Impressions of Malaysia as someone who moved in blind

Hey, I’m from Central Asia and I’ve been staying in KL for a little bit shorter than a week before moving to Selangor as a student, so here are my first impressions as someone who didn’t do much research before traveling/moving to Malaysia. Not to be seen as ignorant(i personally think it’s really important to gather information on the country’s overall cultural background before visiting the said country), the reason why i did little to no actual research is because my mom’s family used to live in Indonesia and they frequently visited Malaysia as well, so i had some insights and overall understanding of the culture and people as a whole here.

The first thing i noticed was the weather: a lot of people like my grandparents, used to describe the weather here as incredibly hot and that “it will feel like you’re in an oven once you step out of the airport”, but that wasn’t really the case for me. Mind you, i’m from Uzbekistan, a DOUBLE landlocked country, so the humidity levels are always low, even though the temperatures in the summer easily reach 45°+, but the humidity rarely goes over 30%. Maybe the reason why i didn’t feel that one suffocating feeling from the humidity is because i frequently traveled to the UAE throughout my whole life. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still hot here, i started to wash my hair much often in comparison to back home lol.

The first culture shock i had is…how loooong the red lights are, i’ve literally spent like 8 or even more minutes waiting for the lights to turn green to cross the road near Bukit Bintang the other day. I ended up walking to another crossing lol, and yes i did press the button and so did others. In my country people drive veryyyy badly, i’m saying this as someone who has a dr’s license there. It’s like if you put hundreds of Lance Stroll’s and Logan Seargent’s on the road. People there think that turn signals are just a decoration and the crosswalk rules aren’t abided by the most donkeys on the road there. Hence why i’m afraid to cross the road here even when there’s no cars nearby or let alone on uncontrolled crossings. So my question is…does raising your hand like king Baldwin in that trend actually make the drivers let you pass?

I really like the mix of the cultures and religions here! Really reminds me of my country :) Also people seem to be very friendly here, i remember some foreigners say that, malay people, for example, aren’t that friendly or that they’re hard to make friends with. I’d say that i disagree with this, all interactions i had with the locals here(not just malay, chinese, indians and others) were warm and welcoming, even tho i haven’t made any friends yet since uni hasn’t even begun yet. So in total i have my one mindful and demure friend that unfortunately for me lives in Sarawak, so i cant meet her soon :(

The next observation might be for the girlies, but i was kinda unprepared to see that korean skincare/makeup is a bit more expensive than in Uzbekistan even though the demand here is 1000% higher than there. Got scared for a second that i lost my sunscreen, so i decided to check watsons out and was surprised to see that it was like $5 more expensive than what i originally bought it for. But maybe that’s just watson’s }:>

The next point is that holy moly the drinks here are too sweet. And i have a sweet tooth. I think i might quit drinking soft drinks because of that, i just can’t stand the overly sweet taste of the drinks that i used to like in other countries. Also, most of the juices that i’ve tried also have lots of sugar? Whyyyy, the beauty of the juice is in its natural flavor :’( But i guess it’s really the national preference here and its fine, so i can’t complain, will stick to unsweetened japanese tea lol. But the food slaps, there was not even a single dish that i didn’t like so far. Chinese, malay, indian, thai, japanese, you name it, it’s all tasty.

I think i got carried away, so i’ll name one thing that made me uncomfortable - was walking to a shop, mind you, dressed “appropriately”, baggy jeans, a tank top that isn’t cropped and a shirt over the tank top, got whistled and honked at a few times by some men. Ik that catcalling is a thing everywhere, but i didn’t expect it to happen in the middle of the day when i wasn’t dressed anywhere revealingly. Also, my friend told me that recently there have been a lot of kidnappings and etc in regard to women? Is it frequent everywhere? In Semenyih for example. I’m staying at the campus of my uni, but still i’m alone here, so it’s better to be safe than sorry, so i wanted to clear this up.

Oh and also, can you guys please tell me where it’s most convenient and not overpriced place to build a pc or look for the components? For gaming/uni purposes

So far i love it here and cant wait to spend the next few years here!

PS: by moving in blind i meant that i chose to move to MY literally a couple of months ago with no prior intentions to do so, even though i’ve never even been to any SEA country