Potential Move

Its always toughest for a wife as they have to start from scratch and find and create a home and a social life for the family. However, living abroad is also an adventure and opens many new doors, opportunities, experiences and impressions. Life with children is a bit different in Malaysia as traditionally families will have a maid who will help in the home and look after the children. Many families have either a live in maid or one who comes in the daytime and lives elsewhere. This extra pair of hands can be very helpful and allow the parents some free-time to socialise. The maids get together and entertain the children. If you live in a condominium, you will have access to a swimming pool and kids just adore playing in the water and learning to swim. There are many women's clubs dotted around KL and the suburbs and any nationality can go to them i.e. the American Womens Club is not just for Americans. I am sure your family will settle in as you will automatically have contact with other families through your work. Although it can be daunting to leave family and friends behind and everything familiar, there is much to look forward to.  It will take about 6 or 7 months to settle down and this period will have its difficulties. Safety is talked about a lot these days, and I know other families that have worried about it before arriving. The atmopshere is quite different when you get here and settle into an expat area. The worst challenge in KL will probably be driving.

I appreciate the information. Can you recommend a couple of expat communities that will provide a family friendly setting? Thank you for the feedback.

Much will depend on your workplace location and whether you like suburban or city life. An often cited expat family friendly community is Mont Kiara. Personally the high rises are too close together, you need a car to get around and the traffic is not very friendly.  The rentals can be high.

Another area that is expat friendly is Beverly Heights, which I think has a shuttle bus to the city (need to check this out), but again own transportation is required.

Living on the LRT Gombak to Kelana Jaya line is convenient as it connects a lot of places e.g. Twin Towers and Suria Mall/Park in the city and Sentral station/Mall. However, living somewhere near Ampang Park Station is probably preferable. There are some new units just built close by and some slightly older ones. From this area some of the popular Ampang facilities are accessible and of course the city centre.

http://www.malaxi.com/map_transit.html

I have some teacher friends who choose to live in the city / Bukit Bintang and commute to their workplace as they enjoy the city buzz and life.

Bangsar, Damansara and Hartamas, One Utama are other areas often chosen by expats.

It all depends where you will be working. But all international schools tend to have an interational community living reasonably close by.

Hi of course fitting in to an expat lifestyle is a very personal experience but on an unscientific survey of my own experience Americans seem to be one of the hardest especially when married. Especially from smaller places in the states. This could be many things including the fact usa is quite cheap to live in and kl is more expensive.

Expat wives used to have the image of shoppers and boozers. Gin for breakfast and shop hubbies money away during the day with other (bored) expat women. Not always true but it certainly strained/ruined some marriages I knew.

Of course networking is key. School is critical. If your company is NOT paying for a good international school (or paying you a big premium) STAY AWAY. Good means ISKL or one of the elite schools. Some local owned local with international name on it place won't educate your kids. For usa curriculum really iskl is the only really good choice. Mont kiara also for usa curriculum (some complain about this school for secondary though) and then well not much choice I am afraid.

If you have a proper expat package with kids in a good school then your wife can network via the parent teachers association and maybe volunteer at the school. Or if lucky get a part time school job. This means a purpose and friends. That usually means a great time.

Without a purpose culture shock hits really hard. Also without a car - you will need two or she has the car and you get dropped off - as cars are essential in kl. No car no freedom. Of course this means both of you learning to drive on the correct side of the  road

To be honest though you cant tell up front who will love expat life and who cant. Good signs are a love of travel and an open mind. Bad signs the opposite and a deep love of close family.

As for safety kl is safe by car. Walking is dangerous is most parts (ok around klcc for example). Colleagues get mugged walking so often it is a non event now.

If you are paid a lot, get cars (with drivers) and iskl school places for kids then go ahead.

If you get some joke package (all in under 30k a month RM) then stay away.