Finished my first week in Malaysia
It's been fairly interesting so far. I've enjoyed my time a lot more then I was expecting to so far.
After spending most of a week at my friends home I moved into the hotel. It was a really nice hotel, actually it is a resort. First thing I did when I got there was order a chicken burger and fries, room service. When I was ordering the woman asked what drink I wanted so I asked for a coke. I thought it was included with the meal, apparently not. The price of the burger was reasonable at 29 ringgit (about $10 CAD), but the small can of coke was 15 ringgit (that's $5). Suffice it to say that I didn't order from room service again while I was there. I kind of wish I had taken a couple of pictures of the resort, it was a very nice place and it was just out side of the city so it was quiet and peaceful.
After spending most of a week at my friends home I moved into the hotel. It was a really nice hotel, actually it is a resort. First thing I did when I got there was order a chicken burger and fries, room service. When I was ordering the woman asked what drink I wanted so I asked for a coke. I thought it was included with the meal, apparently not. The price of the burger was reasonable at 29 ringgit (about $10 CAD), but the small can of coke was 15 ringgit (that's $5). Suffice it to say that I didn't order from room service again while I was there. I kind of wish I had taken a couple of pictures of the resort, it was a very nice place and it was just out side of the city so it was quiet and peaceful.
Training started on Wednesday instead of Thursday. Day one was pretty low key and interesting. They talked a lot about the possible areas we would be going to. By this point I had already had my placement decided, but others hadn't yet. They did a real nice job of selling their areas to us. Everything sounded really nice. I was a bit disappointed that they hardly said anything about my area, but the manager for my area wasn't there due to going to Cambodia for a work trip.
The long and short of it is that I am living in a small city called Kota Tinggi. It's about a 30min drive from Johor Bahru which is a large city that borders Singapore, so I will be able to take the odd trip there when I need to get away. I am looking forward to it.
They gave us each a car at the end of the first day. Here is mine.
Its a nice little car. A few of the others were a bit nervous about driving so they left their cars at the office and tagged along with the others.
I was nervous as I hadn't driven a car regularly for almost 10yrs. When I realized its been that long I was surprised. The first couple of times were very nerve racking as the road system here is, at times, very confusing. I got lost once or twice but thankfully I have google maps on my phone.
After the second day everyone had to get their cars because we were going off to our new areas so we had to check out of the hotel. A few of us bought GPS systems, word to the wise, they don't help unless you know exactly what the name of the place you are going is called. I ended up using my phone more than my GPS. Anyways, it was agreed that some of the people driving their cars for the first time would follow me back to the hotel from the office. I pulled out of my parking space and waited for them to line up behind me so they could follow. I don't know what happened but they completely missed where I was. I hurried to catch up with them and I managed to get in front, but they didn't see me and turned off in the wrong direction. I once again hurried to catch up to them, but this time I couldn't. Luckily I had the phone number of one of them and I called and asked where they were going. I said I would wait back at the office for them. Problem was that only one car had a phone so we completely lost the other car. Not knowing what to do we went back to the hotel and hoped that the other car would find their way back. After about 2hrs the final car made it back to the hotel. She had hired a taxi to guide her back to the hotel. And here's an example of how nice the people of Malaysia really are. The taxi driver didn't charge her for the guided trip back to the hotel. AMAZING!!!
That was day two of training. Day three is the final day and we had established a routine of somebody who knew how to get to the office from the hotel would lead everyone. On the way to the office the leader of our convoy hit a motorbike. Now it might sound like I thought this was the driver of the cars fault, but you have to understand that bikers here don't follow any sort of road rules. He only had a couple of scratches, of course when he saw the white skin of the driver he was suddenly in need of a hospital. In the end the cops took care of everything and there will be nothing coming from this for the driver of the car. Plus, we all got a good lesson in how to deal with these types of incidents, so in a way this was a good thing for all of us.
After a half day of more training we were off to our areas. There was a five car convoy going in my direction. About 3/4's of the way to where I was going 3 cars turned off to go to a different area. I was left leading the way for the remainder of the trip. We were on the toll road and it turned out to be not to expensive. Only $10 for about 200km of driving. Shortly after getting off the toll road the other car with me went on her own way.
I only made one wrong turn on the way here but it added about 20mins to my drive. The road between Kulaijaya and Kota Tinggi is a very nice road with palm tree plantations all along the way.
I have currently arrived in Kota Tinggi and the picture above is the front of my hotel. Fairly typical business hotel.
My room
The staff are friendly and willing to try and help out as much as they can. I think there is a lot less English here then in Seremban which is where I was before I came here. Having said that, there is still a lot more English in this country than anywhere else I have been in Asia, so I imagine I will get along just fine here.
view from roof of hotel
view from my room
The town/city isn't very big, but after walking around this morning, I think it has everything I need to be happy. There is a movie theater next to the hotel I am staying in, so I'm going to watch Pompeii later today. There is a domino's pizza just outside the hotel too, so I'm sure you can guess what's for dinner tonight.
Domino's pizza :)
My ELC (supervisor) took me out to dinner with his wife last night. Before we went he took me to the house he is trying to hook me up with. It's a town house that is fully furnished. He is having a little bit of trouble getting a hold of the landlord, but I really hope I can get this place. It's in a quiet area that is pretty safe just outside of the city. I think it will be perfect. If I get the place I will take a few pics of it for this blog. I start work tomorrow. My ELC is taking me to his school and then we will go around to a couple of my schools and start looking at other apartments in case I can't get this one. I think week one of the job will be fairly low key and I am really looking forward to getting into it.
In my next blog I will tell you more about the job and the places I will be plying my trade.
BERCAKAP DENGAN ANDA KEMUDIAN! (That's "talk to you later" in Malay)
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