (MCO) more than two months ago on March 18, the entire nation has been on a partial lockdown and people's way of life have changed in significant ways.

Gone are the days of rushing to work in the city every morning and getting stuck in traffic gridlocks for hours. Instead of shopping and dining out till the late hours, everyone is staying home, shopping online and using food delivery services.

This change during the MCO is so evident in the photos of the empty streets in Kuala Lumpur posted on Facebook on May 10 by Raihan Talib, a delivery driver with Lalamove. He shared that he took the photos with his Samsung smartphone while making his deliveries.

Raihan is a full-time photographer by profession but his work assignments had either been cancelled or postponed due to the MCO, so he joined Lalamove in early April to earn some extra money, according to SAYS.

He told SAYS that the photos were taken during the third phase of MCO.

"These photos were taken between April 17 and May 1. During the first few days that I started delivering, I saw that KL was really empty and it looked like a ghost town, something I had never seen before," said Raihan.

Raihan added that he focused on shooting streets and areas in Kuala Lumpur that were famous for their hustle and bustle, which explains why the photos of the deserted places look so fascinating.

His Facebook post has gone viral with over 1.6K likes, 325 comments and over 3.2K shares to date.

Many people thanked Raihan for sharing his photos and commented that it was amazing to see how different the city looks during the MCO. The sky has never been this clear, while Kuala Lumpur seems almost eerie with its stillness in the middle of the day, some Facebook users wrote.

It is indeed rare to see so little traffic and no tourists wandering on the iconic streets of China Town and Little India, Brickfields.

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melinamoey@asiaone.com