31.12.07

A Trip for Retirement Planning

Today i've just came back from a short trip to the north of Malaysia. This trip was not planned. Instead, i was informed by a friend of mine that Taiping looked like a good retirement place for me.

Actually, the son of that friend of mine was admitted to Taiping Hospital (a government sponsored hospital) due to high fever. His son's condition was quite serious until the doctor has to take a sample of spine fluid. He was worried about the bill that the hospital going to issued to him.

Soon after he discovered the amount billed to him, he called me up and asked me to guess what is the amount billed to him. I said, RM150 (after due consideration of his son's condition and comparatively if he'd have visited a private hospital in Kuala Lumpur).

Then he was laughing and replied, 'it was just RM36!!'. He said he couldn't believe it.

Immediately, a light bulb appear in my mind that, it might be good if i consider to buy a piece of 'sizeable' land (for me it is about 2-5 acres) to build my Dream House from scratch. Since the medical bill is very low, cost of living is low and as long as i have my satellite TV and broadband service for me to trade.

There goes the background of my trip to Taiping, Perak, Malaysia.

We arrive in Taiping at 9.45pm yesterday. It was quite easy to find our 'motel', Kamalodge, by using my Garmin Nuvi GPS Car Navigation System. The motel located just about 2km from Taiping town and about 500m from Maxwell Hill (Bukit Larut). The motel is quite new, being open early this year by a prominent contractor in Taiping. Our arrival at the motel was greeted by an 'alien' (said my wife) bug, which we never see in KL. It looked like a hybrid between a bug and a bat.

Then, today morning, we planned to visit a place recommended by THE friend of mine (which sent his son to Taiping Hospital) named Kampung Jana (Jana Village). He said that during morning time, at about 9am, we can see a foggy morning with a bit cooler temperature (22-24 degree centigrade) than average Malaysia's temperature. We went there but we couldnt find the fog, cooler temperature and a sizeable piece of land. Then, since we couldn't find it, we planned to visit rich people area (as what i always do if i visit a new area).

We noticed on the way to Kampung Jana, we saw a stretch of abandon government bungalows with a quite big land area (about 1 acre land with an abandon wooden bungalow). We decided to explore the area more. The place name is Jalan Hang Jebat Off Jalan Simpang. Then, we explore an area named Taman Lake View (Lake View Park). We saw a lot of big bungalow units and some new bungalows under construction. Decisively, that area is indeed a rich people area after we asked local people on rich people area.

However, we didn't find any sizeable plot of land which we can make quiries on. However, if some of the abandon government bungalow area can be purchased, it would make quite a good location in Taiping due to its strategic main road frontage.

After that we went to explore a bit of Taiping town. I noticed Taiping is really a retiree's town. Wherever we see, we see old people (age 40+). There comes an idea to me that if we can woo lots of rich people to build their bungalow in Taiping, we can have a town with high purchasing power. Well, that is all about Taiping.

Then, on my wife's suggestion, we went to Kuala Kangsar, the royal town of Perak state. We went to see Bukit Chandan Palace (a very grande and beautiful palace). After that heading to a place for Laksa & Chendol (famous in Kuala Kangsar) as our lunch and head back to Kuala Lumpur.

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