Australians Abroad - It's Not All Sipping Gin Slings

Pluses and minuses are aplenty, believe me, and anyone who is foolish enough to think that this is a tropical paradise where one lounges on the beach idly sipping gin slings is in for a rude awakening. Tourists excepted of course! Looking at the lifestyle here in a clinical manner from my point of view is not all that bad, but it does have its moments, albeit briefly. Myself being in temporary retirement is a big plus, as it leaves me with ample time on my hands to do what ever needs to be done, regardless of how long it takes. And yes, I can go and sit on the beach for hours and sip gin slings if the mood takes me. Well, how serious can you take this article now that I have revealed that little snippet to you?

Minuses

There is the fact that I am white, and not everyone knows that we reside here. It may be a relatively small town but there are still a large number of the population that do not know us, therefore I can be mistaken for a tourist at times which I prefer not to be. Even in the company of my wife, although she is Chinese, she does have Japanese features, and we have had Chinese attempt to speak to her in Japanese. Having the price of goods and services tripled on the basis that I am a westerner. It can be very annoying to say the least, to have someone increase the price simply on your colour. Wouldn't happen in Australia. Thankfully we have built up a good rapport with many honest business people and have been invoiced very fairly. Obviously we only ever go to a 'wheeler dealer' once, and if we think the price is unjust, it's only a matter of turning around and leaving.

Dealing with Government departments, and this has nothing to do with race, it is simply the old public servant syndrome problem that even Australia has. Going to Telekom if we have a query on the account is a classic example. You would not call and attempt to rectify it over the telephone in a fit, it is a total waste of time and effort, and is almost indescribable. The only way to get any thing accomplished is to go personally, and then you are not always successful. The staff behind the counters, (I almost said 'working'!), are painfully slow, and they can take an inordinately long time to attend to a simple enquiry. We were overcharged on one particular bill and I went in to have it adjusted, not such a big deal, and eventually the staff did all was needed. I thought! The next account simply carried over the same glaring error. Back in again, and through the whole thing with the very same member of the staff. The next account simply carried over the same glaring error! No, I have not mistakenly pasted the same sentence in here, it is true. In to Telekom again, and through the whole boring process with the very same member of the staff, only to have it repeated on the subsequent bill! Have you got the idea? I'm not going further with that little episode.

Driving on the road. Now there is a whole book in that subject alone. If you have been a regular reader of my articles, (if not, why not?????), you would know that in road deaths alone, 6,320 people were killed in 1997. In a population that is not all that much larger than Australia's, it is genuine cause for concern everytime I turn the key in the ignition. Perhaps I used the term "driving" a bit too loosely, but I haven't come up with a satisfactory alternative yet. To say it is mayhem out there, is putting it mildly, let me assure you.

When I tell people who visit to "take it easy out there, it's a jungle", I'm not referring to the green stuff that's growing out of the ground! An American friend once told me that the drivers in Ryhad, Saudi Arabia, all drove around like there was no tomorrow because they had Allah looking out for them, I couldn't quite grasp what he was saying, but now I understand very clearly. To think that double lines on the road mean you can be reasonably sure no-one is going to be crossing over to your side, is a big mistake. It means absolutely nothing, unless there is a visible Police presence, these drivers have no compunction at all about having total disregard for all road rules if it interferes with where they want to go. Wrong way up one way streets, going up the highway on the wrong side, ignoring lane markings, pushing into traffic queues at intersections, speeding up when being overtaken, never indicating to turn corners, never stopping at stop signs (me guilty too on that one), using handphones, never restraining children, driving with children on their laps, and so it goes on.

Ice cream, a simple pleasure even though the imported stuff may be a little expensive. The supermarkets all have 'you beaut' freezers where they store the ice cream at the correct temperature. But! There is a bit of a problem with keeping it frozen from the factory/refrigerated container, to the store. We have become accustomed to feeling the container and being able to tell if the contents have been refrozen. Also if there has been a power failure for any length of time, one never buys ones ice cream for a few weeks at least. Arts and live entertainment is almost non-existent here, most of it happens in KL. Gosh, I was about to complain about the quality of the software for computers, but as the majority of it is pirated and is sold for a few dollars, I will leave that subject alone. If I took all the pirated stuff off my hard disk, it would be empty!

Now the good stuff! Pluses.

Remember this really applies to me personally with a dab of reality thrown in for taste.

The weather is great if you are happy with all year round heat, and have no liking for cold climes. The food is so cheap, you would be a fool to bother cooking at home. For example, today for lunch we had rice, mixed vegetables, pork spare ribs, plus drinks, and it was A$3.20. The beach is all of five minutes away, and then there is two or three hundred kilometres of it in either direction. No real traffic jams here yet, and if I take the motorcycle, moving around the town is a dream. There is a lovely breeze almost every day beginning in the late afternoon and most of the evenings coming off the South China Sea. Labour is cheap, so whenever anything is done that incurs a labour charge it is not a financial drama. The other day I had to replace the rear tyre on my superbike, (again! and at A$450 a pop my wife is not impressed), took the wheel and the tyre to a local tyre shop where they removed the old one and fitted the new one. And I might say with a great deal of care as I am very particular about not marking the rim of my bike. Because they know I live here, I wasn't charged the moon for it, in fact the boss had a guilty look on his face when he told me the charge was A$1.25.

We get to see the latest movies at the cinema or on video when they are released, so it is quite up to date in that respect. There are no shortage of electrical retailers, so anything new in that arena is immediately on the shelves here and available. There is a beautiful ten pin bowling alley here that opened last year, and it is so impressive that we occasionally go there just to sit and have a coffee. I could go on, but I feel you might be getting the picture now, and also getting a little envious. Ha! Never mind, come to Malaysia for your next holiday and sample what I have

Anthony Lee
Malaysia
1998