Settling in Malaysia - Decision & Transition

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Awesome feedback on this thread since it centres on "guts" of case for/against Malaysia.

Apart from RJNPENANG, has anyone else encountered major disappointments or unforeseen issues re Malaysia

Incidentally, we initially considered South America, but like Cupert, proximity to OZ was a factor.

Cheers,

James

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For a variety of reasons I have wanted to leave the UK for the better part of 30 years but persuading the other half proved impossible until fairly recently.

We considered France - great food and wine, we would be able to explore Europe and its culture but the cost of living was a problem and we do not speak fluent French. We also considered Cyprus  - still close to the UK, good weather etc but the cost of living there has risen over recent years and who wants to spend their autumn years being broke??

Australian and New Zealand were also out of reach.

We had visited the far east (including Malaysia) on a few occasions  but the country only 'came alive'; for us when we met my brother (who lives in Brisbane) for  a holiday in KL a couple of years ago and were introduced to his wife's family (all Chinese/Malay). They were all courteous (especially the teenagers), generous, easy going and welcomed us - as strangers  - into their home without hesitation.  Since then we have been back to KL a few times to buy a property, apply for MM2H and holiday and hope to relocate later this year.

I don't kid myself that the move will be easy - the biggest problem will be leaving behind elderly parents who do not wish to join us -  moving from 'full on' work schedules to no work (other than organising the house, leaving behind a beautiful home and garden (which is my joy) and a great network of work colleagues and friends. So why the move?? well lots of reasons- the UK is heavily taxed, the weather is more cold then warm and with an ageing population things do not appear that they may improve. Malaysia - the weather, the food, the people, the culture, the cost of living - in short we want to further improve our quality of life and enjoy life to the fullest whilst we are able to and for as long as we can.

It may be that once we have settled and taken a good look around we may relocate as we would both prefer to be closer to the coast but for now we have a semi-d  we purchased from one of the well known developers, in what we think is in a good location with great facilities and will be in KL next month to collect the keys and finalise the MM2H visa.

If it doesn't work out at least we will have done something to try to enrich our lives  but when it does I bet we wished we'd made the move years ago!

Jac   

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Hi Jac

If it doesn't work out at least we will have done something to try to enrich our lives  but when it does I bet we wished we'd made the move years ago!

Love your attitude.  As my guru, Ajahn Brahm siad "there is no such thing as a bad decision, just make it work" or something like that. 

Australian and New Zealand were also out of reach

This is another reason that I am still ambivalent about moving here on a more permanent basis. We do live in the lucky country, weather wise and also in terms of standard of living. Yes, sure it is much more expensive to live here but ultimately it is the quality of living too, IMHO.

Having lived in UK for six years in my younger years, I can appreciate why Brits would want to move over to Malaysia. I found the four seasons interesting but the long cold wintry weather difficult to handle as one's age mature. 

I am now finding our Oz winter a bit difficult to bear too. 

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hi,

. . . as my guru, Ajahn Brahm siad "there is no such thing as a bad decision, just make it work" or something like that . . .   

The guy from the Parson's School of Design on the TV show "Project Runway" also went around saying, "make it work." I liked the papyrus scrolls found in Egypt that were signed by Cleopatra with "make it happen." This was taken up as a logo phrase by RBS, and they went bankrupt. They should have learnt from what happened to Cleopatra. Small world.

Guess that's the point of all this, it's a really small world. The return air fare KL/Manchester, volcanoes permitting, on Air Asia X is a few hundred ringgit. Flying between Portugal and the UK's Gatwick is just about 3 hours, and it's about 12 hours KL to Manchester but both trips seem to consume 1 day.

For me it was easy.  Gave away most of my stuff in Singapore and sent the books back to the UK. Loaded the rest on the boat and left Changi Point to sail around Singapore and up the Straits of Malacca. It took longer to get used to living on a boat than it did living in Malaysia. But that's another story.

As Jac posted, "If it doesn't work out at least we will have done something to try to enrich our lives  but when it does I bet we wished we'd made the move years ago!

I've never met anyone who regreted the decision to sell-up, buy a boat and set-sail. They've all said, "we should have done it sooner." Maybe not buy a boat but certainly "get up and move on." Not all of them stayed on the boats.

