Why Thailand if Malaysia is so much easier and nicer

[ExpatOilWorker]

1 hour ago, ChristianBlessing said:

I have lived and worked and worked in Kuala Lumpur for over 10 years. I live in an expat enclave, so my perspective is that of a privileged expat. That said, I have spent significant time exploring the length and breadth of Malaysia, and would offer the following on the OP's observations:

• "No ATM fees" With a few exceptions, there are ATM fees. Most local banks limit free withdrawals to 8, after which a fee may be applied. Inter-bank withdrawals can be as high as RM 2. This, of course, pales compared to the extortionate ฿ 220 in Thailand.
• With the exception of the major cities of KL, Ipoh, Malaka and Penang/Langkawi, comprehensible English is the exception rather than the rule.
• While the food is varied and delicious, it can difficult to find quality Western food. Quality pizza is puzzlingly rare, and Mexican (my personal favorite) is non-existent. Add a beer, wine or mixed drink to any meal and one can easily double or triple the final bill.
• The eastern coast of Malaysia, as well as the islands off the coast, have gorgeous beaches and diving spots.

Like the OP, I find Malaysians of all backgrounds to be exceedingly friendly and approachable. However, I find most people throughout SE Asia to be equally so.

 

My biggest issue with living in Kuala Lumpur is the basic infrastructure. Certainly where I live the developers have built some glistening, towering condominiums and luxurious shopping malls, but the streets and road networks are poorly planned, traffic signals fail and are never repaired, sidewalks are nothing short of treacherous, and there are simply no public safety easements to allow emergency vehicle passage. Malls and shopping centers are built with woefully inadequate parking forcing patrons to double and triple park for blocks around, presenting further risks and inconvenience for pedestrians. Finally, public servants (ie police) in Kuala Lumper keep a pretty low profile. Even in my little bubble snatch theft, burglaries and personal assault are distressingly common.

 

Maybe I've been here too long. It is said the familiarity breeds contempt, and perhaps that's so. Some days I feel that the gloss and glitter of the Kuala Lumpur skyline is betrayed by a fundamental crumbling on the ground.

 

 

When I was in KL, the joke was that you only see the police when they help rich people break the law.

This was especially evident when a car club of Lamborghini owners were parading their cars and the police were out in force escorting them around town.

[Scooby and Puppy]

On 02/02/2018 at 6:34 PM, MaeJoMTB said:

Rules must have changed .......... 'stay until' on yours has no date stamp?

 

Yeah, rules must have changed.. but now I wouldn’t want to go there for 30 days anyway.  

[Justfine]

On 27/01/2018 at 8:00 PM, Juntaa said:

Sad. I will ignore this comment.

So you ignore the main reason.

 

[Justfine]

On 04/02/2018 at 10:55 PM, opalred said:

a funny thing  i was going with a muslim girl 

when we went shopping at large supermarkets 

they have a closed room where you  can buy bacon

the checkout girls will not touch

  so you have to put it through the scammer yourself 

then girlfriend made me put it in the boot of the car

another Chinese shop sold bacon 

and when i brought was told to say i wanted smoked chicken

so no one in the shop new it was pork

And it's based on 1400 year old beliefs. Sad that people haven't evolved.

[Justfine]

On 03/02/2018 at 8:45 AM, AloisAmrein said:

Malaysian and specially Indonesian food is much more varied then the everyday Thai kitchen. After one week in Thailand, eating becomes a boring duty. Chicken and rice, rice and pork, tom yam kung, tom yam gai and that's it. Absolutely boring.

5555 you need to get out to a proper restaurant. There's a 100 dishes.

[Justfine]

Does anyone have close Malay friends?

[ExpatOilWorker]

Just now, Justfine said:

Does anyone have close Malay friends?

Yes, and no.

 

They are Malaysians, but all Chinese-Malay or Indian-Malay.

 

Actually I have one Malay friend I have known for 20 years now, but she is married to a Brit and very western in her thinking.

[Justfine]

Just now, ExpatOilWorker said:

Yes, and no.

