Life in Malaysia

So I'm gonna try to explain a bit better how my life is now in Malaysia because people keep asking me that.

I live in a house around 6km from the city (with traffic jam is a bit hard to predict how long it takes). There is a bus that goes to city center BUT buses in Malaysia don’t have a schedule due to unpredictable traffic so is very uncertain :S

The office of the NGO I am working in (http://www.spca.org.my/) is in the ground floor of the house I live in :) So I am one floor away from work. My room is fully equipped with everything needed (furniture, toilet, wireless and air-conditioned!!!). In the house there are some dogs and cats with which I became acquaintance of already.

The locals speak Malay but almost all the people I’ve meet speaks English so communication is going quite well despite the different accents which confuses me a lot!

The food is very diverse, there is Malay food, Indian and Chinese the most. It’s also possible to find western food (mostly fast food) and from Thailand, Vietnam and so. Of course the food is mostly spicy or sweet (I ate sweet noodles recently heheh) so if you are too picky this is not a good option for you :)

Indian Stand

Malay dish (they eat a lot of rise)

The place where we normally have lunch in.

A very curious thing for me is the time difference which is 8 hours ahead GMT. So, when I wake up at 9am, everyone in Portugal is sleeping or going to bed because it’s 1am there. When I finish my work at 6pm, people are only working for one hour in Portugal because it’s 10am there. Finally, when I go to sleep at 1am, in Portugal is only 5pm. So if you want to chat with me online and you haven’t found out why I’m not online at late afternoon and night, now you know!

Last, but not least, the people. As I said the diversity is quite huge physically but also religiously. Until now I found people very nice and helpful, in my work, in supermarket, in any shop. It’s very hard to guess from where they are because Malaysia had many colonizers, firstly the Portuguese, the British and also the Japanese. Aside that they have a lot of Indians and Chinese people living here, and probably from nearby countries as well. Despite the fact that most population is Muslim, I would say Malaysia is a very open-minded country and people are very opened to foreigners and quite used to it.

So life in Malaysia, despite the differences, is quite good! It’s different from anything I had experienced until now and much more is still to come!

Trip and first impressions

My first stop before arriving to Kuala Lumpur was London in which I’ve spend one night. I met 2 good friends, went for a dinner, and before my flight I ate an English Breakfast in a Spanish bar listening to Fado, Tribalistas and Buraca. That was very odd!

A short stop in Egypt, and then in Malaysia the first impact: the heat! I had been told that it was very hot and so on, but only experiencing it! I haven’t worn a jacket since I’m here basically and I sleep without any sheet on me. During the day is around 33º/34ºC, during the night around 25º/27ºC. Sometimes during the afternoon rains heavily so everywhere I go I need to carry an umbrella. Me and everyone heheh.

Secondly, I was impressed with the abundant nature everywhere! The airport is well designed so there are some interior gardens and all the way to the city there were fields and fields full of palm trees! Most of the roads have trees aside of many tropical kinds.

This is a photo of the airport interior.

I stayed for 2 nights in a student residence where I could hear a lot of animals outside (which seemed like a jungle), the praises from a near Mosque (more than half of Malaysia population is Muslim) and where I could experience 2 nights of sleep with that heat!

View from the residence window.

The second day after an interesting omelet with rise inside, I went for a near Shopping Mall and I have to say it was a cultural experience! There were so many people, lights, and noise, and impressively there was an artificial river in the middle of the shopping mall. I guess the photo speaks for itself!

Immediately I also noticed that the life standard is much lower than Portugal or Croatia, for example MacDonalds menu is around 2, maybe 2,5 Euros (I think this is the best worldwide example to compare prices heheh).

To finish, the amount of cultural diversity is overwhelming. Skin colors, language, clothes. It is a true cultural melting-pot country which I am very glad to get to know.