"you never go broke if you have a bob in the house" -  Harry Webb

That was funny. There's also "snip, snip and Bob's your auntie."      Is that Harry Rodger Webb?

Back on Topic, there weren't any major upsets as I knew the country. If you know what you're getting into then it should go really well. And anyway if it doesn't it's just time, effort and some money to get back to square one. It's not as if it's a lifetime disaster. Same with unforeseen issues. Superman has 20 : 20 vision and he can see through brick walls. I can't, but I can handle most things, or give up early enough so it doesn't matter. 

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"This is another reason that I am still ambivalent about moving here on a more permanent basis. We do live in the lucky country, weather wise and also in terms of standard of living. Yes, sure it is much more expensive to live here but ultimately it is the quality of living too, IMHO".

One approach to retaining foot in OZ is to remortgage residence (to value of property you wish to buy in Penang) & lease out subject to rent covering interest payments !!!

"Having lived in UK for six years in my younger years, I can appreciate why Brits would want to move over to Malaysia. I found the four seasons interesting but the long cold wintry weather difficult to handle as one's age mature"

Hope I never get old !!

James

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"Hope I never get old !!" Me, too!

The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.  ~Henry David Thoreau, Walden

Whenever I am tempted to defer my decision to retire, Thoreaus's quote inspires me to rethink of my decision.

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Very interesting topic and discussions.

For me, I am going to keep my home base in Tasmania until I am 100 percent sure I will be happy living in Penang. There are few things to think about and consider before giving up everything my partner and I have build in Australia. A beautiful home in one of the most beautiful state in Australia. Unfortunately, it is damn boring here in Hobart. Not enough thing to do at night, not much choices of restaurants and Asian food. But, before moving to Penang permanently, we need to make sure we like to live in a concrete jungle again, noisy city, population - yes, population (unlike Tasmania, probably more stocks than human and everyone seems to be related in one way or another), heat and humidity, pollution and chaotic traffic with no proper system, double parking on street side. The things which I like most about Penang and keeps drawing me back to Penang at least 2 or 3 times a year for the last 6 years are the food, the food and the food, the cheap airfares from Melbourne to Penang, and Penang onwards to other cities like HK, Macau, BKK, Spore and Chennai with AA. It is so much cheaper to live in Penang - the dollar goes a long way. Another important reason, I was born and raised there and my mother still lives there.

Now, all I can think about is my next trip to Penang, which is in 4 weeks time! Welcome home to Penang! 

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Quote from: Cupert on Today at 01:43:50 PM

"Having lived in UK for six years in my younger years, I can appreciate why Brits would want to move over to Malaysia. I found the four seasons interesting but the long cold wintry weather difficult to handle as one's age mature"

But if your health deteriorates as you get older, the UK's free health care may prove irresistable.

I'm hoping to be able to return to Penang for the winter months each year if I do move back to the UK.

Bill

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Hi Bill,

Mind if I ask why you may be considering moving back to UK ?

Cheers,

James

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Hi James,

I have nothing definite in mind. I miss family and UK friends at times but I enjoy living here. I think health is the main issue. I have asthma which is under control with medication but there is a possibility that this may change as I get older. I also worry about the effect of the annual 'haze' which isn't good for anyone with lung problems.

I still pay UK income tax so I wouldn't be that much worse off living in the UK, especially once I get the state retirement pension.

Bill

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Very interesting topic and discussions.

For me, I am going to keep my home base in Tasmania until I am 100 percent sure I will be happy living in Penang. There are few things to think about and consider before giving up everything my partner and I have build in Australia. A beautiful home in one of the most beautiful state in Australia. Unfortunately, it is damn boring here in Hobart. Not enough thing to do at night, not much choices of restaurants and Asian food. But, before moving to Penang permanently, we need to make sure we like to live in a concrete jungle again, noisy city, population - yes, population (unlike Tasmania, probably more stocks than human and everyone seems to be related in one way or another), heat and humidity, pollution and chaotic traffic with no proper system, double parking on street side. The things which I like most about Penang and keeps drawing me back to Penang at least 2 or 3 times a year for the last 6 years are the food, the food and the food, the cheap airfares from Melbourne to Penang, and Penang onwards to other cities like HK, Macau, BKK, Spore and Chennai with AA. It is so much cheaper to live in Penang - the dollar goes a long way. Another important reason, I was born and raised there and my mother still lives there.

