Ah the weekend

Finally a  moment to contemplate the events of the last couple of weeks. It feels like we have been here forever and yet it is only just over two weeks. As always, when moving to a new country, there is so much to do and so much to sort out.

We are just waiting to be given the keys for the house and after thinking it would be a couple of weeks yet we were told yesterday that we should hopefully get them on Monday. So last night it was all hands on deck to get the furniture bought and delivered on Monday. Ever thought of trying to get a whole house load of furniture bought and delivered on a holiday weekend? It was off to our good friend Mr Ikea. He has lots and lots of things. A house in a box.

Armed with our list we set off to the shop in the middle of the Friday night rush our traffic. What were that chances of then (a) having all we wanted in stock and (b) being able to deliver it all on Monday? Well as it happens, apart from a slight change of colour of the sofas all WAS in stock and all CAN be delivered on Monday. So there we were in the queue at the checkout with two trolleys piled as high as you could safely pile them. It was some time before anyone else joined the queue that we were in!!!

After paying for it all we headed for the delivery desk to arrange delivery and decided that it would be wise to pay the fee to have the stuff assembled. I could picture the scene of me cursing and swearing and fretting trying to puzzle out what bit goes where. If it was a race, by the time I had the first box open and the stuff laid out Mr Ikea Assembly Guy would have the first unit built and Sheila would have it full of clothes. So we booked a full assembly service except for the sofas and bed mattress. I said I would manage those myself.

After the main furniture was purchased it was a quick bite in the restaurant and back into the goodies hall to fill up with all the bits and pieces from the bits and pieces section. Another laden trolley and a flash of plastic to the nice girl at the checkout and we were done. Well except for the fact that we had to repeat the process at the electrical shop.

Dishwashers are pretty expensive here in Malaysia but we decided, well I decided, that we can't manage without one so the bullet had to be bitten. Dishwasher and washing machine. "Have you got them in stock", I asked optimistically. "Yes", she said. "Can we get them delivered on Monday?", says I, hopefully. "Sure, no problem", she replied. Unfortunately they didn't have any fridge freezers or tumble driers that we liked, well to be honest, they didn't have any with prices that we liked so that's today's task.

So breakfast first then it's off to get more stuff.
David

Quick update

It's been a couple of busy days since I last posted. I have been at work for two days now and its been pretty manic. It is always a very busy time at the start of the year and we go into information overload. My classroom is fantastic and from it I can see our new house. We are hoping to get the keys in the next few days and can start the moving in process.

We got our TV yesterday - got my priorities sorted out!!! It's a 50 inch LED TV which is highly satisfactory. Can't wait to get it plugged in.

Sorry its a bit short but I have to get ready for tomorrow. Hopefully more news to follow at the weekend.
David

First Golf Game

Today I had the absolute pleasure of playing a game of golf in what can only be described as majestic surroundings. Bukit Ungal Golf Course lies slap bang in the middle of an area of tropical rainforest/jungle and from there the only sounds you can here are those of the animals and birds of the forest. On the way round we could hear and see monkeys swinging in the trees and climbing on the rocks and we could hear a variety of birds that were not visible amongst the foliage. It was truly awesome in the literal sense of the word. It is a distinct possibility that this will be our chosen golf course as it is one of those that is both reasonable near to our new home and affordable to play. The course has a fabulous layout although the greens and fairways could be in better nick. This is more than compensated for by the location. The clubhouse is also a little tired but who noticed that?

We signed the papers for the house today and got a hint that we might be able to move in on 1st or 2nd September as originally planned. Fingers crossed for that. The house we eventually signed for is the actual house on the pictures I posted and we can't wait. We have chosen most of the furniture and even Sheila has had to agree that the best value telly we have found is a 51 incher. I am going to buy it tomorrow before she changes her mind! We are furnishing absolutely from scratch so we need everything. We have a few bits and pieces still to decide but should hopefully be able to arrange delivery as soon as we get the keys and I will post a few pictures as soon as I can. We will then be open for visitors. Who will be first? Form an orderly queue please. Free food, accommodation and airport transfers. Best book early to avoid disappointment. This is a truly amazing place where you can be in the heart of a massive city one minute and in the middle of a tropical rainforest the next. Well not quite the next because the traffic is a bit busy.

