4 Malaysia - Accidente, Bad Idea, Synkyyys at Angkasa, Kuala Lumpur

Accidente, Bad Idea, Synkyyys @ “Friendship & Rebellion” Angkasa, Kuala Lumpur 

After 3 weeks of settling into life in Malaysia, I finally got to take some time out and take in my first punk-rock show. Prior to leaving the UK, some punk pals of mine put me in touch with some contacts, and one of them came from Yorkshire pals DRY HEAVES who had toured SE Asia back in the day. So I arranged to meet Sinchan at the show, and I was able to purchase an advance ticket for the show using paypal. I live far out of central Kuala Lumpur, and there isn’t any public transport, so I took my new car out for a spin and made the drive to the venue. 

I soon met up with Sinchan, and he kindly introduced me to many different people. He was super friendly, and I spent a lot of time outside the venue, talking to him and others. It was great to just be there and meet some other punks. Unfortunately this meant that I had only a passing look at some of the other bands playing that night. I did catch 3 songs of SYNKYYYS who are a two piece band from the north of Malaysia. They played a fast, stripped down, crusty style, and concluded with a MOB 47 cover. Nice!

BAD IDEA were also on the fast sound and played a fast punk-rock style, with short songs. The singer was a super pumped happy guy who exuded heartfelt platitudes in between songs – they were pleased to be playing in KL, and the crowd really enjoyed the set. 

The venue itself was situated on the first floor on a busy street. It was a large space which I would say was a third full that night – plenty of people to make it an enjoyable show. There was plenty of merchandise and distro stalls, and there was also a relax area at the back, where there were even children present, which was great to see. Some of the children were even down at the front during the bands – Awesome!

The main pull of deciding to come to this show as my first was ACCIDENTE, who were on tour in South East Asia at the time. Prior to the show, Richard CUBESVILLE FANZINE and Adz from Lake District punk-rock scene, messaged me, urging me to go and check them out. I listened to two of their songs on bandcamp and immediately I was thinking ‘I have to go to this show’. That night they were just as good as I had heard – catchy, melodic punk-rock songs. The band members were full of gratitude and smiles, and they even swapped around some instruments during the set. They had a lot of fans in the audience, and I saw plenty of people singing along and dancing at the front. One cool middle aged punk-rock guy in a LAGWAGON shirt (Hello Shahrizal!) was having the time of his life, and he got up on stage and sang a chorus with the band. The crowd loved it so much that they were cheered back on for an encore. 

I left the gig very happy that night, and had a super positive experience – people in the Malaysian punk scene are very nice people, and the bands have passion for their craft. I gave my copy of the COMETBUS compendium book to Sinchan as a welcome gift, and bought a NICKY WIRE CD from the distro, before making the 30 minute drive back home.

Fantastic start to my new punk-rock life here, and I look forward to going to more shows in the future. Perhaps you may even here about a rare performance from MC POSITIVE BASTARD?

Unfortunately, later in their SE Asia tour, an Accidente show in INDONESIA was raided by the police and the band were deported, meaning they had to cut their tour short, and fly home immediately. What a massive shitter! There is a benefit sale going on to help them recuperate the unseen costs of this, so if you can help out then please go here: https://hardcoredetonation.bandcamp.com/merch/special-crowd-funding-for-accidente

3 Malaysia - First steps Ont Road

We’ve been in our new house for over a week now and we have almost all of the essential items we need in place now. For this update I’d like to share with you some of the adventures we have had and also some general observations from my time here. 

To be honest, there isn’t much I have been missing from life back home. However, one thing that I miss the most is carpets! Pretty much everywhere here is stone flooring. It still feels weird walking around in bare feet all the time – my feet aren’t used to it. Perhaps in time I will get used to it, otherwise I might have to buy those ludicrous looking sandals that have a fluffy carpet in the soles for me to walk around the house in. I’m already loosing fashion points for wearing crocs, so I may have to lose a few more. 

