I came back to Penang yesterday. Going to be here for a few days before I fly off again for work. I’m back in Penang for two things mainly.
1) To celebrate my mum’s 61st birthday – Yes my mum is 61. When my little niece heard how old my mum was she went “SIXTY-ONE?!??!”
2) The second thing I’m back here for is to handle some work stuff back in Penang. A part of the finance for the Netccentric Group is actually handled out of Penang. So every now and then I have to come back and clear up some stuff.
Today though I had lunch at my Aunty’s beautiful apartment in Penang. Check out the view from her balcony
Having spent most of my time in KL these days, I sometimes forget how it’s like to be able to see the sea every day. Sitting in my Aunty’s living room with the balcony door open I could hear the sound of the waves hit the beach below. It was really peaceful. Sure not everyone in Penang lives next to the sea. I certainly don’t myself and it’s probably pretty expensive too but it’s definitely far cheaper than an apartment like that in Singapore.
I have no idea how much my Aunty’s apartment costs but I would imagine if you’d like a place like that in Singapore, it would probably cost you almost RM10,000,000. A week or so ago a friend of mine from Singapore came down. He’s been looking to buy an apartment in Singapore and was telling me how expensive it was. The cheapest apartment you can find there would cost you at least some RM2,000,000. I decided to give him a bit of a tour of what that kind of money could buy you in KL.
I drove him around some nice gated-community areas. Where you had beautiful houses with gardens and no fences. There are a lot of places like that in KL. Smaller ones like the Idaman Damansara near Tropicana or bigger ones like Desa Park City. Well in Penang, you can get a nice apartment, by the beach like this. With the beach view on one side.
Down below, the swimming pool of the apartment.
And on another side, a small view of Penang town.
I didn’t grow up in any of these beautiful houses though. Believe it or not, I actually grew up in a small housing area. On one side of the housing area was a Kampung and on the other side a cemetery.
I still enjoyed my old neighbourhood though. I remember the evenings I would spend cycling around with my neighbours and walking to badminton classes. I guess we can’t forget that what makes a home really isn’t how expensive or beautiful it is. It’s the family that’s in it.
Still I was thinking that it would be nice to have an apartment like that one day with this to look at every morning.
If we all work hard and pray… perhaps we’ll all get there some day. And if you become super-rich you can always buy an apartment like that IN Singapore and have the best of both worlds.
Timothy Tiah – Co-Founder of Colony, Kuala Lumpur Co-Working Space