Another game of golf with one of my new colleague tomorrow. Back to Bukit Ungal methinks.
David

Cultural visit

Today we visited the Batu Caves which are located a short train ride north of the city centre. The trains are pretty expensive here a bit like UK. We were on the train for about half an hour and it cost 2 Ringgits which is nearly 40p. Extortion.

We arrived and saw that it was a very steep climb up 272 steps to reach the caves. In 33 degrees of heat I can tell you that I was sweating more then a little when I reached the top. Sorry perspiring. Sheila was glowing (Pigs sweat, men perspire and women glow - correct?) Well Sheila was glowing good style and I could have been perspiring for Scotland.

Anyway we made it to the top and bought a much needed bottle of water. A tourist attraction this busy in UK would undoubtedly cost a good deal to get in so we looked around at the bottom for the pay booth but there was none. At the top I thought there would be a pay booth to sucker you into paying AFTER the climb because lets face it who would pay lots of dosh to climb those stairs. Well there was no pay booth. It is totally free.

Off this evening to a supper at the Head of School's place.
David

Driving (Mis)adventure

Well we set of yesterday morning in the hire car to do a bit of exploring in the vacinity of the school and our new house. I have purchased a smart phone with all the satellite navigation technology so we were pretty confident that we could manage to get around. The hired Perudoa Myvi was performing nicely, it was a beautiful day to rival Bahrain in terms of temperature and sunniness and all was well. We arrived at the school location as planned and began to explore the area. We popped into the big Aeon superstore only to discover that it is more than a superstore but it is also a large shopping mall with lots of nice shops. We found a couple of supermarkets so should be able to get all we need within a mile or so of the house.

All was going swimmingly until we realised that my phone had not been charging from the socket and the battery was almost completely flat. My emergency charger doofery thing was in my laptop bag .... in the hotel. No satellite navigation!!!!! OK not to worry, I'll just buy a map and use the old fashioned technology. Sheila is, by her own admission, somewhat lacking in the old map reading department but I was confident we could manage. I am an extremely tolerant chap as you all know. OK let's buy a map. Alas, it is not as easy as you might expect to make purchase of such an item because it seems there is no call for them nowadays. Garages and stores were found and checked without success. I knew how to get back to the Aeon mall so we tried one last try there. Bingo a map was located. We set off back into "traffic city" for the hotel. We plugged the phone into the charger in the hope of accumulation enough joules or energy to help if we got stuck.

Well you will be pleased to know that we DID get stuck. We did however broaden our cultural horizons significantly with some sojourns into uncharted territory. We did however manage to get a little closer to our destination but we just knew that the last bit would be a nightmare because the road system around the hotel is bizarre to say the least. It works OK for taxi drivers who know what they are doing but you have to go round the hotel TWICE to get on the road southwards! Hopelessly lost and unable to get near the hotel we switch on the sat nav in the vain hope that the nice lady in there would be able to muster up the energy to get us home. It was the sweetest sound I have heard in a long time when I heard "in 500 metres turn left". Would she last the pace though. It said that we were 12 minutes form our destination and I managed to make a wrong turn and then it said 17 minutes. Surely it was never going to last. What seemed like an eternity later the nice lady said "you destination is .....". I am sure she was about to say "ahead on the left" because we were right at the hotel. She had made it and boy were we pleased. What a trip.

It transpired that the phone I bought was at fault and so I now have a nice new one from the nice man in the nice Samsung shop. And I have moved the fully charged emergency charger to a more useful location!!!

Undaunted we are going to look at a golf club near the house today. Wish us luck!
David

Rainstorm

Today we were caught in a torrential downpour (hot rain) as we popped out to try to sort out a local car rental. We were literally across the street from the hotel lobby but there was no covered route so we decided, since it was our hotel anyway, we would brave it. Drookit is the only word to describe the result of a 10 second dash. The lightning was spectacular after we got up to the room with some lightning bolts that were VERY close to the hotel. As is the norm though, an hour or so later the rain was stopped and a couple of hours after that you would not have known it had been raining.