We made our first day trip to Port Dickson, which is the closest area to us that has beaches. There are several in the area, but we chose the most popular one for our first visit ‘Pantai Telok Kenang’, as we went on a Tuesday when it would be quieter and had lots of amenities to make the visit comfortable. We were able to rent a table and chairs under a canopy for the day, and there were plenty of street stalls behind us offering a variety of food and drinks to sample – our favourite was deep fried battered banana covered in cheese! There was also a sound system nearby, pumping out reggae, which was the perfect accompaniment to a chilled day out. The kids really enjoyed playing in the sand and the sea, and this was one of the only times we felt considerably relaxed around them since we’ve arrived. Only an hour from home, we are certainly going to be paying regular visits back here in the future. 

I have taken the new car out for a few spins, and one thing I have noticed here is that people either drive slow in the inside lane, or they speed in the outside lane; and there is little much going on in the middle lane. Our car is also an automatic, which has been super chill to drive – I don’t think I’ll ever go back to driving a manual, because of the convenience. First it was the electric mountain bike, and now it’s the car – I’m the paradigm of carefree living, your saviour, the automatic man! 

Alcohol wise, it is highly taxed here. The cheapest from the supermarkets is 6-7 pounds for 6 x 330ml cans of lager (Carlsberg, Asahi, and Tiger are amongst the most common). There are a few alternative options for a different experience, they have Guinness Foreign Extra for Stout, Anchor Smooth for a more ale feel, and Kronenburg Blanc for a white beer feel. I was in a restaurant the other day and they had bottles of moonshine made from coconuts, so I aim to give that a whirl soon. We also booked our first holiday for October to the tax free island of Langkawi in Malaysia, so we will be able to bring back some bottles of spirits from there. Speaking of holidays, we will be holidaying a lot in Malaysia over the first year (due to tax purposes), as we are only allowed a combined amount of 28 days out of the country.

I have also found there to be many hidden costs to starting life as an expat here (things that I didn’t seem to read about on blogs prior to starting this whole process). There is a Malaysian and Foreigner rate for some services out here, in particular for entry to tourist destinations and also for ‘sign up fees’, for example getting a SIM card. Along with a new taxation system, getting to learn a new economy is also something that will take a while to get to grips with. 

I may have mentioned before that WhatsApp is used for everything here. Everyone is using it for social chat, and I am amazed by the amount of business and legal transactions that it is used for. It’s also useful for when somebody does not speak good English, as you can often ask them to WhatsApp you, and they usually can communicate better using the written word. 

The food continues to amaze me. We have had some amazing food from new restaurants we have tried, and I have found some amazing food from the food stalls that occupy the small town centre we live nearby to. The crazy thing I love about this place, is that it is cheaper to eat out than buy everything for home and eat in. 

Speaking of food, we also attended a welcome dinner for the new expat teachers that was organised by the school. It was nice to meet some of the new staff, and we have also had a HR and ICT induction at the school too. It feels like we are slowly easing our way into the new academic year, and there is certainly some exciting opportunities ahead for me professionally, which I can’t share with you at this stage just yet. 

As far as the weather goes we are acclimating to the heat a bit better – some days feel brutally hot, yet when there is cloud coverage we are fine, and the days are much more manageable. We experienced our first major downpour the other day, and a big storm passed through. The thunder and lightning started, and one flash went past every window, followed by a huge bang akin to a howitzer cannon being fired. My partner was outside, and came running in scared for her life. After she inspected the outside, there was huge hole in the ground on the other side of the fence, where the lightning had hit. Talk about a lucky escape! They do say that you never get struck by lightning twice.

Another bonus about working in Malaysia is that there are a large amount of public holidays here. So you know the score in the UK, Christian holidays count as public holidays for all citizens, and other religious holidays can only be taken by the respective religions, e.g. Muslims have a legal right to take a day off for Eid. However here, the religious holidays for the majority religious groups are public holidays for all people, so for example, everyone here will get December the 25th off as a public holiday, not just Christians. That is a fine example of multiculturalism, and also an example the importance of a deity here. The general rule of thumb seems to be that you are more respected if you hold a faith, rather than not. 

