Why we moved to Penang, Malaysia

Of all the questions we’re asked about our move to Penang, by far the most common is Why? We get other questions: (Who suggested it in the first place? When will you be coming back to the UK? Where else did you consider living?). But ‘Why…?’ is the one we get asked the most.

Specifically, the ‘Why’ everyone seems interested in is: Why did you move to Penang? We understand the interest in this topic and know from experience how many separate decisions are involved in choosing where to live. When you’ve taken the leap and decided to try living somewhere new, the world suddenly seems like a huge place with unlimited options and new places to call home.

So what was it that made us choose Penang and are we pleased with the decision we made? Was it the UK cost of living crisis? Was it the weather? Was it our job?

So many questions! But read on for the reason why we picked Penang out of all the places in the world to move to.

The right visa at the right time

Not every decision made on a bar stool is a good one, but this one certainly was. We’d driven to the French Alps in our campervan for a week’s skiing in January 2023 but realised quite quickly we were missing one vital ingredient for a successful skiing holiday. Snow.

After a few hours dragging a sledge up a slope, half covered with slush and grass, we retired to the hotel bar and ordered a couple of beers whilst the boys played Uno. Conversation drifted away from weather forecasts and towards future plans, ideally ones which never included skiing again. We returned to our favourite rainy-day subject (travel plans and visas) and flicked through some websites listing the usual digital nomad destinations.

Some (Portugal) offered digital nomad visas but were buried by hundreds of forms and rolls of red tape. Others (in the Caribbean) seemed less keen on digital nomads and more interested in high-net-worth individuals opening local bank accounts. And since Brexit, the delights and opportunities of Europe that we once took for granted, were no longer possible.

After the second beer, a chink of light appeared. The Malaysian government had just recently opened applications for a new digital nomad visa called De Rantau. Unlike in some other Southeast Asian countries, the visa only required a realistic yearly income and was aimed at applicants in the same field we worked in (content creation). On top of that, dependents could enter with the visa holder and the paperwork looked manageable.

For us, the visa appeared at just the right time as we had a trip planned to Malaysia later in the year. By the time we’d returned home, done some more research, confirmed our eligibility and started to arrange the paperwork, we were already in Southeast Asia on our pre-planned adventure. Confirming what we already knew (namely that we loved Malaysia), we immediately began filling out forms and photocopying birth certificates. The visa application was submitted within a few days.

Choice of international schools

A key requirement of any move was the boys’ schooling and, as much as fulltime worldschooling appealed to us (indeed we have previously deregistered them from school to travel), as a long-term solution, the boys want to be in a ‘normal’ school surrounded by their peers with sports clubs and music lessons.

Malaysia is well-stocked with international schools, especially ones that follow the British curriculum, which was a pre-requisite for us. It was at this point that our eyes started turning towards Penang as we knew from past experience the small island had a surprisingly large collection of international schools. During the earlier visit, we’d taken the opportunity to check out a few of the schools and fell in love with one in particular.

If you’re planning the move to Penang with kids, rest assured that all styles of schooling, teaching and ethos are covered here, with half a dozen to choose from. And depending where you’re coming from, the fees are low by UK standards.

Standard of living

You might read other blogs extolling the virtues of moving overseas and surviving on $20 per day but, when you’re living somewhere longer term, you’ll eventually need to settle into a pattern that includes some creature comforts. Other destinations popular with digital nomads offer a fantastic lifestyle, but you’ll need a fantastic bank balance to enjoy it. Whilst Malaysia is quite expensive by most Southeast Asian standards, it’s certainly not in the same league as somewhere like Dubai or Singapore.

Penang Island is a beautiful place to call home, and the standard of living can be very high if you are still earning a Western salary. Aside from a couple of months during the rainy season, the weather is sunny, so we can spend plenty of time outdoors (admittedly more so in the early morning or evening if exercising). Yearly passes to use a hotel’s swimming pool and health club are affordable and many people either eat out most evenings, or order a takeaway.

Apartment living is most common here, and Penang Island is dotted with high-rise condo blocks. If you can afford to pay slightly extra, it’s possible to have sea views, swimming pools and on-site gyms.

We’ve written a longer blog post on the cost of living in Penang, so take a look at that for much more detailed information.

