Adapting to the pace of life in Malaysia

Although I am currently living in Indonesia, back in 2003 I suddenly decided to leave Europe and move to Malaysia. My plan was to invest in property and earn passive income. As I wasn't working I actually spent most of my time travelling around Asia with the occasional trip back to Europe. Then, when I got married to an Indonesian girl I got MM2H for us both, had kids, and continued to enjoy a lifestyle in the tropics.

After many years of living in Malaysia I started to feel some stress with living in a major city - traffic jams, expensive lifestyle eating in restaurants and shopping in malls every other day, and especially getting involved in condominium owners committees and renting out my apartments and even my sisters apartment which eventually felt like having a full-time job but without a salary.

So wondering why I had spent almost a quarter of my life in Malaysia and starting to feel a bit stressed and bored, we made a decision to leave Malaysia and move to Indonesia.

Hello wyngrove60,

Thank you so much for sharing your incredible journey with us.

Wishing you all the best as you continue to build your life in Indonesia

Cheryl

Although I am currently living in Indonesia, back in 2003 I suddenly decided to leave Europe and move to Malaysia. My plan was to invest in property and earn passive income. As I wasn't working I actually spent most of my time travelling around Asia with the occasional trip back to Europe. Then, when I got married to an Indonesian girl I got MM2H for us both, had kids, and continued to enjoy a lifestyle in the tropics.
After many years of living in Malaysia I started to feel some stress with living in a major city - traffic jams, expensive lifestyle eating in restaurants and shopping in malls every other day, and especially getting involved in condominium owners committees and renting out my apartments and even my sisters apartment which eventually felt like having a full-time job but without a salary.

So wondering why I had spent almost a quarter of my life in Malaysia and starting to feel a bit stressed and bored, we made a decision to leave Malaysia and move to Indonesia.
-@wyngrove60

Hi there.  I plan to retire in Penang part of the year while keeping my home in the SF area of California USA.  Why didn't you consider moving to a slower, less hectic city in Malaysia?  Where exactly were you staying that was so bad?  Considering the favorable exchange rate (if that were the case for you), why didn't you just hire some local people to ease the pressure and stress?  I will be in retirement while there, so I don't plan to lift a finger except to eat some of that wonderful food.

Well I hope you enjoy yourself in Penang. However, it was never a place I wanted to settle down in. I've been visiting Penang since 1980 when I was living in Singapore and working in in Indonesia and Thailand and India while living in SE Asia.

Malaysia was just a very easy place to move to from Europe - cheap property with no limit on how many properties you can buy, easy to get mortgage loans from the bank, everyone speaks English, and cheaper than the alternative at the time which was Singapore and nice food.

Hire local people to ease the pressure and stress of being on an owners comittee? We do that, they are called Property management companies. As the owners committee we hire them, we hire security guard companies and cleaning companies and so on. But you cannot hire just any local, no matter how qualified he or she is, to be the chairman or committee member of an owners committee because firstly they have to be an owner of an apartment in that particular condominium building and secondly they have to want to do that unpaid work, and thirdly they need to be voted in. Also who watches over the management company and tells them what to do? Who keeps an eye on the accounting to make sure money doesn't go missing? It's the owners committee which is made up of volunteers who own properties in the building, with a Chairman, Vice Chairman and Treasurer. If you intend to buy properties in Malaysia you might not want to get involved in the running of the place but for example slack security guards, dirty water tanks, rundown lobby, any number of things that perhaps might not be taken care of properly in your building and you might want to say something rather than keep quiet.

Btw, I have been in retirement since 2001, and now really enjoying myself in Indonesia as my wife takes care of all matters concerning our properties, car, government procedures etc. Plus, Indonesia is stunningly beautiful compared to Malaysia and cost of living about a third of that of Malaysia. Also someone who rents a property form you for say two years pays that money up front unlike in Malaysia where anyone can decide not to pay rent anymore and it takes you about 8 months to go through the courts to get them kicked out.

Where was I staying? Initially in Bukit Bintang near Jalan Alor, and later in Bangsar. Both are nice places to live.

@wyngrove60

Ok, so that is KL, the capitol correct?  Well, yes, I would agree with you that it is too busy there!  I do believe Penang is slightly less hectic though.  I am also told that there are a lot more Chinese there, so I would be more comfortable too.