 

They are Malaysians, but all Chinese-Malay or Indian-Malay.

 

Actually I have one Malay friend I have known for 20 years now, but she is married to a Brit and very western in her thinking.

So no muslims? Apart from Turks I haven't met muslims that were suitable for being friends. And Chinese/Indians it's more like mild friends. Thais are more like westerners in how they act.

 

 

 

[ExpatOilWorker]

3 minutes ago, Justfine said:

So no muslims? Apart from Turks I haven't met muslims that were suitable for being friends. And Chinese/Indians it's more like mild friends. Thais are more like westerners in how they act.

 

I worked very closely with (muslim) Malays, but if you want to see a temple of arrogance just enter the Petronas office at the Twin Towers. Not a very friendly bunch.

[StreetCowboy]

38 minutes ago, Justfine said:

And it's based on 1400 year old beliefs. Sad that people haven't evolved.

Islam is one of the more modern religions, although that is not to say that its practitioners are as forward-thinking as their predecessors of a thousand years ago.

 

I think it would make a pretty good Hollywood film - young idealist leads his people from repressed squalor to national pride and empire.

You might have to blag some of the historical details, and maybe set it in a galaxy far far away to avoid the wrath of old beardie blokes and nut-jobs looking for an excuse to blow themselves up, ...

 

SC

[StreetCowboy]

22 minutes ago, ExpatOilWorker said:

Yes, and no.

 

They are Malaysians, but all Chinese-Malay or Indian-Malay.

 

Actually I have one Malay friend I have known for 20 years now, but she is married to a Brit and very western in her thinking.

I'm guessing mostly actually Chinese Malaysian or Indian Malaysian, rather than mixed-race Malay.

 

I go cycling with my Malay colleagues, but not often, since they get up at crack of dawn for prayers, and have not been in the pub the night before, so they tend to prefer an earlier departure than I would like, while they are not particularly interested in ending the ride with a few ciders on a Sunday afternoon.

 

SC

[StreetCowboy]

Anyway, to answer the OP's question.

 

Many years ago I was back in England, in the works canteen.  A friend, who had recently been transferred down from Scotland, sat down beside us.

"I'm off to Hong Kong for a new job next week" I said.

"Och, now, I'm not sure I'd like to live in Hong Kong," he said.

"If I took my jobs based on where I wanted to live, I'd not be sat here talking to you now".

 

and hence Hong Kong, and subsequently Thailand, and now Malaysia.

 

SC

 

[opalred]

why do they have so many problems

airlines, half finished building estates everywhere

they don't want any Indians or Chinese in govt  or high positions

if a Malaya Muslim apples for a govt job .who was dunce of the school

he will get the job ahead of other non Muslims 

Indian and Chinese even if they have the top qualification 

they worry if put to many in high places ,could undermine them

[Justfine]

18 minutes ago, opalred said:

why do they have so many problems

airlines, half finished building estates everywhere

they don't want any Indians or Chinese in govt  or high positions

if a Malaya Muslim apples for a govt job .who was dunce of the school

he will get the job ahead of other non Muslims 

Indian and Chinese even if they have the top qualification 

they worry if put to many in high places ,could undermine them

So why don't all the do gooders call them racist?

 

 

[Berkshire]

40 minutes ago, Justfine said:

So why don't all the do gooders call them racist?

 

 

Because they're all of the same race....?  Duh? 

[Justfine]

10 minutes ago, Berkshire said:

Because they're all of the same race....?  Duh? 

Are they?

 

 

[Berkshire]

3 minutes ago, Justfine said:

Are they?

 

 

So which race are they?

[StreetCowboy]

Just now, Berkshire said:

So which race are they?

The Indians are Indian, the Chinese Chinese, Malays Malay, and Orang Asli, Caucasians et al are Other

[Justfine]

2 minutes ago, Berkshire said:

So which race are they?

You tell me. It's your theory.

[Berkshire]

2 minutes ago, StreetCowboy said:

The Indians are Indian, the Chinese Chinese, Malays Malay, and Orang Asli, Caucasians et al are Other

Malay is a race?  I didn't know that.