Speaking of religion, we also made another day trip to a nearby Taoist temple called ‘Sak Dato’. In classic Asian style, it is situated on a hillside, and features all the standard temple things, including lots of statues of animals. Even though I am not religious, I do find more affiliation with Taoism due to it not believing in an omnipotent being beyond the cosmos. The highlight of the area, is Malaysia’s largest monkey statue situated at the top of the hill opposite, which you have to get to by crossing a suspension bridge. We decided to make the ‘pilgrimage’ despite it being roasting in the middle of the day, and the kids did really well with the climb. As we were near the top, my partner decided she couldn’t carry on and turned back. A spiritual elder saw this and told her off, convincing her to carry on as she had made it so far. I am glad we did, because the views were stunning and the sense of achievement was strong, considering we had two kids in tow. As part of this trip, we also ate at a cool local Chinese restaurant, where the only person in the village who spoke English had to come along and help us order our food. My fish was hooked out of the neighbouring lake, and the English speaker also got us to try some exotic fruit he’d picked – something that we had never seen or eaten in our lives before.  

And finally, I managed to take a few hours out of everything to go and take in my first Malaysian punk-rock show, but in the spirit and ethos of Ont Road I will write a separate piece about this later. That’s it for now, I will be back next week to share some insights into my new life. Peace be with you. 

2 Malaysia - Two steps forward, one step back

We have now left the hotel and have moved into our house. The final week in the hotel was mainly spent trying to organise our lives, and I spent some extended time with the children whilst my partner finished her degree (this mainly consisted of me taking them to a play centre & the swimming pool).

We borrowed an old Isuzu Trooper for a few days through a private seller, which was cool to drive a tank style car, yet that was too much of a risk for potential repairs, and the air conditioning was inappropriate. After a few searches online, we finally found a car we were happy with, a 2011 Kia Sorento, which seems to be in good condition, has a safe frame, and has 7 seats so we can have our guests in with us during their stay. Book your places now!

We made a few trips to the house to take delivery of and assemble some of the furniture, thankfully we had paid a bit extra to have most of it assembled, because for me they are a bastard to put together, yet my partner seems to be able to whizz through them somehow. The house is situated in a newly built, sprawling eco township, and this is also where my school is located. We are renting a large property there, which has more than enough space for us all. Nearby is a park and a lake to walk around, and the security guards salute you as you leave and enter the gated community. The only downside is that we have to be on a waiting list to get Wifi, but we have managed to get round this by getting unlimited data packages on our mobile phones, and we can use them to tether the data to our TV and laptops. There is also a club house on site, which has amazing facilities (infinity pool, kids splash area, sauna, steam room, and jacuzzi), and offers a 360 degree hilltop view of the surrounding area, complete with hills in the background – it truly is a stunning location to raise a young family, and offers superior air quality compared to living in the city. The local town has a mall with a large Tesco, and other major shops an outlets. Surrounding it on all sides back to back is a square of properties where the local business’ are, and there is a street where all the street food sellers dwell – it has everything you need really. For more upmarket activities, we have a larger mall, water park, cinemas, animal sanctuaries,  and countryside retreats, all within 20 minutes drive from where we are. Further to this, we are 40 minutes from central Kuala Lumpur (KL), 80 minutes from the beach, and 40 minutes from KL airport – so we can easily come and pick you up when you arrive. Book your places now!

The children are doing well, and they seem to be adjusting to life here just fine. The climate hasn’t stifled them, and child 2 is even trying all the local food. As long as mummy and daddy are around, they are generally happy, bar the occasional tantrums. Child 1 will face the trickiest transition when school starts, joining a new class as an ethnic minority, yet wheels have already been put in motion with regards to that settling in process. 

This is because we have already made contact and met up with some of the other teachers who work at and are going to work at the school. The first couple we met at the hotel, and they have two young children too – so we met up and went out for some food with them one evening. They seem chill and down to earth, and they are also vegan, which will be a good influence on us, as we like to eat healthy as often as we can. Along with couple 1, we also were invited round for food, drinks, and kids play date by couple 2, and one of them is a leader in the key stage that child 1 will be in. They were sound and chill too, and they also have two young kids. So we are all in the same boat, and it was nice to be invited along, and made to feel part of the community so soon. It was also a perfect opportunity for the kids to familiarise themselves with each other, as I am sure they will also be spending time together inside and outside of school too.

