Engel-Cox Organization

Now that I'm a veteran expat in Malaysia, I thought I would share a few things I've learned in the past year and a half. These are applicable for those expats coming from the U.S.; your mileage may vary if you are relocating here from other countries.

• Malaysia pharmacies carry Panadol for pain relief and Actival for heartburn. I found both poor substitutes for aspirin/Advil and Tum/Rolaids. If there are other over-the-counter drugs that you are partial to, you might want to put a year's supply of that in your luggage. On the other hand, obtaining prescription drugs isn't as much of a problem, although the name may not be the same as what you received in the U.S.


• Transformers should be bought and brought for any U.S. appliance you are bringing with you that can't handle the 220 voltage. Note that some appliances draw a lot of watts when they start up, so the watt requirement for your transformer should be double the amount listed for the appliance(s) you expect to connect to it. (Converters for two-prong U.S. cords to three-prong outlets are also very useful.)


• Live close to what is important to you. If you don't like to sit in traffic, live close to your work. If you want to be able to walk home from any number of restaurants, live in an apartment downtown. If it's important to you that your kids be close to their school, live close to it. Because the traffic is BAD. New York, L.A., Washington bad. We've been stuck in jams from 1 hour to 3 hours. Be prepared.


• Things will mildew here, especially stuff that you sweat on. Think: hat bands, leather shoes, gloves, armrests of furniture. Things also melt and collect moisture here. Soggy Rolaids and melted zinc lozenges are tough to stomach. Bring lots of ziplocs and dessicant packs (food-grade for things you plan to ingest).


• Internet speed is slow. My wife explains it thusly, "You never really understand the concept of the digital divide until you are on the other side." This is not something you can spend more money to get faster access (i.e., the U.S. model)--it's an infrastructure problem emerging from the state-owned telephony monopoly. So, if there's something that you need Internet speed for, think of what your alternatives might be. Also, note that many internet services don't work here because of copyright issues: Pandora, Roku, Hulu, etc.


• You can't have enough light-weight clothes for this climate. In the last year and a half, my casual clothing collection has blossomed with more shorts and sleeveless shirts than I have ever owned in my life.


• There are two things that I know of that are much more expensive in Malaysia than in the U.S.: automobiles and alcohol. The solution for the auto is to either live without (taxis are cheap here) or buy local (if you can live with the safety and reliability issues for the locally produced cars). Your alcohol solution is to always remember to buy a bottle per person from the duty free, and make sure that all your out-of-country visitors do the same. I never understood the point of duty free when I lived in the U.S. In Malaysia, a 1-liter bottle of gin from duty free is Rm66 while a fifth of gin is Rm120 in the store. Also, if you're partial to a certain brand of liquor, pack it in your suitcase (sealed within a ziplock and surrounded by bubble wrap).


• Don't ship batteries, and remember to remove batteries from all the appliances in your sea shipment. Trust me. Battery leakage is ugly.

The lead off track of this album by Rush, "The Spirit of Radio," was written for and about a Canadian radio station, and it perfectly captures a moment in radio history, between the payola of the 60s and the corporate conglomerates of the 90s. For those of us who grew up listening to radio in that period, the tune is bittersweet, especially the prescient ending wherein Neal Peart rewrites Simon and Garfunkel's lyrics from "The Sound of Silence" to lambast the emerging profit-only centered radio programming. It's a strong statement and song, and one of Rush's best singles (it may even have been released as a single, which would have been unusual for Rush).

Permanent Waves is the first album that adds synthesizers to their three main instruments of guitar, bass and drums. Subsequent albums would increasingly feature the use of synthesizers, but it is here where Lee began to use them for more than atmospheric effect; there's an occasional solo as well as background melody/harmony provided by synth here. There are still remnants of the excesses of previous Rush albums present here, with two songs extending over 7 minutes. All of the songs are self-contained (rather than multi-part suites), however. Peart's lyrics reflect his literary aspirations; some people, like me, find them intelligent; detractors find them pretentious. "Freewill" puts forward a basic philosophical concept across in 5 minutes (not deciding to choose something is still making a choice), while "Natural Science" uses biology (tide pools) to illustrate how humans can't see the bigger picture.

But this is still Rush, with many time/key changes contained in each song, syncopation plays between bass and drums, and some of the best coordinated playing of the time. There's not a dud song on this album, although the long ones do seem to go on a little more than you expect them to. This would be resolved in their next, and best, album, Moving Pictures.