The view from part of our apartment – all that you see is in the grounds. Behind the trees to the left is a pond…with fish and frogs and a couple of water monitors.

1. No traffic jams. (Hey, KK guys, don’t contradict me – if you’d ever lived in KL, then you’d know what a traffic jam is!)
2. The rush hour only lasts an hour.
3. It’s windy. Yeah, I know they call the place The Land Below the Wind, but it’s by the sea, and it’s nice and breezy, and in the topics, only the wind makes life bearable.
4. The scenery. Ocean in the heart of the city. Island views out of your office window. Mount Kinabalu in the distance as you drive home along the sea front. Geez, do you know how much people living in, say, Berlin, would pay for this?
5. This apartment. There is so little housework, I almost have nothing to do. Almost. And when I look out of the glass wall of my lounge room, I see Pink-necked Pigeons squabbling over in the ficus trees, and sea eagles wheeling in the sky.
6. The sunsets. You don’t get ’em like this in KL.
7. The distance. I ask someone to pick me up at my house from the city centre and he refused – too far. It’s a 12 minutes drive, for crying out loud. To get into a national park is half an hour boat ride, or an hour’s drive. Wow.
8. You can’t tell who people are from their looks or their names. That is so refreshing. A Muslim name doesn’t necessarily mean a Muslim. A non-Muslim name can be owned by a Muslim. A guy who “looks” ethnic Chinese is a Kadazan and vice versa. Marvellous to be freed of all this nonsense. (Doubtless this is why the powers that be want your race, religion and every other damn irrelevant fact on every form, identity card and pass. Otherwise, you might escape their bureaucracy. You might be free…!! )