I still don’t know whether I should thank PP Michael for asking me to wrote that little text…

All we knew of Malaysia before flying in was basically really little… Twin Towers, Batu Caves and F1 Grand prix!

When we arrived I still remember asking my wife Isabelle in the van bringing us from KLIA to Bukit Bintang whether we made the right choice coming here… (I must say that at that stage all we saw from Malaysia was palm trees!).

Fortunately it did not take long to start making friends and discover KL and its suburbs, just the malls could keep us busy for days J. Beyond the shopping we also discovered quickly that from a human relationship viewpoint, the KL population is unique in terms of variety but all have something in common, smile and joviality! That helped us making friends from many countries and enrich our experience even more.

A fantastic opportunity came to me when I opened the doors of the Rotary Club of Pantai Valley and at the time President Michael let me in J since then I never left and the fellowship in the club helped me to not only have great friends but also to better understand the Malaysian society beyond the common clichés. I think that this membership is one of the best personal “investment” I ever did as the return is fantastic and I know that I’ll always have friends in KL!

Malaysia is blessed even just by its location, think about Indonesia, Singapore and Thailand protecting it from all major natural disaster and a wonderful equatorial weather… It is a great place to live and the way of living is not to be compared to anything I’ve ever experienced before! Name what you want to eat or drink and it is around the corner and so wherever you are coming from…

Everywhere you go, you’ll have people serving you with a smile and with a true commitment to treat you as a customer who deserves the best, and coming from Europe, this is refreshing!

Talking about its location, Malaysia is really at the centre of South East Asia and it makes it really easy to spend a w-e in Vietnam, Cambodia, Bali, Philippines or even a week in Australia (of course you also can drive to Singapore)… and as KLIA is also a hub for a well known Low Cost Carrier, it makes it even cheap J.

Tell me who could resist to all these advantages…. Oh yes, I forgot, the petrol is also cheap! (less than a while back but still!)

Now it is time to leave this heaven and it is hard for the whole family… my 2 boys, Thomas and Yael are also really sad to leave their friends and their school where they experienced so much the last 4 years behind. We plan to say good bye and not farewell… we’d be back next year for holiday and I’d come back on regular basis on business trips.

We’ll miss you all, your kindness and the beauty of Malaysia…

Yael, Thomas, Isabelle and Serge