Ticking items off the list
Since arrival every day seems to have been filled with so much to accomplish, learn and understand. Yesterday was no different in that respect. However, the biggest difference was that some of my tasks have moved towards getting ticked off my list. Why only moving towards? Well we are living in Malaysia, where everyone is on Asian time, and things just move slower.
Let me give you an example. We have been to the apartment complex where we will be renting several times with several different agents. Each time we go to the complex we ask the agent to bring as many keys as possible to show as many apartments as possible, because we will be renting an apartment in this location. Every single time the agents have shown up without half the necessary keys and we have stood around waiting for keys to mystically appear from somewhere. This approach has not only made the whole visit take longer, but it has also made many of us very frustrated with the process. And the majority of the time we have been in large groups doing the looking, so each person ends up individually asking the same questions of the agents, and thus we end up increasing the time of the visit to an even longer period than would otherwise be necessary. Add to that the fact that many of the agents have the same apartments, and you get the picture.
That being said yesterday seemed to be quite a fortuitous day in moving forward in both buying a car and renting an apartment. I began the morning on my own, letting the boys sleep in, going out to look at the car that Mr. Fong had saved for me. I took a taxi that the hotel concierge arranged for me, only to learn that this is the most expensive type of taxi available, and I had grossly overpaid for the short ten minute journey, and the guy had gotten lost on the way also. Once I arrived I saw the car. It is a used Perodua Myvi (a locally made car). It is about 4 years old, but only has 50,000km on it. The dealership has changed the clutch so that I don't have to worry about that. It is in fantastic shape. And even better, the price is right. Although it is a small car, I will be able to upgrade eventually if I feel the need. The only difficulty will be that it is a manual, which means I will have to learn to shift using my left hand, not my right while steering with my right. The car will be ready at least within two weeks as long as all my loan papers go through. Why two weeks rather than one? It is Ramadan and at the end of the next week it will be EID and the whole week will be a public holiday. See below the pics of the car. I was told that the color is not white, but pearl white.
Following the successful foray into the used car world, I met up with one of my other colleagues and the boys to go out one more time to look at the apartments in the complex. I wanted to make sure that my decision on my new colleague's apartment was the correct one. We decided to take the train out to Putrajaya to make sure we knew how to do this sooner rather than later, as it will become our key mode of transportation in and out of Putrajaya. The local commuter train we took, at the time we took it, seemed to be OK, going only one stop. We got into the Ladies only carriage, where you can also bring kids, and found our way to the ticket purchase counter for trips to Putrajaya, which also just so happen to be the same train as the airport train. The train was much nicer than the commuter train and fairly empty, with a great aircon. The trip was much shorter than we had expected, taking only 15 minutes. We met friends come out of the station who had just left a taxi, and taken his number, as there are very few taxis in Putrajaya. This was lucky for us as truly there were no taxis outside the station when we arrived. We called the guy and within 5 minutes we were on our way to the resort.
While at the resort the boys swam in their new pool the whole time while we looked around at new apartments that we had not previously seen. I am not sure why these particular apartments had not been shown previously. At any rate we did not really find anything extremely different, and I decided that I had absolutely made the right decision about the apartment I wanted. In the morning I had already reached the agent and discussed meeting about the lease. My new colleague was moving yesterday and we were also able to see the apartment one more time. This time, knowing it would be our new home, I took pictures. The furniture you see, except for the white goods (British for appliances...) are the previous owner's. I have arranged to have the apartment fully furnished, and hopefully will be able to choose the furniture.
Below is the view from our living room, and the living room itself. The picture of the living room turned out too dark and you will have to trust me that it is a large enough space for couches, dining table, etc. The view is actually of the resort's golf course. We have been told that in the evenings the kids from the complex run out and begin to scooter and bike until it is time to come in. The boys are really looking forward to this!
Next you will see the Kitchen/utilities/maid's room area.
This is the small bathroom near the maid's room. Terrible picture, but it shows the wet room showers that are more common here. The rest of the bathrooms are prepared to a Western standard bathroom type.
Washer and dryer.
The black item on the counter is our stove! It ends up being more like a toaster oven.
This is the "maid's room" and will definitely become our storage room.
This is the Master bedroom and bathroom and its view from the various windows.
This is Namejs' room and his view.
This is Didzis room and his view.
This is the boys' shared bathroom. The doors lead directly into their rooms.
Now that I know that I will take this apartment and so far we seem to have agreed on the price and terms, I still have to meet with the agent to organize to sign the lease. Today I am sending off all of my details for the owner to review, and it seems that everything will fall into place.
Yesterday's final adventure was taking the commuter train back to town. The agent took us to the train station, but thinking to save us some money, he took us not to the center of Putrajaya but to a location nearby where we could get on the train and go directly back to our hotel. We thought it would be great to try it out. It turned out to be the worst decision of the day. We waited for the train for about 20 minutes while on the other side of the platform three trains went in the other direction. The train was jam packed as we were pushed in, the air conditioner did work, but with the number of people in the train there was no air being moved. No windows can be opened. We had four very uncomfortable stops whilst standing and sweating from head to toe. The worst part was that once we got out of the train it was cooler outside than inside. Namejs made an astute comment that this was the way that people were trained to think that the weather in Malaysia was not as hot as it seemed - just sit in the train and you appreciate that it could actually be hotter.
Today we will take it easy, but know that we will go to China town today with the teacher group again to meet our affiliate school teachers, and we will have time to explore a bit. The boys and I may try to go earlier to see the Petronas Towers, but I need to take care of some details for the lease and car buying, so it might not give us enough time to do this. Plus it has taken me ages to write this entry today!
