Reflections...

 One Down Eleven More to Go...

See - this is a literal reflection!

Half terms that is!

Well, I say eleven, it could be seventeen, but we'll see how things go.

This post is a summary/update/general rambling on about where we are now in terms of what we've seen, what we've done and what we're thinking.

Firstly the entire experience is interesting. 

Malaysia is both familiar and wildly different at the same time. It has provided us with an accessible way into beginning to explorer South East Asia, something we would never otherwise have done. 

Interesting is good, even if it is not always positive, if you see what I mean...

Hmm... Okay, maybe that's not too clear so I'll exemplify. Please bear in mind the subjective nature of these posts and the limited nature of our experience so far. We've only been off the island of Penang once and then only to go to the local IKEA (very exotic, I know), so our experience clearly doesn't encompass the totality of what the region has to offer any more than my experience of living in Northumberland can encompass the totality living in Northern Europe.

Penang is interesting because it is both beautiful and ugly at the same time. It has natural and man made beauty, both of which are marred by careless treatment of the environment and rampant overdevelopment. It has a UNESCO protected region of biodiversity and a national park that is home to a rainforest that is older than the Amazon. 

Look - some trees! Trust me these are rainforest/tropical forest type trees of the kind I earlier mentioned.

It is also plagued by trash being fly tipped and discarded at random. 

A relatively recent image taken from a problem area in a poorly designed development - residents simply throw garbage off their balconies from up to 21 floors above!

There are spectacular and well planned buildings with a clear design style that contributes to the economy of the island and provides high quality housing and business opportunities, but there are also decaying structures and unnecessary plots of development that seem to be doing neither of these things.

Penang's beaches are spectacular to look at, but the waters are not swimmable due to the fact that it is a major shipping lane and the quality of the water is not always great. Also the beaches don't gently slope, in places you will rapidly find yourself in very deep water indeed!

The malls and hawker stalls are impressive, but from my point of view, they are a little difficult to navigate - vegetarianism is still in its infancy in places.

The housing goes from tin roofed kampongs, to 70s built terraces that are in need of upkeep, to early 21st Century condos, to ultramodern developments. It's just such a stark example of layered lifestyles living cheek by jowl that it's... well, interesting!

Kampong

Terraces into condos

Ultra modern upscale mixed developments with rooftop infinity pools and direct access to a designer mall!

The weather is predictably warm and therefore being outdoors is mostly easy to plan, apart from the tropical downpours - these are best avoided if at all possible. Being from the UK I thought I knew rain - I was wrong...

Here is a picture of the weather being nice - in fact spectacular. You know what they say, 'Red sky at night - particulate matter in the atmosphere is scattering the blue light so you see more of the infra red spectrum...' or something like that.

On another note, the weather has made me feel like an absolute beginner at running again. My training had plateaued before leaving the UK, maybe even slipped back, but I could run a sub 2 hour half marathon (just) and could run a sub 25 minute 5k (only just). Here the heat an humidity make that almost impossible, for me at least. I'm around 10-20% slower and only able to achieve half the distances I used to manage. 

You know when we use the idiom 'dripping with sweat' to mean that we are quite warm? We may even exercise enough to become damp to the touch. Here if you exert yourself you look like you have been in the shower fully clothed. You will, quite literally, drip and maybe even stream with sweat - not nice! 

Hydration is real art here and one I haven't quite nailed.

The weather therefore makes life 'interesting'!

Secondly, we are doing things more regularly that we wouldn't otherwise have done.

We have been lucky to get a house on a secure complex with great facilities. We are living a lifestyle that just isn't possible in the UK. I haven't worn a coat, beyond my jacket for work, since we arrived. As a result we go to the pool almost every day - I say almost because after a while you do crave a bit of variety and occasionally somebody might send a demanding email late in the evening and I don't have a choice but to respond.

The pool, with the view of the clubhouse and gym

We also have access to a gym which is the equal of the ones found in high end hotels. Okay, there are some pieces of equipment I'd like to see added - kettle bells, a full barbell setup, a hanging bag and speedball, but there are a lot of paid for gyms where some or all of these pieces of kit are missing.

Here are some random pictures of the gym - fairly standard stuff, but, you know, free and on the doorstep!