The food continues to be wonderful, and I’ve levelled out a little by not having every meal as a spicy one. The best food we have found so far is in the banana leaf set, which is an vegetarian Indian dish, where lots of different things are served on a banana leaf. It’s similar to a thali, just served on something different. It was so good, we went two nights running.  

At present we are in our new house for the third night, and everything is starting to come together, following a two steps forward, one step back feel during the first couple of weeks. Now that we are starting to feel more settled, we might start making some trips out to places other than the mall or shops, prior to the start of the academic year. 

1 Malaysia - Arrival & First Week

So here we are, after a long break I am finally back Ont Road. Over the past five years, life has taken on a different meaning and experience with the decision to have children. I have written about some of my recent short trips to Finland (HERE), Rebellion Festival (HERE), and Hamburg (HERE), but being a family man with young kids has meant that there hasn’t been any long travel trips for a while, and let’s face it, not only does nobody want to read a blog about family holidays in Spain or Cyprus, I ain’t interested in writing about those things - there are plenty of places on the internet that cater for that type of stuff. 

So why Malaysia? Well, at the start of the year my partner and I decided to take the plunge, and I started to apply for International teaching jobs. This is something we had decided to do a few years ago, but tragically my younger brother took his own life after suffering from depression for most of his life - as a result we had to spend a few years managing this trauma, and the subsequent impact this had on our mental health. You can read more about it here if you want to know more (HERE). A deeper explanation of the reasoning for going into international teaching can be found in an article I wrote  (Contact me for a link), and if you work as a teacher in the British education system and are interested in teaching abroad, you can read about how to go about the process in another article I wrote (Contact me for a link). For now, let’s just say that it was a long process that took lots of effort, yet here I am, after several interviews, having found a job, teaching Humanities on the British Curriculum, at an International school on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Although day to day life won't change, my environment has considerably, so I want to personally document this experience, and also share my thoughts and experiences with you, as I know it is something which you will all find interesting.

The actual departure from the UK was a long process too: packaging boxes to be shipped in advance, selling most of our possessions, putting our most personal possessions into storage, and a vast array of occasions to say goodbye to people (if you were at our actual leaving party, it was a night you won't forget). We decided to fly out at the start of the school holidays so that we could enjoy as much time as possible in Malaysia, acclimatising before the next academic year, rather than counting down the days in England. We flew with KLM, Leeds via Amsterdam, and the airline had great food and service. There was a slight delay on the first flight, so we had to make a mad dash from one side of Schiphol airport to the other, with two kids, four bags, and two car seats; and somehow we made the connecting flight just in time. The car seats were a bastard to lug around, yet they were a gift from the heavens on the plane - the kids were used to sleeping in them from car journeys, so they were ideal for a comfy & quiet overnight flight, meaning no disgruntled huffs from other passengers. 

Unbeknown to me, three members of staff from the school came to meet us at the airport, and using the school minibus, took us and all our mountains of luggage to our hotel - that was a great way to be welcomed. They even went so far as to bring gifts of cuddly toys for the children too - a nice touch! As standard for expat teachers, the school put us up in a hotel for the start of the contract - and they have gone the extra mile once again by putting us up in a 5 star hotel, half way between central Kuala Lumpur, and where the school is based. This has been a unique experience so far, as we have never been in a situation where we would choose to or be able to stay in such a place for a two week period. The hotel itself is attached to a huge mall, so it is ideal for having the comforts we are used to on our doorstep, and all the retail & dining we could possibly need whilst acclimatising and getting set up for our future life here. So what follows isn’t going to blow your mind with some deep insights into obscure elements of Malay culture, yet it will give you a taste and feeling for what we have been experiencing as part of our situation during the first week. Here are some snippets of life so far...