Let me give you an example. We have been to the apartment complex where we will be renting several times with several different agents. Each time we go to the complex we ask the agent to bring as many keys as possible to show as many apartments as possible, because we will be renting an apartment in this location. Every single time the agents have shown up without half the necessary keys and we have stood around waiting for keys to mystically appear from somewhere. This approach has not only made the whole visit take longer, but it has also made many of us very frustrated with the process. And the majority of the time we have been in large groups doing the looking, so each person ends up individually asking the same questions of the agents, and thus we end up increasing the time of the visit to an even longer period than would otherwise be necessary. Add to that the fact that many of the agents have the same apartments, and you get the picture.
That being said yesterday seemed to be quite a fortuitous day in moving forward in both buying a car and renting an apartment. I began the morning on my own, letting the boys sleep in, going out to look at the car that Mr. Fong had saved for me. I took a taxi that the hotel concierge arranged for me, only to learn that this is the most expensive type of taxi available, and I had grossly overpaid for the short ten minute journey, and the guy had gotten lost on the way also. Once I arrived I saw the car. It is a used Perodua Myvi (a locally made car). It is about 4 years old, but only has 50,000km on it. The dealership has changed the clutch so that I don't have to worry about that. It is in fantastic shape. And even better, the price is right. Although it is a small car, I will be able to upgrade eventually if I feel the need. The only difficulty will be that it is a manual, which means I will have to learn to shift using my left hand, not my right while steering with my right. The car will be ready at least within two weeks as long as all my loan papers go through. Why two weeks rather than one? It is Ramadan and at the end of the next week it will be EID and the whole week will be a public holiday. See below the pics of the car. I was told that the color is not white, but pearl white.
Following the successful foray into the used car world, I met up with one of my other colleagues and the boys to go out one more time to look at the apartments in the complex. I wanted to make sure that my decision on my new colleague's apartment was the correct one. We decided to take the train out to Putrajaya to make sure we knew how to do this sooner rather than later, as it will become our key mode of transportation in and out of Putrajaya. The local commuter train we took, at the time we took it, seemed to be OK, going only one stop. We got into the Ladies only carriage, where you can also bring kids, and found our way to the ticket purchase counter for trips to Putrajaya, which also just so happen to be the same train as the airport train. The train was much nicer than the commuter train and fairly empty, with a great aircon. The trip was much shorter than we had expected, taking only 15 minutes. We met friends come out of the station who had just left a taxi, and taken his number, as there are very few taxis in Putrajaya. This was lucky for us as truly there were no taxis outside the station when we arrived. We called the guy and within 5 minutes we were on our way to the resort.
While at the resort the boys swam in their new pool the whole time while we looked around at new apartments that we had not previously seen. I am not sure why these particular apartments had not been shown previously. At any rate we did not really find anything extremely different, and I decided that I had absolutely made the right decision about the apartment I wanted. In the morning I had already reached the agent and discussed meeting about the lease. My new colleague was moving yesterday and we were also able to see the apartment one more time. This time, knowing it would be our new home, I took pictures. The furniture you see, except for the white goods (British for appliances...) are the previous owner's. I have arranged to have the apartment fully furnished, and hopefully will be able to choose the furniture.
Below is the view from our living room, and the living room itself. The picture of the living room turned out too dark and you will have to trust me that it is a large enough space for couches, dining table, etc. The view is actually of the resort's golf course. We have been told that in the evenings the kids from the complex run out and begin to scooter and bike until it is time to come in. The boys are really looking forward to this!
Next you will see the Kitchen/utilities/maid's room area.
This is the small bathroom near the maid's room. Terrible picture, but it shows the wet room showers that are more common here. The rest of the bathrooms are prepared to a Western standard bathroom type.
Washer and dryer.
The black item on the counter is our stove! It ends up being more like a toaster oven.
This is the "maid's room" and will definitely become our storage room.
This is the Master bedroom and bathroom and its view from the various windows.
This is Namejs' room and his view.
This is Didzis room and his view.
This is the boys' shared bathroom. The doors lead directly into their rooms.
Now that I know that I will take this apartment and so far we seem to have agreed on the price and terms, I still have to meet with the agent to organize to sign the lease. Today I am sending off all of my details for the owner to review, and it seems that everything will fall into place.
Yesterday's final adventure was taking the commuter train back to town. The agent took us to the train station, but thinking to save us some money, he took us not to the center of Putrajaya but to a location nearby where we could get on the train and go directly back to our hotel. We thought it would be great to try it out. It turned out to be the worst decision of the day. We waited for the train for about 20 minutes while on the other side of the platform three trains went in the other direction. The train was jam packed as we were pushed in, the air conditioner did work, but with the number of people in the train there was no air being moved. No windows can be opened. We had four very uncomfortable stops whilst standing and sweating from head to toe. The worst part was that once we got out of the train it was cooler outside than inside. Namejs made an astute comment that this was the way that people were trained to think that the weather in Malaysia was not as hot as it seemed - just sit in the train and you appreciate that it could actually be hotter.
Today we will take it easy, but know that we will go to China town today with the teacher group again to meet our affiliate school teachers, and we will have time to explore a bit. The boys and I may try to go earlier to see the Petronas Towers, but I need to take care of some details for the lease and car buying, so it might not give us enough time to do this. Plus it has taken me ages to write this entry today!
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