Saturday, January 8, 2011

Second & Half Months in East Ledang

Two and a half months, 5,000KM (est of my daily commute) - CORRECTION: it's probably around 3K (overstated :) and over 200 trips through Singapore & Johor checkpoints later, life feels a lot more settled now. I'm more used to driving back and forth to work nowadays, though driving during heavy rainy days is still scary for me. Of course there are times where I wish I can just catch a 15 minutes taxi ride home, but it is what it is.

At Tuas Johor checkpoint & what I don't like (2nd pic)


Our lifestyle has changed slightly, though we do drive to Singapore to catch up with friends and run personal errands, most of the time we stay in Johor. I'm still looking to meet more new people and neighbours (planning on hosting a lunch/dinner at the Ledang clubhouse restaurant soon). It's also nice to be in a house with lots of space, rather than apartment, but we had a scary moment when our little dog hid somewhere in the house and we couldn't find her for couple of hours! (eventually we found her and now she has a bell attached to her collar so we can hear her) :)

To reflect back on the past couple of months, the biggest lowlight is seeing a body of a motorist covered in black plastic bag on the highway with some blood stain on the road. He must have been travelling very fast on his bike and might have tried to change lane (he was in lane 1 - fast lane) when a car hit him.

That really shook me and was very upsetting. I couldn't get that image out of my mind for whole day. Seeing something like that makes you realise how fragile lives are and how dangerous driving can be. So please please everyone drive safely and carefully. Please indicate when changing lanes, do not tailgate and note that speeding does kill!

On a lighter note, the biggest highlight of all is seeing Ian, my husband, being a lot happier. He's healthier, happier and concentrating on launching his own business, as well as occasionally doing jumps on his new off-road KTM bike. After a long purchase process, we're finally collecting the key to our house next week, so that would be my second biggest highlight. Once that's done, we'll be finalising our house interior design selection and start the building process. I so look forward to moving into our own Bali villa inspired house.

Overall, I felt that moving and settling in here have not been as difficult as we initially thought. After the initial stage of worrying about passports, visas, security, safety, etc, we eventually worked it out and it is NOT as scary as what you think. :)

So here's to 2011 and secured, happy & prosperous stay in East Ledang!

15 comments:

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  2. Thanks HK for the welcome, people are very nice to us so far :) thanks for welcoming foreigners into your country. EL is a gated community, structure and location perhaps make it a more exclusive, therefore more expensive development. Have you looked at the Phase 7 linked houses by the way?

    Thanks for your tips on security too. I'm always cautious of that, being Indonesian, we've been trained since young to watch out for your safety :)

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  3. Hi Erika, have been reading yoir blog for some time :-) we are actually considering a link duplex, and were brought to view some units from a property agent from tophills realty.Will be getting one of these units. Can i just check with you, if i am to leave EL at bout 6:45am, will there be any jam at the Tuas custom? im quite worried thinking of the daily jam i need to face daily ;(

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  4. Hi Jean, which phase are you considering? which type of land lot size are you buying? do u have a price?

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  5. Hi H K, the link duplexes are from Phase 1, in blue and yellow colour. i cant remember the exact lot size (but i think u can get fr the east ledang website). The yellows'are smaller while the blues'are slightly bigger, selling at RM620K and RM660K respectively.. R u thinking of getting 1 as well ? :-)

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  6. Not sure. How much do you think if you were to rent it? What attracts you to buy EL? But thanks for the info though.

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  7. rental wise is bout Rm3500 i think, for link duplexes. we are getting one, and will be seeing our agent later. reason being, they are the nearest we can get from Tuas custom. Otherwise i think i wud prefer the Cluster home in horizon hills, slightly bigger, and more affordable too. but horizon hills workmanship is not as good as EL..
    Get one and we can become neighbour :)

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  8. Hello Jean, thanks for reading my blog. I have left at 6.45 am before and I can reach Tanjong Pagar in about 50 minutes time. The traffic built up at the checkpoints are usually between 7-7.15am. I tend to leave home at 8 now, arriving at 8.50 to 9 am in Tanjong Pagar. The downside to this is all the ERP charges I will have to pay in the morning.

    After a while, you'll get used to the driving :)

    Best of luck in getting your place here.

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  10. Hello Erika,

    First of all, a BIG welcome to Malaysia! I have been reading your blog since Dec 2010 and I would say it takes quite an effort to put up the post and we enjoy it.

    I am from Kuala Lumpur and recently take up an offer to work in Singapore. I have been travelling weekly for the past 2 months. From my experience, so far, it takes me less than half an hour to pass both the malaysia and singapore custom for the every Monday morning. FYI, a few experience, I reach Gelang Patah custom at different time ranging 7.15 am - 7.45am, so far so good. Way much better than the traffic in KL I would say.

    I am considering buying at Horizon Hill instead of paying rental for 3 room HDB which cost me a bomb, as a Malaysian.

    Need you opinion though.... cheers!

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  11. Hi Erika, thanks for your info :-) Can i also check with you, if you do change all your mailing address eg; handphone bills, bank statement etc..all to your address in EL?

    Hi Chinoz, if you dont mind my comment :-) i think it's defintely more worthwhile to buy in HH than renting a HDB in SG. the 2 1/2 cluster house in HH is very nice..

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  12. Hi Chinoz,

    Thanks for reading my blog :)

    We did look at HH as well. It's a very nice development. I remember seeing the Quality check poster on a HH showhouse (certified by Singaporean company) we saw, so I think the quality of the built is quite good. For us, we'd prefer somewhere closer to the Tuas checkpoint and so far it is still East Ledang. Perhaps if you don't mind travelling a little bit more, HH is also a good option. Leisure Farm I think is also a good option. I'm seeing posters for the Eco houses which look quite nice (we're very big into eco friendly concept living), but I haven't had the chance to check out the showhouses yet.

    Hope this helps :)

    Regards,
    Erika

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  13. Hi Jean,

    No worries! We've changed some addresses to a PO Box address we rented from Singpost, but we've not changed our ICs' address yet. We're also still using mail redirects to the PO Box.

    Cheers,
    Erika

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  14. Hi Erika,

    Thanks for the info ! really appreciate that :-) Hope to see u around in the neighbourhood soon.

    Cheers
    Jean

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