We managed to find a rental car and then set off in a taxi to collect it. We have hired it for a month so that we don't rush into a purchase. There is a car called a Great Wall M4 that we like a lot but the automatic version will not be available for another month or so. The other favourite is a Perodua Myvi which is a smallish car but amazingly roomy on the inside. That's what I have hired so that I can test out whether we would manage with one permanently. I have only driven it back to the hotel but I have to say that I was surprisingly impressed with it considering it is amongst the cheapest available.

We hope to conclude the paperwork for the villa tomorrow and we can then start the search for furniture. The tentative move in date is 29th August so fingers crossed for that. We are also hoping to check out a golf course or two tomorrow and maybe get a game in the next few days before I start work in earnest next Wednesday.
David

Some pictures of the house

Housing update

We have today agreed the rental of a house which is literally right next door to the school where I will be working. The house is brand new. It's a semi detached although its a bit different from UK the houses are joined back to back so you don't even realise you have a neighbour. There are three en-suite bedrooms and a huge living room, and separate dining room. Only downside is there is no bath, only showers!
This picture is the same house but in the next row. I thought at the time that this was the exact house we would get but actually its the one in the next row along. Exactly the same house though.

The house is on a gated community with a clubhouse that has a swimming pool, small gymnasium and bookable common room. I will try to post some more pictures when I learn better how to get them off the phone and into the computer. Our house is ate the very edge of the community. Everything you can see to the right of the tree in the picture is part of our house. Now the serious car hunt begins.

David

Houses and Cars

Yesterday we spent the day looking mostly at houses and a couple of cars. We have found a property very close to the school that looks perfect and our estate agent is now in negotiations with the owner to try to fix out a few issues. We are very excited about it and are going back for a second viewing today. I hope I can get a couple of pictures today to post for you to see. If we get it for the money we consider it is in the PERFECT location. I am purposely not giving too much away here at the moment until the deal is secured because a number of the teachers who were initially looking in the city are realising that the traffic is VERY busy and that a place nearer the school is not such a dumb idea. I don't want the owner realising that there is competition for the place in case I get gezumpped. The car I had identified looks like it is not available in automatic transmission until October so I need to decide whether to rent and wait until it comes in or just buy something else. We saw a nice little car yesterday that we think would be a good alternative. Much smaller but it has a big feel inside. I am planning to test drive the manual version of the bigger car and have a good look at it then decide whether to wait (not a thing I am overly good at) or just to get the smaller one. Sheila has picked her colour for the smaller one. Mystical purple! I have to say it's a really nice colour so I won't have to drive around with a paper bag over my head with holes cut therein.

Getting ready now for our second viewing. Keep your fingers crossed for a successful negotiation.
David

House search ready to begin

We have spent the last two days trying to adjust to the seven hour time difference and completing some admin tasks for the school. Our bank account should be in place and we have toured both the junior school and senior school campuses today. The school is superbly resourced and things are really well organised.

Tomorrow we meet with the estate agents to start the house hunt. We have identified a couple of possibilities from the internet and are looking forward to getting things moving. The hotel is lovely but we really want to get into our own place. We think we want to live south of the school and travel into the city from that side because we are not really city dwellers. Most of the new staff are quite young and either WANT to be in the city for the nightlife or NEED to be near the junior campus because they have young children attending there. We are in the happy position of not needing either of those things and so can look further afield where our allowance will go that much further. We have spotted one property that is only a few hundred yards from the school front door. We will definitely have a look at that.

I also need to get a car organised but I am not in a rush whilst we are living slap bang in the middle of traffic jam corner. This hotel is in a very busy part of town. It is literally attached to the Mega Mall shopping complex and so attracts cars from everywhere. It is however simply a turn left out of the lift of the hotel and voila, you are in the shopping mall. Take the link pathway from that mall and voila, you are in Garden Mall. There is a big variety of shopping on the doorstep here.