As a result, we have been spending more time looking after our fitness than we would have done at home.

We are eating out and getting takeout more frequently than we ever did at home - not because we're rolling in cash or have thrown fiscal caution to the wind, but because the cost of doing so is equivalent to buying the ingredients and cooking for yourself. And before you ask, no - I have no idea how the economics of that works.

For example, I was pointed in the direction of a roti canai stall (Indian style bread and a dhal soup to accompany it). I got three fresh roti and a bag of soup (yeah, I know, a bag...) for 3 ringit - about £0.60. That was enough for all three of us to have with some leftovers from the day before. You can kind of see why people don't cook at home.

Soup in a bag... what could possibly go wrong?

I suspect there is a very much more circular and localised economy, if I had to guess, but it is a guess, so please treat it as such.

Thirdly, we are actually experiencing things that are unique to the region - experiences that you just can't have at home.

We've been to tropical beaches where the water temperature was no different to the air temperature.

We've seen Dusky Langurs and Macaques literally roaming the streets. We've seen three foot long monitor lizards just hanging out in a park. We've walked through tropical forests.

We've visited religious sites that we'd never see outside of South East Asia...

A 100 foot tall statue of Buddha in an even bigger, ornately carved pagoda. 

An eye wateringly ornate Buddhist shrine. 

All part of the Kek Loc Si temple complex - the biggest Buddhist temple outside of China, apparently...

I'm teaching students from wildly different backgrounds to the ones I taught in the UK.

Thomas is learning Mandarin and Malay.

Nicola has pivoted her career in its entirety.

None of this would have happened if we'd stayed at home.

Now the more perceptive amongst you will have noted that I still refer to the North East as home - this experience has made something clear to me, something I pretty much knew, but now I'm sure of - the North East is home.

Through a combination of luck and good judgement on my parents' behalf, we ended up living in one of the best places on the face of the planet. 

Stunning views from the little trodden paths on the crags of Thrunton Woods - thanks to my friend Rachel for encouraging me to explore this hidden and often overlooked Northumberland gem.

The dramatic and equally amazing landscapes around Craster and Dunstanburgh - exploring these amazing sites whilst trail running with a great friend - doesn't get much better!

Okay this may be the homesickness kicking in (it's not kicking, it's been a constant companion for a while now), but I don't think so. I said in a previous post that we had to do this and I stand by that, but it has made it clear that the North East is a great place for a range of reasons. Yes, it has it's problems and the weather can be frankly awful, but that does not detract from the balance of positives that outweigh the negatives. It is a place to put down roots. It is the place to which we will return and probably sooner rather than later - this was never a long term move, it's just given us the change we needed to shake things up a bit, to break up the routines and - let's be honest - ruts that we'd worn for ourselves. It would have been easy to stay, easy to wait out a couple of years and then make a nice, safe, comfortable change. Out here we have to adapt, we have to try harder.

I'm going to have real job of work out here and very exciting chance to shape things in a positive way and it will be another set of experiences to add to the CV! This is also something that I would not have been able to do at home - mainly because in my previous place we had it pretty well sorted. Here I'm going to have to shake things up and do so fairly quickly and urgently, but again - it will be interesting!

Concluding thoughts... for now.

I've said before that I'm so far past second thoughts that it can't be counted, but we're here now and we're taking the experience for what it is - a unique one that we would never have had otherwise.

Did we fool ourselves into thinking we'd end up in a tropical utopia? Probably a bit, yes, I suppose. When we made the decision, in the heart of the third lockdown, in January, when we were spending 10 hours a day behind the keyboard and hadn't seen daylight for months I guess it was easy to fantasize about a paradise island where the job was a breeze and the breeze was warm! 

In truth, we knew it wouldn't be easy and it hasn't been. In the moments where I can get a more balanced perspective, now for instance, it is still clear that we have gained and will gain something valuable from this entire experience and that we've been lucky (well a combination of luck, bravery, timing and effort on our parts) to get this chance to do something not too many people will do.

Seeing the world from a different perspective, beginning to see how much people from across the other side of the globe have in common and where the differences lie, this is what we came for and this is what we're getting.

That and the tropical beaches and jungles just round the corner from your house!