Hasta La Ideas

{All images by Dutch photographer Marjon Hoogervorst}

Have you read part 1 of my series Living in Kuala Lumpur…the Good yesterday it started with the Good and how we enjoyed living in Damansara Heights the last 4,5 years.

But oh boy did we make a mistake by moving to this gated community. It has been one disappointement after the other. After having all sorts of trouble with our new landlord, broken promises, we received a 'warm-welcome' letter from the management office telling us: Get rid off your dog 'or else'… wow that was a shocker especially when nobody had told us before pets were not allowed … would we have choosen this house with this information given uprfront… no of course not!… We as Dutchies take rules very seriously… so we started searching for a new home for this little fellow… 

It has caused me a couple of nights of no sleep and stress, how to explain to the kids that Poppy had to go and where should he go to? Luckily for me we have a wonderful, amazing and fantastic group of friends here in Malaysia and soon we were able to find a great new home for poppy with a family living in yes one of those bungalows :):)…

Ok, problem solved, let's move  forward, keep thinking positive and think of all the things we love so much here… FOOD, yes just like all the Malaysians we Love the local food … the way we talk about the weather in the Netherlands, Malaysians talk about food and we have started to join them in this nice ritual… before breakfast, you think lunch, before lunch you think snack and before snack you think diner …. and the die-hards will go for antoher two meals in the evening and night… :):)

But the taste of malaysia soon became  bittersweet again after yet a CRAZY incident in our new gated community… my kids officially are 'Offenders' now. A management officer and a guard made pictures of our two boys and our nanny outside our front door while playing and told her my boys should play INSIDE our house! The thing that upset me most was the 'picture-taking' thing, that is a NO-GO for me! I, at all times will protect my kids from crazy people wanting to have pictures on their cell-phones from my beautiful looking boys without my permission! Luckily the management officer understood this too, so he deleted the pics.

Perhaps you wonder why in the first place did he come over and took pictures, well the idea behind it: Use it as evidence. Evidence to show  in a letter to all residents that placing cones outside your house (clearly we did this for safety reasons) is unacceptable conduct behaviour… just quoting the letter which they hang on note-boards in the common areas to let other residents know. Instead of the mobile phone pics they used a picture from the CCTV camera. So my boys and nanny are now evidence material in a copy to all the residents that did is not allowed. Yes they did make the faces black so you can't recognise them… but come on what are we doing here??

After many emails going back and forth the last week, protest bike rides on the street and meetings with other concerned parents about the so called unacceptable behaviour by our kids we now have reached an understanding that kids are allowed to play and bike outside. Funny he… that we moved to this community to be safe and free!

The thing that surprises me most is why not discuss this face-to-face, ask our nanny, where is the mother, can I talk to her and tell me can you please remove the cones and tell your kids to play inside… what kind of OVER-THE-TOP response is this AGAIN??? Just so you know both my husband and I were inside our house. It feels like the guards are there to protect the residents from each others behaviour  … instead of looking to the outside…

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You as an international reader probably wonder is this normal for Malaysia, my answer is NO not at all. These are just incidents with this community. Malaysians are in my opinion very friendly, they love children and they approach life in a very relaxed, easy-going way. Schools are fantastic here, a lot of choice with very good education. It is easy to make friends and you are in the heart of South-Asia, which is a beautiful part of the world and I'm happy to share this with you on Monday

Part 3 of my series Living in Kuala Lumpur… the Beautiful

… with many pictures from again Marjon Hoogervorst. We will take you on a tour to Chinatown, a great shop, flowers, and local shops.

Someone asked me yesterday in the first post where the beautiful curtains come from… I love them too, they were given to me by the grandmother of my brother-in-law. The colors and fabric are fantastic and I believe they are about 35 years old!! The illustration hanging on the wall was a present from Ana Ventura… you know my friend from Portugal.

ps. Marjon Hoogervorst visited me for one week here in Malaysia, and we have tons a bautiful images also from some great homes, if you are interetsed to see more, just shoot her an email.