This post was written by Elly Robertson

Malaysia is a haven for expats and there’s a routine in-and-out migration every month as new expats arrive and veterans move on to new adventures. Newbie Scottish expat Elly Robertson shares her first memories of life in this Southeast Asian Nation as she begins to carve out a life for herself in the capital.

My very first impressions of Malaysia are hard for me to retrieve now a month on. Not because of the passage of time, but rather the torrential downpour that shrouded my journey into KL from the airport. I do remember men on motorbikes emerging out of nowhere and disappearing into nowhere just meters ahead of the taxi like some brave souls from a pirate movie heading into the perilous steamy unknown.

A bit like myself, minus the perilous and the steamy… but certainly “the unknown”… Another expat taking her first tentative baby steps into a foreign land and its culture.

Selamat datang – a sign at the airport. My enthusiasm to absorb all things Malaysian found me trying to memorise it with a promise to look it up later. Sel-a-mat became buy-a-rug in my jet-lagged mind. No wonder I struggled to find it in the phrase book that evening!

In those first few days, making increasingly adventurous forays from my hotel, I had my initial memorable encounters with some Malaysian people; like the lady at the table next to me in Madame Kwan’s… I must have been eyeing up the bubbling pot in the centre of her table wondering what delight was within when she indicated I should try some, it was delicious “hot, sour fish soup with okra.” Before the words “I’m not very good with chili” formed in my brain, I had my own little steaming dish in front of me. It blew the roof off my mouth, but somewhere in there, I did appreciate its culinary qualities.

Or the man, Mr Chang, aged 65 (he proudly told me), who owns a small antique/junk shop at the KL Central Market. He was strumming on a guitar from his abundant, densely-packed stock as I entered. I purchased a small tea pot, we talked about Scotland, Malaysia, the heat, he rummaged around and proudly showed me a chanter for a set of pygmy bagpipes, but best of all, as our encounter was concluding he asked if he could sing me a song… Well, what can a girl say? It was a croon-ey song from the ’60s, delivered with a joyful self-confidence. I found myself joining in the chorus and, looking round, saw other curious customers doing the same. We all applauded ourselves and Mr Chang. Gives a whole new meaning to the term “happy customers”! My little blue tea pot makes a great cuppa, too!

The heat and the humidity are, I guess, the biggest challenge for this expat. Folks back home tell me about the six inches of snow and more on the way, whilst here I am acquainting myself with the air-conand-fans routine (and a swim at the end of the day). My first introduction to the sweat-trickling-down-the-back sensation was during a visit to the Putrajaya evening market. The thronging bodies combined with a mass of woks and hot plates at full throttle (is there a collective noun for such?) was enough to start the trickle. I sampled sticky yellow rice in little palm leaf pyramids, sugarcane juice and something my new friends knowingly called “scissor chicken,” a flattened chicken breast crumbed and dusted with chili powder and cut loudly with clacking scissors. This vendor certainly had the longest queue and, yes, it was worth the wait. I came away feeling fried and dusted too with all the new sights and smells of the market, eagerly clutching my golden prizes: a pineapple, a pale variety of mango, a papaya – fruit salad tomorrow was going to bamazing!

I was soon introduced to some other Malaysians , this lot from the animal kingdom. The gecko lurking under a damp facecloth – we both got a shock! Friends back home had voiced their concerns… “What about the creepy-crawlies?” Growing up in Africa, I prided myself that nothing much could bother me and waved aside their feeble apprehensions. I had whimsically thought that the gecko and I could live perfectly happily together but within the week found myself on the phone to my landlady, Sindy, for advice. Who would have thought that something so small could make as much mess on the walls and emit such a loud noise, usually (of course) in the middle of the night. He had to go! The amazing Sindy told me that her husband opened all the windows and chased a gecko with a broom till he (the gecko, I presume) got tired. It worked a treat and before long the little lizard and I were eyeing each other with a pane of glass between us. I did note that it was her husband who did the gecko chasing!

So what of the wee adventure? Get my Malaysian car (you guessed it, a Myvi) next week and then the adventure-proper begins. Melaka, Cameron Highlands, Penang, Langkawi are all on the list… but it’s the people as much as the places that are proving to be the real delight!

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Source: The Expat June 2013
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