From Kuala Lumpur to Perth

Assalamualaikum and hi. How are you? Great? That's wonderful, alhamdullillah. 

I know, I know, I was MIA for a long while. But I have a good reason for that! Hehehe... Well.. I'm blogging from Perth, Australia! Yes, I moved to Perth on mid August. See?! I've told you I have a strong reason why I didn't blog for quite sometimes. 

Oh, one more thing, please bear with this post, it's a lengthy one. 

Remember that I told you that I went to South Korea? Well, that was the time when my husband told me that he is transferred to Australia. And I had a very short time to plan the transition. And I had to do it all by myself since my husband will be a month ahead us in Australia. 

The most important thing is house. So I started to browse the houses in Perth. By doing so, I became familiar with the type of houses, the rental rate and the location. Mainly in Perth there are three types; bungalow, town house and condominium. The condos mostly in Perth CBD area. I prefer bungalow because I want to have my own lawn. The rental rate also varies based on the location, size of the house and age of the house. But please beware that Australians pay their rental weekly. And for the location, I try to find the place that is near to Perth CBD and also public transport. The houses that near to the beach area (Fremantle, Hillarys, etc) are more expensive than the one in the east side. Then I narrowed down my findings by putting the priorities on the small elements like the total bedrooms and bathrooms, the maintenance services (mainly on the lawn) and house facilities (e.g heater/AC, dish washer,  walk in cabinets). I sent to my husband the link of the houses that met my criteria. And my husband will go through the link and do the shortlist and send to his agent. Together with the agent, they will hunt the houses that are still available. It is important that your agent make appointment with the house agent beforehand. If you are interested with the house, then you can submit t the house agent along with your reference. If your application is successful, meaning you get stay there!! Our first application was unsuccessful and it was really wasting time since we have to wait for the result of the application to be out before starts looking for a new one if it is unsuccessful. 

If you intend to move to Perth, Australia, I suggest you make the research on the house before anything else. It is important that we have the idea on the value for the rental we are paying. Most of the houses in Perth offer small bedrooms. The second bedroom is hardly fit queen size bed. 

Second thing I did was listing the item that I need to bring to Australia. We were lucky because his company provided us with a container to chunk in our belongings. I grouped my needs into 3 categories; items to send via sea, items to send via air and items to carry during our travelling to Perth. For things to be send via air, mostly they are kids stuff and cooking utensils. I also brought the bedsheet, some toys, some clothes and shoes. These the items that my family mostly need while waiting for the complete belongings to arrive. While waiting for the sea freight items to arrive, we rent most of the big items such as washing machine, tv and bed. 

Other stuff of us mostly would go via sea, excepts for food. I carried the food by myself when we traveled to Perth. Perth customs are very particular on food. There are many forbidden food such as dairy product and fruits. Any food that you are bringing have to be declared upon arrival. The stewardess will hand you the form upon landing for you to fill up. Take your time to think of the items you are carrying because the penalty is big if you fail to declare. 

I also made another list on the items that available in my house currently and the items that need to buy. I bought most of the furniture. That's the reason why it is important to find the house because from the layout plan of the house, we can figure out what we need for the house. We also could figure out the color scheme and the size of the furniture. 

I was lucky because the time I shopped for the furniture was Ramadhan month. I really enjoyed the sales everywhere. But the down part was I have to do all the survey by myself since hubby was already in Australia. 

The third thing that bother me is what I leave in Malaysia. I have my house, cars and some other small commitments (e.g internet line, phone line, Astro). We didn't sell the house and the cars. We arranged our immediate family members to take care of them. We terminated the phone, internet and Astro service. 

I think that's all that I can think of for now. I'm not able to share with you the visa process since my husband's company did it to us.

Please ensure that you watch the packing people pack your belongings. Sometimes the way they handle is is not as per we expect.

It is nice if you can arrange you house to make room and space for packing work. This will make packing work goes smoothly and efficiently. 

Place your items together in their groups. Example, cooking utensils, toiletries, books, toys, etc. This will help the packing people to pack accordingly and to make you life easier when you unpack.