gobbledonk

Apologies for truncating your post, but I felt the need to respond to this issue specifically. In my experience, it can happen anywhere - certainly happens to foreigners here in Oz, sadly - but I've found that I tend to cop more (bad) attitude in areas with a large tourist population. I guess familiarity does breed a level of contempt, particularly when visitors who are perceived to be 'rich' want to haggle for the sake of a few Ringgit simply because their Loony Planet guidebook told them to 'bargain hard'. I know when to back off, smile and say 'Thank you', but I've seen tourists shouting at vendors - seriously uncool.

As you've indicated, one's skin does become thicker over time, and I've found that on longer stays in Bangkok some of the harder cases seem to mellow - that or I just learned to ignore them. I've only been threatened twice, and one was simply the mallrat wanna-be teen thug brigade in Jakarta - that breed of idiot can be found everywhere - but the other was more serious. Suffice to say that walking the streets of a Chinese city at night with a Chinese girl wont be something I take so lightly next time.

Hope it all works out for you both - ignore the haters and enjoy your time in Malaysia.

bakedbean

Hi Royce and to the forum. Any questions, just fire away on here, or you might like to start a new topic.....up to you.

nicola s

hi Gobbledonk, thank you you are right. It has not put me off and there has been more good than bad. It is only the 2nd place I have experienced such blantant discrimination (the other being Trinidad and Tobago) however the warmth of those who welcome you and the beauty of the place works for me. I only mentioned it in relation to the British vs Malaysia living as its new to me. I am glad I am more prepared for it before I move over properly. My husband was jumped by 2 young men walking home the other week (he was more than tipsy) and probably looked like an easy target. being over 6 ft and an ex rugby player it was probably not the wisest move (nor on my husbands part walking home drunk). I am not one for bargaining hard and the places it has happened have not been places to haggle, KL is a big place so I wont struggle to find places and still look forward to moving out full time soon
also Welcome Royce

Royce

Hi guys,

Thank you for the warm welcome from everyone.

I want to spend some time reading some of the material on here and doing some research first before I start bothering everyone with stupid questions all the time, but yeah I plan to start my own thread soon, but in the mean time this seems to be a good thread to chat and get to know everyone.

The problem for me is that the laws and regulations and to be honest everything to do with Malaysia seems to keep changing, a lot of grey area, no real definitive answer and such, it seems very difficult for me to plan, gather information or try and do anything to be honest. And it seems when this is the case, the experience and knowledge of fellow Brits who's already "been there done that" seems the best place to start.

I'm really glad though from what reading I have done so far on this forum, this page seems to be one of the friendliest forum I have been on for a long time!

Royce

Royce

It seems most people on here are retired and spending their well earned retirement in Malaysia.
Our case is quite different, so I feel some background about us and an explanation of our situation is needed for you guys to understand us and advise us better.

If you guys don’t mind, I’ll continue for now to use a pseudonym of Royce and Mrs Royce, but hopefully some of us can meet in person someday and introduce our selves properly, when and if we move to Malaysia But I’ll try to be as detailed as possible for our other details.

Mrs Royce and I are probably one of the youngest on here and quite a lot younger than most people; I hope this doesn’t affect your views on us in a negative light.

We are both 27 years old and after being together for 6 years we have got married in August 2013 and currently enjoying our first year of marriage.

We both work in London, and we are living in Kingston, Surrey.

I am Korean by birth and both parents but have lived in England since the age of 7, and have graduated LSE in London with a BSc in Accounting & Finance. I am currently in the middle of studying for ACCA (chartered accountancy) and plan to finish this wherever we may end up as a backup in case things don’t work out.

Mrs Royce is actually a Malaysian citizen, she was born and educated in Malaysia and is a Malaysian Chinese from Yong Peng in Johor. Her whole family is back in Malaysia and she came to UK in 2007 (this is when I met her) and graduated Nottingham University with MSc in Pharmacy.

We have both been working for about 5 years now since graduation. I work in Moorgate in operations (back office) for a bank doing accounts, and my wife works for Boots as a Pharmacist and store manager of one of the Boots store. Our combined annual salary is just under £70k.

Although my wife’s salary being a pharmacist is relatively high for our age, her salary won’t realistically be going up anymore for most of her career in her current field of work. For myself, I’m earning 30k a year but hoping once ACCAs are finished this should go up a lot more.

