Working in HK, family in malaysia

Old Oct 31st 2019, 3:33 pm
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Default Working in HK, family in malaysia

Hi all

we live in hk and die to affordability for our 3 kids schooling
I am thinking of moving my family to Malaysia next year ( applying to mm2h soon)
the plan is to fly fro hk to Malaysia every 2 weeks
I was thinking about moving them to KL but then a friend d suggested that I consider Johor . JB doesn’t have direct fkight from hk and I will fly to Singapore and then travel to JB by road

please help me with your input

1. schools : kids age 13,9,5
budget: 50k per year total per kid
Prefer IB curriculum as my kids study in IB schools here in HK
pleasr help me decide about the school : fair view or excelsior or some other ?

2. need a safe expat oriented gated community for my wife n kids.atleast 2000 sqft size to live. Please suggest some options . Horizon hills seem to be far from the schools . Are there school buses ? How do kids manage extra curricular activities? Since my wife won’t be working : we are forcible on location as long as school is close , markets , malls and Tution centres etc are close
please help here

3. the added vendor of JB is that if Incase I di land a job in Singapore in near future , I can then commute daily from home . KL has it charm but if I do get job in Singapore then family will have to move ( although chances are slim of me getting a job there ). please give your views on the plan ? ( kl vs IB aspect too )

4. What are travel options from change to JB that are relatively fast n economical

thanks a lot !
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Old Nov 2nd 2019, 10:09 pm
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Default Re: Working in HK, family in malaysia

Travel time from Changi to JB and return may well make you think twice.

Try it and see.
atm only a taxi or hired car with a driver.
OK you could take MRT to Newton Circus and 170 bus from there to JB.
Or MRT Changi to Kranji and 170 bus from there.
A few years time MRT.
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Old Nov 4th 2019, 10:59 am
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Default Re: Working in HK, family in malaysia

Penang has direct flights to HKG, international schools and reasonably priced accommodation.
I do not know about costs for school though.
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Old Nov 16th 2019, 1:39 am
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Default Re: Working in HK, family in malaysia

When you say 50K I am assuming you mean MYR?

This one has just started and has good reputation - many Canadian teachers, does IB in later stages:

Sunway International School

Marlborough College is over 50k MYR per year, but is great, Raffles American, don't know but I don't think does IB.

Travel time to / from Changi about an hour if you time arrival / departure to be well outside rush hours. If you do arrive Friday PM, it can be a nightmare and you'd be better flying to KL and then fly KL to JB, plenty of flights every day.

Good luck!
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Old Nov 17th 2019, 7:06 am
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Default Re: Working in HK, family in malaysia

Originally Posted by geedee

Travel time to / from Changi about an hour if you time arrival / departure to be well outside rush hours. If you do arrive Friday PM, it can be a nightmare and you'd be better flying to KL and then fly KL to JB, plenty of flights every day.

Good luck!
Google maps says 70 min Changi to Horizon Hill with no waiting at either immigration.
I've never ever not had to wait at immigration.

Personally I'd give it 1.5 hours even at dead of night.

But if you manage 1.5 hours you'd be over the moon.

30 years ago you could breeze through the causeway immigration if you timed it right and were lucky.

Then though on a PH its taken me over 8 hours.
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Old Nov 19th 2019, 9:46 am
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Default Re: Working in HK, family in malaysia

Agree, if you're heading for a flight from Changi you need to leave a lot of wriggle room!
On public holidays I just don't even consider crossing, it's just not worth it (and I've no idea why people do it!)
If you can live with taxis you'd be better getting a ferry to Batam and then a ferry onwards from there..... would often be quicker!
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Old Nov 19th 2019, 12:19 pm
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Default Re: Working in HK, family in malaysia

Funnily enough today we went across to JB from Clementi.

Left at 9-45am by MRT to Kranji and then bus 170 from Kranji to City Square. 1.5 hrs.

Then at 2-30pm did return journey. 2.0 hrs or just over.