Location, location

We knew we wanted a balance between living somewhere distant and exotic, but also within easy(ish) range of our life back in the UK. Having lived in Australia for five years, we knew all about the long-haul flight from Sydney to London, and also the psychological effect of knowing you were on the other side of the world from friends and family.

Penang is still a seventeen hour journey back to the UK (at best) but it feels closer to home. With a new route opening up to Dubai in the past year, the route home is simpler, avoiding a stopover in Kuala Lumpur or Singapore.

It’s also easy to get to the rest of Southeast Asia which constitutes a huge tick in the box for us as it just so happens to be one of our favourite regions in the world. It’s cheap and easy to reach KL, Singapore, Vietnam, Indonesia, Thailand and Borneo.

Within Malaysia itself, Penang is ideally located on the railway line between Johor Bahru, Kuala Lumpur and the Thai border at Padang Besar. There are also regular long-distance buses from Penang Island to pretty much every town and city in the country.

YOLO

This is more of a general point about embracing the moment and pursuing your dreams but making the decision to leave the UK and setup home in Penang for a couple of years was heavily influenced by the hashtag You Only Live Once.

Time is precious and when an opportunity appears (even if initially it’s just in your head), you’ve sometimes got to reach out and grab it. There was one moment we didn’t know about the De Rantau visa and the next we did; from that point a switch flipped and we were off on an adventure, however easy it might have been to dismiss it as a pipe dream (or strong French beer).

The idea of moving to Penang was exciting but we knew it would be difficult at times, with all the usual stresses and strains you’d associate with a life-changing decision. But we kept going, pushing any negative thoughts and voices out of the way, safe in the knowledge the rewards would be worth the effort. You’re not here for life-coaching, but all we would say is the hardest part of any life-changing decision is deciding to say Yes. Everything else will fall into place.

Family time and not dealing with stuff

Life is busy at home. When you’ve lived somewhere for many years, the amount of stuff you have to manage and contend with builds up and up. Most of it is good stuff (commitments to see friends and family) and some if it is bad stuff (long commutes to a job you hate, large mortgage or rental payments).

When you move overseas, some of that stuff just falls to the wayside. You don’t need to deal with as much of it and your life automatically becomes more streamlined.

How does this relate to our move? We knew that once we arrived in Penang, the amount of quality family time we’d have would grow and grow. There’s still the usual suspects to contend with (making school lunches, arranging play dates, doing homework) but we’re finding more time is available to be together. And for us, that’s the most important thing.

We heart Malaysia

We love Malaysia and the people who call it home. Kind, gentle and friendly (and that’s just the security guards at our apartment building), Malaysians tend to welcome visitors to their country, especially in Penang which has always been home to immigrants.

Compared to life back in the UK, there’s almost zero anti-social behaviour and we feel entirely safe in Penang, whatever the time of day or situation we’re in. It suits us as a family and how we want our boys to live their lives.

The island itself has so much to offer from a tourist perspective, ranging from the heritage streets of George Town, the beaches at Penang National Park, or the peaceful views from the top of Penang Hill. We’re still exploring the rest of the country and finding our favourite places, but know we’ll add to the stock of memories we’ve already made in Borneo and KL.

Speaking the language

From a practical perspective, it greatly helps that English is widely spoken in Malaysia, and Penang in particular. Whilst Malay is the official language, English is commonly taught in schools and it’s extremely rare to find anyone who doesn’t understand a few words at least.

We’re slowly trying to learn some basic Malay phrases, although the boys learn Bahasa Malaysia in school (as well as Mandarin), so they’re already putting us to shame.

So, was it the right decision?

We went through all of these decisions when deciding whether to move to Penang. Many of them are taken directly from a ‘pros and cons’ spreadsheet we developed over time. If you’re considering a move to Penang (or anywhere else for that matter), perhaps these are the sort of ‘pros’ you’ll see on your own spreadsheet. In fact, we have a separate blog post on the pros and cons of living in Penang.

We had a pretty good idea before we arrived, but we’re truly loving life in Penang. It’s a fantastic place to raise a family and experience life on a tropical island, albeit one with all the creature comforts you could possibly ever need. Perhaps in the future, when people ask us why we moved to Penang, we’ll simply point them to this blog post and ask: Why not?