SO, it’s been more than a year since I moved to KK. It has been a mixture of likes and dislikes – but one thing for sure is that – I still miss my life back in KL. KK is nice, I gotta give that one to it, but I just think there is a lack of vibes that I really enjoyed back in KL. I’m not really a big fan of sea views and beaches, and I can easily count the number of times that I’ve come down to the beach with my 10 fingers. I am more of a mountain person, and yet I’ve only been to the mountainous Kundasang a couple of times all throughout the full year that I’ve been in Sabah thus far.
The foods are OK, at least there are more choices than the last time I was based in KK about 15 or so years ago which was quite a bit of struggle for me. But then, I’m not really a foodie person, at least not one that really seeks for variety. I still keep going back to the same restaurants, ordering the same foods and be content with them. I still go to Old Town White Coffee A LOT, ordering between Nasi Lemak, Curry Mee, Pan Mee and toasted breads – and ALWAYS with Hazelnut Coffee. I was disappointed when the Old Town White Coffee franchise that I used to go to when I was staying at Taman Melawati back in KL was suddenly shut down for good, but was immensely delighted when I found out a new franchise had been opened just down the road from where I stay now – on the very day when I reported for work in KK.
Looking at the positivity that I gained from moving over to KK, things have been so damn convenient. For one I can always go back to my mom during weekends – an opportunity that I’d been deprived of for most of my life (was based in the Peninsula half my life!). I try to go back to my hometown every other weekend – because there are times when I just feel like staying around at my rental home in KK and do absolutely nothing. I mean, it’s always been my favourite activity – staying around and do nothing. Then to add something extra to the convenience, my office had recently been relocated to a location very close to my rental house. It is very much within a walking distance, although I still use my motorbike to go to work most of the days. I mean, the last time I had an office located within a walking distance from my house was about 12 years ago when I was based in Sandakan for about 4 years. After battling through the traffic jam on almost a daily basis back in KL, this feels almost surreal really.
KK as a whole is a very leisure city. It is flanked by the range of green hills to the East and South China Sea to the West. Staying in Likas area surely adds something extra to the convenience. I can always run to the hills right from home or go to the beach where there is plenty of jogging tracks with beautiful sea views. I definitely had all the beautiful hills right in the neighbourhood back in KL, but not the seaside jogging tracks. Cycling around – a hobby that I had just picked up so recently – is also very conveniently easy to do.
After spending so many years staying at a double-storey semi-detached bungalow house back in KL – which was complete with a compound that is large enough to do some farming – there is no way I could go back to staying at a non-landed house of residence. The average monthly rent here in KK is not cheap, in fact it is safe to say that it is higher than those in KL, so renting a landed house is definitely costing me a bomb. But then, as I age (ehem!), convenience has become the key-word of highest priority. Back in KL, it’d take me at least an hour to battle through the traffic before I reached the office. Here in KK, I can reach the office within a couple of minutes with my motorbike from home. So yeah, it really is a convenient life when it is seen from this one angle but working environment is definitely another angle that I’d rather spare for another post.