Sorry if my talk of our financial situation seems to be “bragging ” in anyway, I have absolutely zero intentions of this and I don’t really think it’s really met my expectations of life after graduation to be honest, I guess credit crunch has effected everyone in different ways.

I just thought with more knowledge about our current and future financial prospects of our life here in UK, it will be easier for you guys to have an idea and compare to life in Malaysia. Who know you could potentially tell me to just stay in UK until I retire.

Whilst both Mrs Royce and I have no complaints with our life in UK and live a relatively comfortable life, we have always never been too happy working for big organisations and feel like we are not achieving our ambitions and living this way for the next 40 years seems like a bleak prospect.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not after a flashy life style, nor do I dream of partying like a millionaire playboy. That’s not what this is all about. But going away from the money of everything, we both want to start our own business, and do something more constructive and fulfilling with our life, and start whilst we are still young.

Sorry, need to run, more to follow when I’m on the train.

Royce

Royce

Over the last few years I have been researching and thinking about starting something up in UK or maybe even Korea. The two countries where I have some local knowledge and speak the language fluently.

However, after coming back from my third visit in Malaysia for two weeks visiting the in-laws I have opened my eyes at the potential out there and have been thinking of a business plan for a potential move to Malaysia.

Maybe two people in comfortable jobs leaving their jobs and their country of domicile might be a foolish thing to do. Just because I want to do something more fulfilling with my life. Or so I hope. However,…..

Being quite ambitious myself I have big ideas and ambitions for a business hopefully in the long run. But I want to start quite small at the beginning to match our financial constraints and lack of business experience.

Throughout my research this has been the reasoning behind my thoughts on relocating to Malaysia.

UK & Korea, especially England is a very developed country. Both being at the end point in terms of a countries growth and development cycle. Comparing just Britain and Malaysia, London is a super saturated market and everything is more or less in place already and controlled by big multinational corporations.

The potential for a big expansion or growth for a new business can be quite limited, the entry costs are high needing a lot of initial capital expenditure for most businesses. It’s getting to a point unless you have a really outstanding breakthrough idea, most small to medium sizes businesses are possible by a big company looking to expand and diversify it’s business with the capital reserve to be able to hold out the initial loss making periods and have the infrastructure in place to aid it’s growth.

On the flip side you have countries like Brazil, India, rural China, where it is growing at a rapid pace, still in their childhood of growth. However, the risk in these markets are too big for me, and due to the high levels of corruption in local governments and crime lords, it seems unforeseeable for a foreigner like myself to really infiltrate the market out there with no local knowledge or connections.

Malaysia it seems is at the level of development where, yes it is a very developed but compared to many countries out there like the UK it still holds a lot of potential to grow with the country and still lacking a lot of business that could be setting up soon.

Yes I know Malaysia is still corrupt in some ways but so is England to a certain degree and I think the level it is at right now is stable enough for there to be minimal risk due to corruption.

Compared to UK, the labour costs are very low, rent, utility bills etc a lot of fixed costs are low to starting up something small, and this is what attracts me.

On top of this the low tax levels are very attractive.

Also due to the current countries development cycle, it seems a lot of trends are repeating that of what UK or Korea went through in the similar periods and there is also a potential to implement good sounds business plans that are already in place that we take for granted over here that has yet to take place in Malaysia.

With out going into the full details of the long term future ideas I might have, in the short term here are my thoughts.

Fortunately, due to my wife’s Malaysian Chinese heritage we are not completely void of local knowledge and also since she is Malaysian her self, I expect discrimination to be at a minimal level. Also I have felt that Korean culture is much loved in the country at the moment and my Korean background wouldn’t necessarily be a negative influence.

When we had our second wedding in Malaysia, due to my wife’s family’s wishes, without having any guests from my side we had close to 700 guests at our wedding. My wife’s family seems to have good connections in her village of Yong Peng and some connections throughout the country as it seemed evident when I was travelling all over starting from Penang.

Yong Peng is a predominantly Chinese populated village, but even then there are only two pharmacy’s in the town and both run by Malays.
My initial plan is to set up a Chinese run, Chinese speaking Pharmacy in Yong Peng capitalising on the Chinese community and contacts and my wife’s experience in the field there. There seems to be a gap in the market there and hopefully we can start from here and if things go well keep expanding and diversifying our business.

