Yesterday was my best day in Malaysia so far. In the morning some of the other U of L students decided they wanted to go to the water park. I really wanted to go and find out exactly where I work so that I would be able to find it the next morning. As luck would have it the water park is right next door to where I’m working.
We had a fantastic time. Sunway Lagoon is no Disneyland by far, but at the same time the rollercoaster was still a nice treat and the hot but not too sunny weather made for one of the best watersliding days of my life.
My whole perspective of Malaysia has changed a lot in the last 24 hours. For one thing, the neighbourhood we live in is right next to Chinatown. I discovered that that strange smell I hate is actually coming from a kind of fruit they sell there. Truth be told, you sort of get used to the smell and it’s not that bad. Also they burn a lot of incense and cook chestnuts around that area which once you get used to isn’t that bad either. The people here are tremendously kind and helpful. Yesterday someone I met on the street gave me a mango because his friend didn’t want it and I was there. It was delicious. Not as delicious as the Mango I had the day before, but that’s not a fair comparison because that mango was the most amazing piece of fruit ever to be grown on this planet. It really was that good. Almost worth the trip for that experience alone.
I did eventually find my workplace though it was quite the ordeal. Then it was home on the bus and to a meeting with a successful international business man from Malaysia. Most of the students from the U of L are in management so the speakers (one every Wednesday night at 7:30) are business folks. I was surprised at the lack of questions the other students had for this guy. I was drilling him with (what I thought) were lots of great questions. Which because I am bored will not be repeated here. Ok, I’ll try to remember and update this later – I know you’re dying to know what I asked.
Then he took us all out for drinks and I stayed out too late and I will probably never get the rest I need to recover from this cold. At least I’m having a great time!
Update: Ok this is what I asked him. What are the steps to exporting something from Malaysia into Canada? He said that first once you have the manufacturer of the product you are interested in, you need to check if there are any quotas or special taxes on that particular product. I asked him how he went about getting loans from the bank. He said it all goes into doing research and presenting your plan to the bank manager. He also mentioned that if one banks says no, then don’t give up. Rewrite the proposal or try another bank. He explains, if it’s a good plan they will give you the money. He got something like a $3 million loan when he was only 28. Most of his money is made from importing and exporting, but I asked what he thought about real estate. He said that it was a great investment. He went on to say that he got several $10,000 loans from the bank and used to money to out down on 4 or 5 properties. Then he just waited a few years and made an easy couple hundred thousand when he sold them all. I asked how he got the bank to give him the loans and he said, they just looked at all the other money that he had been making with his importing and exporting and that was it. At present he has 18 different companies going. Oh, and one last thing—he loves his alcohol. When asked how he chooses his staff, he says if they like to drink than he knows he will get along with them. Don’t you just wish it was that easy? He makes it sound like that. But I guess I need to remember the biggest thing he pointed out is that he works 10 – 12 hours a day, seven days a week.