Top 10 City List

CITIES I WANT TO LIVE AND DIE IN

Funny how the loveliest people in my life all coincidentally stay in the cities I love most in the country. I mean, obviously, all of them were from KK before I went to KYUEM, but my list was drawn up (most of it) BEFORE I went to KYUEM.

Here it is, with rough numbers assigned to cities:

1. KK 9.7/10

Whether I DO live here or not, this place is LOVELY. And my assertion has been backed up by EVERYONE I take here who leaves KK wishing, even a teeny weeny little bit, that they stayed here. One of my tourists actually felt they had a “life-changing” KK+Mountain experience. Me, I’ve just lived my life here, and I wouldn’t desert it for the world. Every time I bring people to KK, I marvel at the fact I NEVER have to bring them to shopping malls or stick them at home – there’s JUST so MUCH to see and do, even on MY part!

2. Miri 9.3/10

Knock off the 0.2 its-not-home coefficient and the 0.2 accessible-to-local-mountains coefficient, but eerily reminiscent of KK. City centre’s the same design plan, with shopping areas roughly in the same areas – and if you’ve been to Miri you’ll realise how MUCH cleaner is it as opposed to KK. And the schools are SO much better. But it’s not home and that’s what tips the balance. But visit Miri Park, described in an upcoming entry, and Miri as the ideal place to live is beyond reasonable doubt.

3. Kuantan 8.8/10

Lovely, leafy, wide open spaces. Notice all the top 3 are the most spacious cities/towns/living places in Malaysia. Kuantan has its beach, its thriving city, the BEST REAL (as opposed to touristy) food I’ve had in any West Malaysian city (leaving Ipoh and Penang out of this for obvious reasons) and a wonderful backlog of national parks in the vicinity I have yet to visit.

4. Ipoh 8.3/10

My prize-winning heritage city. The town centre is sensationally cantik, on par with Penang, without the rabid traffic jams that are a feature of a city traditionally its size. Of course, that’s if you are prepared to ignore the crawl in the city centre during any working hour. But then, which city isn’t like that? The buildings kick ass. Just check out St Michaels Institution, coincidentally, home of a certain Aaron Singh of Cambridge fame.

5. Penang 7.7/10

Cities with jams are automatically docked a huge amount of points, unfortunately. Penang was, in Sept 2004, in my very exact words, “one of the cities I can’t bear to leave” after my 5-day holiday there, in which I remember leaping off a bus when it was about to move, sending James Koo of Edinburgh fame into a laughing fit he isn’t ready to forget. And the famous bowl of Balik Pulau assam laksa! Only two meals have ever sent me into a delightful trance artists on drugs would know well – THAT bowl of laksa, and a bowl of mee soup in a wooden stall in Kota Bharu.

6. Kuching 7.6/10

Ditto. Penang just has this teeny bit more LIFE than Kuching. And I am validated by the comments of local Kuching-ians about the paucity of shopping malls. Of course, there are SO many lovely people I know there. Yolanda, Brandon, Nat, Sandra (I guess you count, huh), Hazwan, and ALL my Batu Lintang friends from so long ago, thank you!

Why a list of 6? Simple. These are the only cities in Malaysia I will consider living voluntarily in. If I am posted to some other city, so be it, but in the meantime, here’s a toast to the top 6 cities in Malaysia.

P.S. KL gets a honourable mention, I love the pace, the rhythm of KL, there’re SO many ways to live and let live there, but my kids will not be allowed to grow up there, where life is dictated by one’s achievements instead of one’s personality.