Nightlife
Kuching has a few bars and smaller clubs where you can meet and celebrate with the other (mainly) exchange students. We met every Wednesday in the Monkee Bar, which I recommend to everyone, people meet there, everyone knows it, there is good music and the beer bucket (6 beers) costs around 35RM. I can recommend the Junk to celebrate, there you can celebrate safely, but not cheaply. In addition, some house parties were organized at the beginning, which was a good opportunity to exchange ideas and get to know the other exchange students. Definitely avoid the Travillion area !! Mainly only locals party there and they are very pushy and like to fight, an exchange student from Denmark unfortunately felt it again this semester. Really listen to the advice and avoid this place. Otherwise Kuching is very safe, but of course you shouldn’t be too naive about the streets. In the evening you should avoid dark and narrow streets alone and carry your handbag / wallet on the right side, as moped drivers like to grab them from the right. So take care! In addition, lock the mopeds with a chain (against theft) and lock the front door and the gate to the house, because an attempt was made to break into the neighboring house and two scooters were stolen. If you follow these simple rules, then everything is half as bad and I have never felt unsafe.
Traffic
The locals drive very carefully and sometimes slowly (as far as the town of Kuching is concerned), so that driving on the left in Kuching can also be learned very easily and without problems. You also drive faster than the cars for the most part, which is a lot of fun and you are never alone as a moped driver, which makes things even more pleasant. I can recommend a scooter to everyone, as there is almost no public transport in Kuching and you can get from A to B faster with a scooter. You are flexible and can go on road trips at the weekend or go on excursions to the numerous national parks around Kuching. Of course you can do without a scooter completely and walk to the university for around 20-30 minutes every day, but you are either sweaty because it is very hot or wet because it sometimes rains from time to time and you have to rely on the others when you want to do something on the weekend.
Weather
The winter season is the rainy season, but actually only from December to February, when it rains very heavily and every day. The remaining months in the SS are dry season and it is very hot and humid because the humidity is very high and you have to get used to the climate first. This was very difficult for me, especially at the beginning, but after a while I made friends with Fan and AC. When it comes to AC, I remember that all the malls, buses, the university are all very hypothermic compared to the outside temperatures, so you should always have warm things (with at least one sweater) at hand. The remaining months in the winter semester there are occasional rain showers, more and more often and stronger than at the end of the year. The temperatures are around 30 ° C every day, although it can be 26 ° C after a rain shower, which is very pleasant. So don’t just pack short things, but also warm things, especially for those who want to travel on after the semester. I am still in Indonesia, for example,Traveled around Thailand, Cambodia and Laos, where the temperatures were sometimes around 12 ° C in the evening and I was very happy about my warm clothes.
- Learn more information about the country of Malaysia and continent of Asia on themakeupexplorer.
Conclusion
In general, I can warmly recommend a semester abroad to everyone.You get to know wonderful people and their culture, which sometimes opens the eyes of one or the other to how well we are actually doing in Germany. You learn to appreciate everyday things like a hot shower (especially noticed when traveling), toilet paper, bread, yogurt, cheese !!, comfortable transportation and begin to see things differently. I can only recommend a semester abroad in East Malaysia, Kuching, because firstly it is smaller and more beautiful than the huge and hectic Kuala Lumpur. Second, there are hardly any tourists, what you can expect from the friendly, open, helpful and honest !! People notice. The semester abroad in Kuching didn’t bring me much more new academic knowledge, although I don’t want to assume that I haven’t learned anything. But a lot was repetition or refreshment of what had been learned. The kind of other learning (as already described above) with all the presentations, group work, assignments has been very stressful at times, but has brought you a lot further personally. During the majority of my friends after Canada, USA, Australia ! And went to New Zealand, paid a lot of money for it, I enjoyed the same standard (Australian private university) and had a very good time! All in all, I will never want to miss my time in Kuching and I am already looking forward to seeing the many great people I have met again! So much for my experiences, I’m sure you will do the same;)
