Thanks for your response Tumbleweeds,

I’ve visited KL [once] and liked it there but I think something smaller! Perhaps Penang would be a bit smaller and easier. When I visited KL I was a bit amazed by the taxis. As soon as it was dark all the cabs went off-meter and it was a matter of bargaining with them. Taxis weren’t all that plentiful so they didn’t give me much of a bargain. It was a very long walk to my hotel near Petronas Towers so I grudgingly paid the piper! I sure liked the train to the airport though. Talk about easy.

A suspect 3G is as good or probably better than my local Comcast connection. The customer service isn’t bad here but they keep raising the prices and since I’ve got my television and Internet through them I’m stuck. I DO beat then out of one service - telephone. I’ve got MagicJack and while there are a few problems occasionally I’ve learned how to solve them. MagicJack costs US$20 for the device and US$20 for one entire year of unlimited service. You might have someone send you one from the states. You’ll get a ‘new’ telephone number with the device and you do need a high speed Internet connection. The good thing about MJ is that your calls back home to US or Canada are FREE. Unlimited calls. Skype is great too but limits you to calling just those that also download Skype or, if you call a landline, while reasonable, I think MagicJack might be better but not for local Malaysian calls.

From what I understand, to buy property in Malaysia I would have to get the retirement visa which also requires a hefty deposit into a Malaysian bank. The only problem is the money stays there until you decide to depart Malaysia. As a retiree on fixed income, money in the bank that you can’t use, even to invest, is kind of rough. Obviously the person who came up with the retirement program wasn’t a retiree!