Since you are retired, aren't you concerned that the level of medical care in Indonesia is not up to par?  I have seen the private hospitals and medical offices in Malaysia and they look impressive if not stocked with Western taught doctors.  I am told medical tourism is a big thing in Malaysia which is somewhat assuring.  Indonesia I have not ever heard its infrastructure is as modern as Malaysia, but correct me if I am wrong. 

Yes definitely medical is better in Malaysia than it is in Indonesia and of course better in Singapore than it is in Malaysia and medical insurance is cheaper in Malaysia than it is in Indonesia. However, that only really applies for certain illnesses. For many illnesses Indonesia is fine. If I were to want spinal surgery or a knee replacement I would either go back to Europe where it is free or to Singapore or even possibly Malaysia. For most illnesses I get or have I see doctors here in Indonesia and it is pretty much free with just a small monthly payment of around Rm200 for the whole family. But I also believe that of course there are some people concerned about getting ill and would want to put medical at the top of their list, but for me I would rather live in an interesting country full of culture and wonderful food and beautiful scenery than live in a country that is basically flat and in my opinion has lost most of it's culture and has become boring to live in. Malaysia is still a good palce for many to retire to, but I am not the sort of person would suffer in silence in a country that to me has become extremely boring just because it has good medical. That's why I am not living in Europe and I take it that that is why you decided to leave SF, or perhaps because of the decline of SF into it's current state, not because Penang has better medical.

So each of us has our reasons for living where we live. You might also understand that Bali is in Indonesia and a top destination for people all over the world to move to for work or retirement. You could ask yourself why people choose Indonesia over Malaysia when they could get better medical in Penang. Bear in mind that I lived in Malaysia for 12 years, 9 years in Singapore, 7 years in Hong Kong and a couple of years in Taiwan so 12 years is a really long time to be stuck in once place, especially when it has become boring. I honestly don't think I could have stayed in Penang for 12 years. But hopefully you will enjoy it.

Our next move will probably be to Japan.

Btw, are you going for the MM2H program? And do you plan to buy a property in Malaysia?

Yes there are a lot of Chinese in Penang but also there are a lot of Chinese in KL, and a lot of Chinese where I live in Indonesia. I assume you speak Mandarin and Cantonese or is your dialect different? In Malaysia many Chinese speak Hokkien.

@wyngrove60

Well, let's not discount the value of having immediate access to good/great medical care when one is older and retired.  I like my fancy drinks in exotic places too, but the realities of life tend to come up when least expected.  Come on, I am a US citizen living in the Bay Area of California.  Not exactly a bad place to live in and I can afford to stay here easily for the rest of my life.  To me, I want to mix it up some and check out what the other side of the world has to offer.  Now, I didn't mention this, but my inlaws are in Malaysia and Singapore so I (not my wife ironically) wants to be near them at least say for half of the year.  I do value your opinion since you did stay in Malaysia for such a long time.  I just don't understand (if that is the word) why you harbor such negative views about your stay in Malaysia.  You mentioned boring, but at my age, some quiet boring time (mixed in with activities of course) sound wonderful.

I will concede that I was only there in Penang for a solid month while finishing up my MM2H visa but i totally loved the vibe of the island.  I felt fairly safe there, and enjoyed the people as well as the food.  To be based there would be almost perfect since I can then go and explore all of the countries there, including your Indonesia.  I have friends who plan to base in Vietnam and the Philippines, so easy to meet up with them in SE Asia or back in the US. 

Good chatting with you.

I have no negative thoughts about Malaysia, I just lived there too long and needed to move somewhere else more fresh and with more interesting places to photograph - volcanoes, traditional markets, the Pacu Jawi bull racing, a place more culturally interesting, actually 'raw' would be a good word to describe the places I like to photograph.

MM2H is a good program and very suitable for a lot of people. I just started to feel that while the lifestyle in Malaysia is nice, it just doesn't compared to other places like Indonesia in my opinion. In fact for me, moving to Malaysia was a great and easy first step for my retirement and very easy especially for people with no Asian background. Indonesia I'd say is a lot more adventurous and that is what I am enjoying, plus my wife is Indonesian which made it easy for all the procedures of living here.

But I agree about Malaysia being a great central location for visiting other countries in Asia. Maybe I am just not ready to have that quiet lifestyle or maybe I'm still too young. I have kids in their early teens and I play rock guitar every day, out taking photos most days and perhaps am too active and not ready for that quiet lifestyle.

Yes nice chatting with you.