Malaysia in May: Stories of Landlords, Cousins and Amy Winehouse

Hey guuuuuys! I'm back! I hope you missed me. I've been super-duper busy with everything going on in my life: My choir, my new (and amazing) yoga classes twice a week, my travels, all the new projects that I've been given at work, and of course, all the "socializing" that I have been doing. Actually, the only reason why I have some time to sit down and write again is because my body has basically forced me to sssssssllllloooooowwwwww things down by picking up a lovely pair of viruses. Yes, a pair. Two. So please, send me some healthy vibes so I can get back to my regular (but maybe a little bit more toned down) lifestyle.

As always, I have lots to update you on. Since the elections, I travelled to Langkawi for my company's annual Team Retreat, I was treated to a visit from Devesh, and I renegotiated my lease with my landlord (which was probably one of the biggest challenges I have faced since moving to Malaysia). And the best thing that's happened to me since we last saw each other is that Henna came back to KL for summer holidays and began working with me at Mindvalley as an intern AND Sumira also decided to come visit home (for an all-too-short 10 days). It's a full house (plus one more - I totally crashed it, being the baby that I am, so that I didnt have to be a super woman and take care of my sickly self).

Okay. Where do I stat?

Langkawi. Once a year, my company takes advantage of the fact that we can get to a beautiful beach in approximately one hour by airplane and moves all 120 of us to a place where we can chill out, swim, party, build sandcastles....and work :-P. This year, the team got moved to Langkawi which is an island off the northern west coast of Malaysia which is known for its beautiful beaches, jungles, waterfalls, mountains, and tax free alcohol :) When you look at pictures of this place, it is totally spectacular. When we finally reached there on Thursday afternoon, Langkawi did not disappoint. We stayed at the Berjaya hotel where we had a beautiful view of the ocean from our rooms.

We spent the next 2 days working in our teams to come up and vote on new innovations for Mindvalley to start. The winning teams got seed funding from the company to make their ideas happen. Even though we were "working", it was pretty darn pleasant as we worked by the beach or by the poolside with drink in hand.

In between brainstorming, we had lots of team building and bonding activities like a sandcastle building competition:

And posing for lots of pictures:

The Company Group Pic for 2013!

including the best vadering pic (by the tech team) I've ever seen (we are geeky and proud of it):

The winning innovations were for building a platform for hosting company training and learning, an effort to try and market scientific research and innovations (aka what I want to do with my life with Knowledge Translation) and for Mindvalley to adapt a 4-day work week! Over the next few months we will see how these projects progress and see if their ideas can be validated by the market. The 4 day work week is going to be given a go some time in July!

Finally, after all that work, we spent each evening attending themed parties. I gotta say, I'm pretty proud of my costumes (and given that we have Halloween in North American, and it goes on for approximately 3 days in University culture, I do make quite an effort every time a costume party comes around. I easily pulled together my fave costume of the retreat on Hollywood night... it could even top my Lady Gaga costume!)

Sheena Melwani as: Amy Winehouse! I could have done with some tattoos... and maybe been a little more disheveled but hey, I think it worked out well.

Anyway, I really enjoyed the team retreat and I really felt like I got to know people in my company - to the point where I'm comfortable talking to them in the hallways, the elevators, etc. I'm no longer that unfamiliar face or the random girl from Canada. Some of the team building exercises that we did actually made me tear up - people had such touching things to say to me :'''')  I also tear up at everything (including extreme home make over and undercover bosses) so it was partially expected that this would happen.

Finally, on the last day of the team retreat, we had a day to hang out in Langkawi to do what ever we wanted. Soa group of us went up the cable car to see Langkawi from the top of the mountain. The view was nothing short of absolutely stunning.

The top of the mountain was also really WONDERFULLY windy and when we got there, I exclaimed "HEY! IT's Spring!!". I had finally found the cool weather I have been LONGING for for about 2 months. The cable car ride was actually pretty terrifying. I have never been one to be afraid of heights but half way up the climb when our cable car came to a pause and starting bouncing way UUUUUPPP and way DOOOOOWWWWNNN I had to close my eyes and take long, deep breaths. Mom - you would have never been able to handle this.