Anyway tomorrow will drive through Tuas to Putri Harbour and check time required.
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Old Nov 20th 2019, 12:57 am
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Default Re: Working in HK, family in malaysia

By far the quickest and easiest way for many is the train.... the crossing is literally 5 to 7 minutes, immigration to Malaysia done at the Singapore side.
The only thing with that is you need to book a long way in advance, many days or weeks!! My kids do it (when they can get tickets) and say it's a doddle.
Not something I've done as it takes 45 minutes to get from where we live to City Square (where train goes from) and then you've got travel in Singapore to think of with no car.....
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Old Nov 20th 2019, 8:59 am
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Default Re: Working in HK, family in malaysia

For completeness we drove from Clementi to Bukit Indah today using Tuas.

Left Clementi at 9-45am arrived Bukit Indah1.25 hours later.

Returning we left the restaurant Chua Kee, which we've visited a few times and the sea food is average Malaysian sea food well below that of Chin Huat at Sunset which is our nearest seafood restaurant in Singapore, and it took us 1.5 hours to reach Clementi.
Traffic at the Immigration on both sides was light.
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Old Jan 5th 2020, 8:34 am
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Default Re: Working in HK, family in malaysia

Hi rs2000,

We have been living in JB for the past 6 months. We have 2 kids of similar age. The school we currently send the kids to excelsior and and I have to say we are more than happy with it. Just before Christmas it has been announced that Ripton international schools have bought excelsior so I am sure we will see more positive things from the school. We checked out alot of the schools in JB. Unfortunately Marlborough and Raffles were out of budget and Sunway had a waiting list but to be honest more than happy with excelsior.

Travelling to and from Changi is straight forward, just avoid the times that Singaporeans are doing the shopping, ie coming over to JB on Fridays and Saturdays and all going back on Sundays. Then just avoid rush hour. There are good car companies that will advise on when to travel and how much time required.

The school run all of the extra curricular activities so there is a bus service back from that. My wife also doesn't drive so wasnt an issue.

If you do choose excelsior that are some options to live, Senibong cove or Taman Molek, plenty of options.

Enjoy
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Old Feb 17th 2020, 2:45 pm
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Default Re: Working in HK, family in malaysia

Many thanks
we are waiting for our MM2H application
excelsior is one school that I had shortlisted
I need IB schools for my kids as that’s what they have studied here
I wanted to ask you if Fairview school is also ok ? Anyway I think doesn’t have IB
my daughter is 13 years s old so need to decide about school
for living I was thinking about horizon hills but it’s not close to excelsior , do you think the commute is doable and school has bus service ?

many thanks
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Old Feb 21st 2020, 9:20 am
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Default Re: Working in HK, family in malaysia

Originally Posted by rs2000
I wanted to ask you if Fairview school is also ok ? Anyway I think doesn’t have IB
No idea what IB is, but it maybe is relevant for you that Fairview is extremely popular by the Mainland China crowd here in Malaysia. Certainly also hell expensive, but this you probably know already.

Apart from the money Fairway is way too Chinese for us, but for your demands maybe it is right.
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Old Feb 21st 2020, 10:15 am
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Default Re: Working in HK, family in malaysia

Originally Posted by eCdD
No idea what IB is, but it maybe is relevant for you that Fairview is extremely popular by the Mainland China crowd here in Malaysia. Certainly also hell expensive, but this you probably know already.

Apart from the money Fairway is way too Chinese for us, but for your demands maybe it is right.
International Baccalaureate

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Old Feb 23rd 2020, 3:07 am
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Default Re: Working in HK, family in malaysia

Originally Posted by rs2000
Many thanks
we are waiting for our MM2H application
excelsior is one school that I had shortlisted
I need IB schools for my kids as that’s what they have studied here
I wanted to ask you if Fairview school is also ok ? Anyway I think doesn’t have IB
my daughter is 13 years s old so need to decide about school
for living I was thinking about horizon hills but it’s not close to excelsior , do you think the commute is doable and school has bus service ?

many thanks
Hi rs2000,
Horizon Hills is far from Exclesior. I don't think the bus service goes out that far but I might be wrong. Excelsior have IB for the final two years BUT I think will be discontinued when Repton take it over. We visited a lot of schools last year and there are 2 schools that offer IB, Fairview and Sunway. Fairview has no facilities and it wouldn't be my choice. Sunway was a much better school and we tried to get into there but there are wait lists. They run the school calendar Jan to December and it's close to Horizon Hills. There is a international schools Fair on here March 8th and 9th in Midvalley.

Good luck with it all.
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