Question from Joseph

Was the transition between the two countries difficult?


ANSWER: Well, I still consider myself in transition, but the move to Malaysia was much easier than Indonesia has been. Majority of the people here do not speak English so I have been learning their language...slowly. Eventually, once we move into our permanent house I will be taking full time classes and I'm sure that will help me out tremendously.

Also, in Malaysia, it was very easy to just go to a certain neighborhood and walk around and explore. That is proving more difficult here in Jakarta. Since most areas I see look like slums, it's hard to determine where it's safe for me to walk around and I've been advised not to walk around by myself at night anywhere.

Kuala Lumpur is a very clean metropolis city and feels very safe. Here, I'm not sure how safe I am even though everything I read says that I'm safer here than I would be at home. Jakarta is not very clean, you can't drink the tap water so even if I see a street peddlar who I want to buy a snack from, I can't communicate with him plus I'm not sure if I'll become sick after eating it. Normally I'm adventurous and just wouldn't care, but maybe perhaps I'm getting older and taking more precautions. Plus the threat of terrorist attacks is much greater here than Malaysia, everwhere you go there are security checks, even to get into the mall parking lot. The security guards use a mirror to check under the car and the driver has to open the trunk for inspection so that even adds to my caution. There are pickpockets in both countries so of course from living in Malaysia and being pickpocketed once, I'm always extremely careful with my purse.

I think once I have a better understanding of the language and I'm able to communicate more, the transition will be easier. Not to mention, when we move, I'll have a full time driver so he can spend his days driving me to places I probably wouldn't go to in a taxi, just because I'll know that someone is waiting for me to return.