Differences.

I think that the time has finally come to sum up the last few weeks. And I think that the best word to link all my adventures is ‘a difference’. When somebody asks me ‘Monika, so how do you find Malaysia?’ I usually answer ‘I like it; everything is different than in Europe, totally everything!’. And now I will try to describe few areas in which the differences are the most visible/annoying/funny/etc…

1. Cats.

Malaysians love cats. They feed them, but usually do not let them enter the house. When it comes to a shop – it’s treated as a totally different case. Last time in Seven Eleven (something like Żabka in Poland) I saw one cat being stroked at the counter. Later on the little catty was just walking around the shop and I almost stepped on it (well, shit happens :p). Moreover, amount of cats here is really amazing: one day when I was on my way back home from the nearest supermarket (around 15min of walking) I decided to count all the cats I met. Imagine that there was 10 of them sitting/standing/laying/walking around the pavement I was walking on. The 11^th one was carried by the landlords wife. CRAZY.

2. Rats

When you have a cat at home he will chase away all the rats – isn’t it obvious? Well, surprisingly not. I think that amount of rats here, in Malaysia, is even bigger than cats. They are everywhere. And they are totally not afraid of human.

Once I saw a rat, which entered the area of a restaurant (it’s outdoors but still!), run under few empty tables and hided in the cooks area (kind of an outdoor kitchen), under one of the cupboards. I think that the cooks didn’t even care about it, but still for me it was extremely brave! And since this day I’ve been a big fan of this rat and all his fellows :D

3. Gentlemen first

A woman always follows her man. The man always opens the door, but also enters the room first. The man stays always in front. And the woman is always behind. But when it comes to money: the woman is the one managing domestic finance. Totally different than in Europe, right?

I think that it might be caused by influence of the Islamic culture: division between man and woman – each of them has his/her place in the world, specific rights and duties. Woman is supposed to be a housewife, man is the one who brings in the money.

4. Islam

As I wrote before Islam is the official religion of Malaysia. And believe me or not in some of the Malaysian states Friday is the first day of the weekend and Sunday is treated as a Monday in Western cultures. And it’s all because of Friday prayers, which for Muslims are even more important than Sunday Mass for Christians. And what is quite interesting: in KL Friday is a normal working day. But Muslims have special breaks to be able to attend the prayers. And if you want to go somewhere by your car – please take into consideration fact, that it will take twice much time as normally. Remember not to park nearby the mosque, because somebody might block you (double park) and then you will have to wait e.g. for 1h till prayer finish and your favorite Muslim driver pulls out his car. Well, this particular shit happened.

5. Cars and side of the road

I think that I’ve already written that there is a lot of cars here. On the one hand petrol is cheap, cars (Protons and cars of the other local brand starting with P) are cheap as well. Everything, what is connected with cars, is cheap. But on the other hand there is usually no parking place and a traffic jam (for me in KL there is always a traffic jam) almost everywhere. And Friday prayers make the case even worst.

And they drive on the wrong side of the road ;)

6. Rain

The rain here very seldom cools the air (not like in Poland). And when it’s raining – the rain fall is very heavy, but it lasts 0,5-1h. And sometimes it’s still raining (like a little shower at the end of the rain fall) but pavements are already dry. It can happen only here ;)

7. Health care

I got a burn on my leg, so after one week, when I realized that it’s not healing, I decided to see a doctor. I suppose that it was a private clinic. I went there, filled in an application (I had neither my passport number nor Malaysian address, but nobody cared ;)) and waited for my turn. The doctor was very nice, had a look on my wound, asked few questions and warned, that next time I should visit a doctor straight after getting that kind of burn. Then he told something to the nurse and asked me to leave. I left and had to wait at a counter for the nurse, who gave me pills and the receipt (30RM). What is the most interesting: the 30RM covered both: visit at the doctor’s and pills. And the pills were in a little, white bags, on which she wrote how many and how often should I take them. No medical prescription, no huge leaflet attached to the pills. Can? Can lah!

8. Higher education and English

Imagine, that your lecture is in Polish, a book you are learning from in English and an exam you need to pass in Polish again. And everything around you is in English again, but not all people speak it. Does it happen somewhere else, or only here? :)

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Btw: I’ve been here already for 2 months. 4 months left to Christmas! :)