Also I’m thinking of running a Korean style Bistro in near by town of Batu Pahat, to capitalise to the growing town’s young culture, and also their love for Korean food and culture.

Anyway this is my initial idea, but I’m kind of lost on where to start, in terms of things like visas for my self etc.

Sorry about the long post, but long story short, as I get more serious about moving, I’ll be asking a lot of questions on here.

Any thoughts or advices will be very much appreciated!

Thanks guys!

Royce

ex reg

Yong Peng and Batu Pahat are about 1 hour driving apart, iirc.
You must know that a;ready but have you driven it in the rain?

You are aware of the Bumi culture in Malaysia?
Not saying this is a deal breaker but you should be aware of it especially if two business are already set up where you intend to open a third.

Royce

Hi Ex reg. I only drive it at night time or early morning. So didn't account for day time traffic. But I already do hour commute everyday here so it's not too bad.
Can you explain to me about Bumi culture?

Harlow Lad

Hmm...Discrimination. Oriental and other races is second class citizens in Malaysia.

We in the same shoes as you are a couple of year ago. We are in similar ages with 2 littlens. Settled life and jobs in London.

We choose Singapore as a first landing pad. Slowly creeping over the border. Yes there are full of potential business opportunities in Malaysia. But you need to get the right connection and don't step in to a mine field. Especially its still got a third world politics.

Good Luck and All the best.

Harlow Lad

What Ex reg meant is Bumi (Malay) first others races second.

If you try to get a business license. You might get push to a second place even though you are first in line of the queue, a Bumi (Malays) will be able to jump queue. I do apologise for the negativity. But thats the truth about Malaysia races politic. Oh and they get up to 15% discount when purchasing property.

bakedbean

I think it's a bit different in Penang where there is more Chinese racially than Malays and the state governor is Chinese, and there's a more level playing field (maybe).

In terms of setting up a business, Abdul on here has set up one in Malaysia and seems to be doing OK. You can check out his topics.

Kebi has also written some good information on here.

jonboy

You would be well advised to ask family and local Chinese about Bumi culture. Ask yourself why so many locals have gone to Australia to make a life, it isn't for the sun, is it? I think the issue is a relevant one.

Bluenose1

I wish you well! My wife is Bumi, but we have a problem with me! Admittedly, as an expat Brit I will stand out a bit more than you, but we get hiked-prices everywhere when I am with my wife. When she is on her own, she is quoted Malaysian rates for everything! Malaysians are, by-and-large very welcoming and friendly, until you need to buy something, then the business hat is very firmly in place!

Gosh, you are lucky to only have had 700 guests! My wife had sent out 1,000 invitations! I suspect over the 2 days, there were more like 1,500 - 2,000!

This may come under the aegis of corruption you were referring to - certainly it will not be what you know, rather who you know that will give you any chance (and you may find even then that a few donations to the odd benevolent fund will not go amiss). As a foreigner, you will almost certainly not be able to own the business, although your wife might. BB mentioned that Kebi had posted on here - you need to check whether a pharmacy (competing against Bumi Malays in particular) is a business that you will even be allowed in, never mind owning!

Again, check the requirements about types of business and business ownership!

SpacialTomato

Hello there Royce!

Welcome to the forum also. I found your posts very interesting, and I'm pleased to see some others considering or already making the move.

I'm English, just a few years older than yourselves, been expat a lot of my life, though have been in living and working in south west London for the past few years. I don't know much about Kingston except I visited once when my brother got married there.

I'm leaving in only six weeks or so to go and spend a few months in Malaysia. While I only see it as a short-term break, I will be making notes as to whether it's somewhere I would like to go back to longer term in the future. I've really enjoyed the short trips I've had so far and I even met a few regulars here one evening, and everyone is as equally friendly and supportive in real life.

I know nothing of setting up businesses so can't advise you there, but I do like that you have ideas and plans. Hope it all works out well for you.
If you set up a Korean restaurant I'll definitlely visit if I'm in the neighbourhood one day I really like Korean food, fast becoming my choice if I see one when I'm wandering about.

Best wishes
ST