#selfie at the top

So that was Langkawi. Next, Devesh came to visit me all the way from Hong Kong :D :D :D
I actually had so much fun with this kid. I forced him to watch so many episodes of Friends with me (because I was scared of going outside incase of pre-election riots which I totally did not have to be scared about because they didn't end up existing at all) and he also forced me to watch stupid television shows like Duck Dynasty and some weird animated television show that I want to block out of my mind completely. I also made him go raincoat shopping with me cuz it was raining......and I could.

I sent him around the city during the day while I worked and we ate at various yummy places at night. Devesh and I also enjoyed the typical sights of KL such as the Batu caves (where we came across some very ferocious monkeys and enjoyed some great dosa) and the KL Petronas twin towers. We also decided to sneak into the Hyatt hotel because its lobby is situated on the 39th floor of the building and has a 360 degree view of the city. So we got in (even though we were very backpacker-y looking) by pretending that we had someone to meet. We walked around, took in the view and took a seat on the couch as a woman (whose only job it was to escort people in and out of the elevator) watched us waiting for the person we had to meet.

I felt really awkward so then, I faked receiving a phone call where the person on the other end of the line was ACTUALLY waiting downstairs and it was all just a big miscommunication! So we got up, let the woman push the button and escort us into the elevator, and headed back down. All in all, a very successful venture.

I also brought Devesh to a Mindvalley event where people were totally stunned when he told them he was only 21 years ago. He also managed to get into a fight with an American regarding which North American country was the best to live in.

That's my baby cuzzie, Deveshie, and it was really great to have him visit, even though it was so short. Devesh has now left Asia all together (about 2 days ago) leaving me to be the only remaining Torontonian from my entire extended family in South East Asia (which is a big deal, okay?)

So finally. Gah. Friends. I have to tell you about my frustrations.

I have been dealing with Malaysia really well despite the fact that my cellphone company can't tell me how many minutes or text messages I've used on my plan during the month and despite the fact that they put two carriage trains on the LRT at rush hour AND DESPITE the fact that taxis won't take me where I wan to go......I'm just dealing with it and have come to accept that this is Malaysia. My patience has increased SO MUCH.

Again, my patience had to be SERIOUSLY exercised this time while trying to sign a lease for my apartment. This process was totally insane and involved so many moments where I just wanted to pull out all of my hair (FOR REAL) in total frustration due to the lack of logic. First of all, I'm not dealing with my landlord directly. I'm dealing with a man who represents my landlord who is living in Malaysia. This man somehow understands VERY LITTLE of everything I say. My landlord decided to raise our rent but is not doing one thing to improve the apartment its self. Okay - so let's say the value of the property is rising. If that is the case, show us the evaluation of property prices. Rent control doesn't exist, neither does a rental board so we literally have no rights or leverage as tenants to negotiate for ANYTHING.

The thing that got to me, in the resigning of the lease, is that we have to pay a "stamp duty" to get the contract verified and approved by a lawyer. When we looked up the cost of the duty online, it was approximately 97 Malaysian dollars (RM), yet the in-between man was charging us 300!! For what????!?!? we asked.... "Oh, for the runners, etc." Excuse me, in-between man, but isn't it your JOB to get it stamped? Why are WE, the tenants, paying for you to get someone else to get it stamped because you are just too LAZY to do so? In my opinion, some money is being pocketed somewhere and I DON'T LIKE IT.

So I said, let me take it and get it stamped! "Um... no. This is common practice" said the in-between man. It just so happened that everything we were concerned about in the contract was "common practice" in Malaysia. As someone who does not like to be taken advantage of and who will not STAND being walked-all over, I was not down. It took all the patience and self restraint within me to not just be like:
AAAAAAAAARRRGGGHHH (and if you ask my roomies, they'll probably tell you that I was still pretty aggressive anyway :-P).

Anyway. I just needed to rant. Now I feel better. The contract has been sorted out. We are only paying 200 RM for the stamp duty (I seriously do not know what the extra 100 RM is for but I just can't waste any more energy on being angry).

And there you have it! Updates - COMPLETE!