IT’S ALWAYS CLOUDY IN KUALA LUMPUR - it’s the first things us Brits always ask about when our friends are away. Before we left, we were told there would be a downpour everyday - I have only seen one so far. Furthermore, I love the weather - warm, cloudy, humid and a slight breeze - it’s like being in an air conditioned sauna without the risk of continually being sunburnt.

‘BREAKFAST’ - our package includes breakfast, and they have everything - curry, noodles, sushi, and all the standard breakfast items. My favourite local dish so far is a variation on Roti Chennai - roti bread mixed with egg and fried, then covered with dall, a dollop of lembak (spicy sauce), and topped with poached eggs. Yum!

THEY KNOW HOW TO DO MALLS - our hotel is attached to a huge mall, which is about five times as big as the White Rose Centre in Leeds, complete with all your shopping, dining, and entertainment needs. The kids have been kept entertained in the play centres, and our bellies have been filled in some of the 143 food establishments. A basic family meal in the Food Court costs as little as £7, an average family meal in a cafe / small restaurant is £10-15, and a splurge / feast in a more upmarket place can cost £20-30. We have eaten amazing food from all regions of Asia since we have been here - I can’t wait to start trying the more authentic places.  

YOU NEED A PASSPORT TO DO ANYTHING - Renting a house, getting a SIM card, and ordering a taxi through an app all require a copy of your passport - even filling out a form to get admission to a kids play area even requires your passport number!

APPS - Malaysia is pretty good so far for this, there is an app called GRAB in which you can order taxis, get food delivery, and even order someone to deliver goods for you. The most impressive so far is a DIY car rental app called SOCAR, where cars can be booked out from other car owners for significantly cheaper than commercial firms - a kind of Peer to Peer AirBnB for cars. We have signed up for this, and plan to perhaps use it in the future. Speaking of cars, you pretty much need one to get around and do anything here. 

TOLLS EVERYWHERE - For the few 20 minute journeys we have done, we have passed through at least 3 tolls on each journey. I guess that is just normal service for a privatised road building programme. 

IKEA IS SAME SAME BUT DIFFERENT - No experience of visiting Ikea is ever pleasurable, so we decided to head out on a Tuesday mid-morning to escape the bustle, only to find out when we got there that it was a public holiday for the coronation of the new king. Cue the chaos. This was a necessary evil for working out what we are going to need for our new (unfurnished) house. Thankfully, we ordered and paid for it all online after the visit, and this will then be delivered and assembled for when we finally move into our new house. 

GETTING A HOUSE - We also paid a couple of visits to our new house, to finalise the paperwork and check a few things over (thankfully Heather was able to put in the majority of the groundwork, prior to our arrival). I will share more information about all this in a future blog post, as there is a lot to say about the place - it’s beautiful and is the best place to serve most of our needs for the next couple of years.

SCHOOL - I also made a visit to the school, primarily to have a handover meeting with the outgoing History teacher, which was useful. I also got to look around the secondary campus (which is wonderful) and meet some of the other key staff. As part of this trip, I also got the opportunity to have breakfast in a cafe in the local town centre, which was a welcome change from eating in the hotel and mall. £3 for 3 dishes! 

WE ARE VIKINGS AND OUR CHILDREN ARE ANGELS - People in Asia are generally much smaller than people in the West, so I actually feel quite tall here. I also heard that touching the head is a no-no here, as the head is said to be sacred. Yet on many occasions, people from the elderly generation have felt it necessary to touch the heads of our children. I asked Heather about this faux pas, and she said that ‘it’s because our children are angels’. 

LIFE ADMIN - They may look like angels, but I can assure you, like many parents, there are plenty of times when they don’t behave like them. It’s a big job is getting a life set up in a new country, whilst simultaneously trying to entertain, nurture, and care for young children (my youngest has gone to bed at 10pm - not midnight - for the first time this trip - hence why I had some time to write this). Despite this, we have been managing to chip away at things, little by little, without tearing each others hair out, and that is what I consider a success, and this is where I will leave you this time, with a so far, so good.