Weather here is very pleasant indeed. Thunderstorm yesterday but so far not looking like any rain today. It's hot and sunny with lots of clouds that intermittently block the sun keeping the temperature very pleasant indeed. After the house and car search? Then comes the golf course search.
D

Midnight o'clock

It's midnight o'clock here in KL and we have to be up in 8 hours time but my body thinks its 5pm and it's really not sleepy. The flight on the Airbus A380 (upper deck) was very good and I slept a decent bit of the night. Sheila has gone to be already trying to convince her head that it's bed time. I can feel the alarm going tomorrow morning and my body being at the depths of its slumbers. Time will tell, like it? time will tell. Good one Dave (oh thanks very much).
I tried a night view picture from the hotel room

It gives a wee flavour of the scene. That's the Cititel Hotel just across the way from us. I am going to try to join Sheila in the land of nod methinks but I am not overly optimistic. Wish me luck!

KL another city that never sleeps

Arrived safely in the Boulevard Hotel, in downtown Kuala Lumpur. We are in the Executive suites on the 21st floor and have a great view of the city from the window. Sounds like it's going to be a bit noisy because the traffic is very busy outside, albeit some distance away .... downwards! Looks like it might go like that all night.

Tomorrow we start our orientation programme with a tour of the city. It's already 10.30pm here but our bodies think it's only 3.30pm so we are still very much awake. It will be a different story tomorrow morning when the tour starts I guess. Hotel is very comfortable but we'll be glad when we eventually get to a place we will call ours for the next couple of years. The other new staff that we have met are very friendly and the first meal was excellent. Hey, I think I might just like it here.

I have been given a KL mobile sim card and so those of you who might need it should receive a text in the next day or two with my new number.

Day 1 - off and running

Well it's day one and we are on our way. Edinburgh to Heathrow then Heathrow to Kuala Lumpur. The first flight is with British Airways and true to form when we arrived at the check-in there were three "helper ladies" who were, as is the norm with BA, the rudest we have encountered so far. We negotiated that hurdle and approached the check-in desk with some trepidation. We had an extra bag and two sets of golf clubs to check in and I was gritting my teeth in anticipation of the difficulty in (a) checking them in and (b) paying for the extra baggage. It was therefore the pleasantest of surprises to encounter two of the most helpful young ladies I have ever encountered on any airline desk. After a short while and a few button presses the extra luggage was tagged all the way to Kuala Lumpur and my wallet was lighter by several hundred pounds less than I might have anticipated. Hurrah, hurrah for BA, I love you all.

We are now in the departure lounge about to be fleeced for coffee but hey ho, it's an adventure.

Here we go again

On 21 August 2010 I made my first blog post for the Bahrain Adventure and here on 11 August 2014 I find myself starting another blog for another international adventure. Tomorrow we start our journey to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Once again I am planning to keep the blog going only whilst there is something reasonably interesting to report. When I get to the point where the only bot of news is that the washing got caught in a downpour or the local supermarket is out of stock of my favourite brand of toilet roll then I will stop posting. (I think if you click on the picture you'll get a slightly bigger view of where we are off to). That's the top of Australia in the bottom right hand corner.

The climate in Kuala Lumpur (hereinafter referred to as KL) will be very different to that of Bahrain. It is hot all year round ranging from 25 yo 35 degrees. Lots of rain (hot rain!) and lots of sunshine. There are loads of places to visit so I hope to have a few weekend adventures to report on as we visit other places. We can drive to Singapore in only about three hours so that is a definite plan. I am hoping to collect a new guitar when I am there too. More about that later.

I am going to work at Alice Smith School as a physics teacher. As yet Sheila is going to be a lady of leisure but I hope to have her grafting soon after we get there. If not I expect my dinner on the table when I get in (if she is not too busy playing golf or attending the ladies coffee circle club!!!!

OK enough for now, this post is just to get the ball rolling. More to come later.
David