[Justfine]

5 minutes ago, Berkshire said:

Malay is a race?  I didn't know that.

So what's your theory?

[Berkshire]

15 minutes ago, Justfine said:

So what's your theory?

It's not my theory.  I didn't invent it.  Look it up, it's in all the scientific literature. 

[Justfine]

22 minutes ago, Berkshire said:

It's not my theory.  I didn't invent it.  Look it up, it's in all the scientific literature. 

There are various theories not one. Look it up.

[tifino]

39 minutes ago, Berkshire said:

Malay is a race?  I didn't know that.

 

think of colours - but not in the 'racial' context...

 

There are Primary Colours (Race), Secondary Colours (Ethnicity) etc

 

 

apply this concept, and from Primary 'Brown', it's Secondary (Ethnic) Malay

--- mix that with Primary Caucasian, but moreso a Falang's Secondary - the latino (Spanish); and voila! we have the Tertiary (Sub-ethnic) Filipino

[Justfine]

In Malaysia, the early colonial censuses listed separate ethnic groups, such as "Malays, Boyanese, Achinese, Javanese, Bugis, Manilamen (Filipino) and Siamese". The 1891 census merged these ethnic groups into the three racial categories used in modern Malaysia—Chinese, ‘Tamils and other natives of India’, and ‘Malays and other Natives of the Archipelago’. This was based upon the European view at the time that race was a biologically based scientific category. For the 1901 census, the government advised the word "race" should replace "nationality" wherever it occurs.^[9]

After a period of generations of being classified in these groups, individual identities formed around the concept of bangsa Melayu (Malay race). For younger generations of people, they saw it as providing unity and solidarity against colonial powers, and non-Malay immigrants. The Malaysian nation was later formed with the bangsa Melayu having the central and defining position within the country.^[9]

[ncc1701d]

On 1/27/2018 at 6:00 PM, Juntaa said:

Sad. I will ignore this comment.

I used to travel to Penang a lot and was considering buying property there. One day I was reading the paper and the headline was “fatwa issued against yoga”. That’s right, they thought by practicing yoga, you were going to convert religions. Not that I could care less about yoga, but that’s the mentality of people running the place. Didn’t buy property there and never looked back. 

[StreetCowboy]

6 hours ago, ncc1701d said:

I used to travel to Penang a lot and was considering buying property there. One day I was reading the paper and the headline was “fatwa issued against yoga”. That’s right, they thought by practicing yoga, you were going to convert religions. Not that I could care less about yoga, but that’s the mentality of people running the place. Didn’t buy property there and never looked back. 

There's a yoga place in my street, as well as more than half a dozen pubs, a church, and a couple of private Islamic educational establishments and a Chinese coffee shop.  There's also a car tyre place, a cleaning and waxing place and three banks.

[RandomSand]

On 27/01/2018 at 4:17 PM, NanLaew said:

Oh yes, and they haven't sussed out how to make a decent bread product of any sort.

But they have J.CO Donuts & Coffee !

[Justfine]

They have car tyre shops? I'm sold.

[norrska]

11 hours ago, Justfine said:

In Malaysia, the early colonial censuses listed separate ethnic groups, such as "Malays, Boyanese, Achinese, Javanese, Bugis, Manilamen (Filipino) and Siamese". The 1891 census merged these ethnic groups into the three racial categories used in modern Malaysia—Chinese, ‘Tamils and other natives of India’, and ‘Malays and other Natives of the Archipelago’. This was based upon the European view at the time that race was a biologically based scientific category. For the 1901 census, the government advised the word "race" should replace "nationality" wherever it occurs.^[9]

After a period of generations of being classified in these groups, individual identities formed around the concept of bangsa Melayu (Malay race). For younger generations of people, they saw it as providing unity and solidarity against colonial powers, and non-Malay immigrants. The Malaysian nation was later formed with the bangsa Melayu having the central and defining position within the country.^[9]

how does the bumiputra concept fit into your definitions....