I have been living in Malaysia together with my husband for more than 2 years now. We have never regretted our decision to move from Germany to Malaysia. But, we found out that most of the people who are interested in living overseas have no idea about Malaysia and its benefits.
10 good reasons why you should consider Malaysia for emigration or retirement!
1. very good infrastructure, one of the best in Southeast Asia
2. unbeatable low cost of living
3. English is widely spoken
4. weather, all-year-round warm tropical climate with 12 hours of sunshine a day, only short rain showers
5. the political system is democratic and stable
6. people are friendly and helpful, here you get local friends easlily and expats are very welcome
7. generous visa arangements for tourists, get 90 days and renew after leaving Malaysia for a day, with "Malaysia My Second Home" you get a resident visa for 10 years
8. good education, many private international schools and kindergartens
9. property to rent and buy for tourists and residents, cheap prices
10. Malaysia is a secure country. Criminal statistics: robbery - much better than Sweden France UK Canada; homicides: better than New Zealand and much better than USA; burglaries: ten times less than in Australia
For more information about Malaysia, please visit my homepage:
http://sites.google.com/site/malaysiaauswandern
Expat living in Malaysia
In the last 10 years I have been to Malaysia 3 times. I have known the country to be as well organized as Canada if not better. The weather is excellent, the food is good, fresh and inexpensive. Public transportation is better than in Canada. The people are warm and friendly and helpful.The hotels are expensive however renting an apartment is fair priced. If a couple has a residual income of $3000 U.S. / month they should be able to live a comfortable life in Malaysia
Actually you don't know much yet after just 2 years.
Actually you don't know much yet after just 2 years extended holidays.
The earlier message by Mike is basically only about 5 star hotel staff.
The other people are distant and will never befriend you in West Malaysia.
There is a negative attitude thowards outsiders (tourists, foreigners, different religion, race).
I invite you to go and have a prayer at one of the local mosques, if you understand Malay
you will understand the hatred being preached. The locals don't necesarily agree with that
but they never stand up to it either. Every charming old imam is now replaced with
a newer hate preaching imam. It totally reflect in how people ignore and treat outsiders.
Little kids are lovely here, but by the time they are 8 years old they start telling you what is
wrong with you as an outsider. They learn this in school or saturday morning religious school.
Local Chinese and Indian people send their kids to study abroad and tell them to stay there
if they can find a good job after their studies. Believe me, that means something......
I love South East Asia, but this is the reality. Expats who stay here for a short while, just a few years
on and off, or travel back all the time and hang out with only other expats: they simply don't know much...
East Malaysia is so much better, people are actually nice there. But West malaysia is not friendly.
Indonesia with all its problems is even a better place to stay. Friendlier people and you make real friends.
I write this because I think somebody should write the truth out here.
It's not at all sunshine and roses. Be carefull with trusting the opinion of a temp expat who has only seen the 5 star
hotel treatment. They simply do not know.
I don´t agree with your
I don´t agree with your point of view.
We don´t live in a five star hotel, instead in a normal terraced house in a normal suburb, our neighbours are malays and chinese. We haven´t been to our home country for 2 years and we have more local than expat friends! We have no intention to leave, instead we live under MM2H here now.
Sorry that you have made some unpleasant experience here, which I can´t share.
Our live is much better than before, but everybody has his own story.
Fully Agree with MatSaleh
Bintang: it is true that you have been in Malaysia on a 2-year extended holiday. First, I do not understand how people after 2 years of living in a place still cannot speak the language. That shows a big lack of adaptation and without speaking the language you cannot claim at all to know the place and the people, nor to partake in the culture. It also shows a big lack of interest and respect for the locals. Just query how you feel about foreigners coming to Germany and not caring about speaking the language at all for years.
MatSaleh seems to have a much better understanding of Malaysia and I have to agree with him/her. My impression of Malays always has been that you cannot trust them. They are very intolerant and do not like foreigners. Once you get outside of your Disney resort you will notice that.
You will never integrate into Malay society unless you speak Bahasa, become muslim, wear a headscarf, give up alcohol and other vices and go to the mosque 5 times a day. Not that I have any respect for Chinese people, but ask your unintegrated Chinese friends. Like everywhere, the Chinese invade the place and care not at all for the locals, however.
In my view Malaysia is just very Malay. There are many more cons to pros and I certainly cannot understand why someone would choose Malaysia to live. You want infrastructure, green spaces, friendly people, easy life? Move to Singapore. Remember, cheaper is not always better...
Corrections
By the way, Bintang, when MatSaleh wrote about the 5-star hotel he was talking about the comment written by the Malaysian Expert Mike Lalji, who has been to Malaysia 3 times (at a 5-star hotel) and feels like he knows everything about Malaysia. I said it in my other blog: the most irrititating things about expats is that they come to a country, they spend one or two years there and they think they have "discovered" the country. They start writing blogs and books about how to live in the country, blah, blah, blah. Believe me, after only 2 years living in Malaysia and not speaking Malay, you know ZILCH about Malaysia, TEMANKU!