Now, all I can think about is my next trip to Penang, which is in 4 weeks time! Welcome home to Penang! 

Hi Foodtrail

Maybe you should consider that Penang is more than the "concrete jungle" of the island itself (which isn't as bad at all, compare with some other places), but have a look on the other side of the bridge, where space isn't that limited....

No concrete jungle, less noisy, less population, traffic less chaotic (but still not a real proper system), no double parking on street side etc.
The food is at most places better than on the island (especially seafood) and on top of all it's even cheaper...

Outbond travel is much more convenient from the mainland (saves you at least an hour)...

But you have to live with a little snobby attidude of the island people, who are looking down on there brothers of the other side of the bridge - but for me.. I can live with that easily... And when I hear their complains about traffic jam, prices for prawns and crabs up again, high maintenance fees in the condos, construction going on and on... - it gives me a light smile... 

We will be off for Perth this weekend and back around mid May - if you are interested, I can show you the less hectic part iof Penang (state) when you are here.

Ciao

Udo

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Excellent and informative thread. My wife and I are now making hard plans to come to Malaysia sometime later this year. I've decided to retire in October - 45 years of working is enough for this individual, though my long-dead dad would have scoffed at the idea that what I do for a living is work. 

We've already decided to rent out our apartment and, much to our surprise, the rent we've been told we can expect is higher than we anticipated when we began doing our costings.  As a close friend remarked when I told him our plan and wondered if we could afford to do it, ''Can you afford NOT to do it?'' We can, of course, but it wouldn't be nearly so much fun!

We've been in KL and Penang and we liked Penang very much. The plan is for us to come down, stay in a hotel for a couple of weeks and look around. We also want to check out Malacca, based on the recommendation of a friend and some posts we've read on here. And, on the basis of UdoC's buttering up of Butterworth, we'll have a good look around there too.

So thank you all for the info - this site is truly invaluable.


BTW, does the satellite TV cover British football? This could be a deal-breaker!!! 

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We will be off for Perth this weekend and back around mid May - if you are interested, I can show you the less hectic part iof Penang (state) when you are here.

Ciao

Udo

Hi Udo

Thanks for the insight into mainland Penang. I know the area has changed a lot, and I have also heard the food, esp seafood is equally good or far better than the island. On my last trip, my sister's friend took me to this metal roof open air restaurant in a Chinese kampung. I was splendidly surprise how cheap the food was and it was very very good! Unfortunately, I have to admit that was one of the best I have tasted for a long time. Oh, the place looks filthy as well, but "don't look". The place was busy and turnover was fast. Don't ask me. I am not sure how to get there again, or where it is, but somewhere in Prai.

I may take up your offer when in Penang. I will be there for a few weeks. Unfortunately, I don't think I will be looking at moving to mainland Penang. I have already settled on a condo on the island, in Queensbay area - Baystar Condo. That is the reason for my trip home - to do work on the apt. I am getting quite stress from thinking where I should shop for fittings and furnishing.

Cheers,
Victor

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Has anyone looked to the Western side of Penang Island?

http://maps.google.com.au/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=penang&sll=-25.335448,135.745076&sspn=64.025322,114.169922&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Penang,+Malaysia&ll=5.372364,100.218894&spn=0.017988,0.027874&t=h&z=16

Last time we were there we rented a car for a couple of weeks and spent a bit of time driving around on this side and it was very quiet, green, almost uninhabited in comparison apart from some new subdivisions with this style of house on them


Heres the website for that subdivision

http://www.botanica-ct.com.my/

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"you never go broke if you have a bob in the house" -  Harry Webb

That was funny. There's also "snip, snip and Bob's your auntie."      Is that Harry Rodger Webb?

Scott,

Harry Webb was my father.  He died of WWII injuries and he used to say it to me all the time when I was a kid - "I called you bob because you are never broke with a bob in the house"


Bob