Of Moving

I have relocated myself a few hundred kilometres from where I was.
I am now in a different state, with different types of people and attitudes and generally an overwhelmingly different atmosphere altogether. It's like an entire world of difference in the beginning.

Good thing it's not at all as busy as the last place I was in!

So this was the first time I moved on my lonesome. I tried asking family and friends for reliable movers but got no satisfactory answer, i.e. most people forgot who they employed and some merely hired lorries and did their own packing. I was willing to pack most things on my own but I needed some other people who actually knew what they were doing. Hence the decision to hire movers.

Generally, people do not 'move' at this stage, preferring to stay with family or leaving most things at their own home with their family. However, this does not apply to me- so yes. Hiring movers was something I decided to do long before I even graduated, for various reasons. But let me say that generally, housemen do not 'move' on a large scale because it is very likely that they will move somewhere else for MOship.

That said, let's get on to the moving process.

On Finding a Moving Company and the Entire Ordeal (Almost)

1. Finding

It is better to find movers that the people you know have employed before and found reliable enough to recommend. This may not be the case most of the time, so you have to search on your own. Unlike retail stores, moving companies do not generally set up shop with the rest of your usual retail outlets, so it wasn't as easy as going to a street or into a mall to survey them. Hence I took to- what else?- The Interwebz.

That's the internet btw.

Googling 'movers Malaysia' already comes up with many hits, most of which international relocating companies which I know are very efficient and trustworthy but also very costly. Thus I decided to look for more obscure names. I found one that I thought looked promising, but after filling their query form  for a quotation I got no response even after a week. So I started looking elsewhere.

Most companies available online ask you to drop your moving details and number so they can call you up and arrange a survey session to give you a quotation, before you agree on any company's services. I just wanted to fill online forms and not have to talk to anyone to avoid showing how noob I was. In the end though, being noob is part of a growing process- so don't be afraid to feel noob. More importantly, it is important that you meet the people from the companies face-to-face. More on that below.

I looked at several blogs to get recommendations of movers, and one blog recommended going to movers-malaysia.com for an almost hassle-free comparison of several moving services at once. That's what I did. I filled out the form with as much details as I knew, prayed a little and pressed 'Send' for all the companies that they recommended based on my current area. That evening, I received two calls and one email, all from different companies.

The people who called set a date and time to visit my house and survey the things needed to be done before giving me a quotation, which is an estimated price for all the needed services. As for the punctuality of the survey, one was late by a few hours; the other was late for a day. They both gave me almost the same quotation.

The one who contacted me by e-mail gave me a very thorough response with elucidation on their total services and total costs. It was very cheap compared to the rest and I was impressed.


2. Deciding

So now I have three possibilities, only from filling a single form online! That's kinda amazing.

But- and that's a huge but- it's not enough. Take it from me. Unless you're comparing between different multinational moving services with a proven track record of excellence, three of obscure moving companies is on the low side for comparison. I only learned this now, in retrospect, so try to at least get quotes from 5 different companies. No strings are attached when getting quotes; don't feel guilty about doing a little surveying of your own, as it is entirely expected.

What you need in movers is reliability; efficiency; trustworthiness. These, I can now say, are rather hard to come by with most companies. Appointments set for a certain date get postponed to another date; appointments set for another time will always be delayed for another hour or two (sometimes 4 or 5) with many different excuses. I guess you can say they are rather busy bees, these movers.

The lowest quotation I got was from the e-mail. He answered all my queries politely and thoroughly, and the rate was surprisingly low- I got an average of 1.3 to 1.5k with the phone calls and physical surveys, but this particular guy was willing to offer the same and more for only 850.

I found this dubious, and it doesn't help that he did not want to do a physical survey, his reason being my online descriptions were enough.

When in doubt, do the following:

1) Google the moving company name and look for their sites/reviews. In this country there aren't many people reviewing companies and leaving them online, especially the obscure ones. Furthermore, most movers do not have a working site. This is troublesome.

2) Ask the movers to e-mail you their exact quotation with the company letterhead and pictures of their previous work/lorries/etc.

3) Ask for their company address. Perhaps you can use Google Street View to look for it, or even drive there yourself and at least see if the company exists.

The one with low quotation had very nice manners on mail, but had a very generic name that happened to be a famous moving company in another country, gave me a non-working site (saying it's under maintenance because they are opening branches in other states), and despite all the thorough explanation before, when I asked them for their full address, gave me only a vague street name and vague area- no postcodes, lot numbers, or anything that allows me to pinpoint an exact place. In fact the street name and area name are both so common that they usually come with numbers at the end, which he conveniently did not include. Not to mention he refused to do a physical survey. He also did not ask me to further reconfirm my decision after answering my query for his address; I figured he figured that the jig was up.

When the quotation is too low, be careful- it may be that your things will be moved with other people's things in the same lorry, which is not the biggest issue, or a total scam, whereby after making an initial deposit they disappear off the face of the Earth (read: internet). I did not want to risk it. I stopped contacting them.


3. Process

I asked both of the remaining companies to give me a black & white quotation via e-mail. The slightly more expensive one did it by that night, as promised. The other one which was late didn't send me anything, and called me the day after (it was missed as I was doing other stuff) but did nothing to follow up any further.

The choice was obvious by then.

Given the quotation, I asked the chosen company- the one that was more punctual and reliable- to send me the appropriate packing materials for my things as I would prefer to pack my books on my own. This process was delayed several times. As for payment, they said I could pay when everything has been settled, which is more fair to me as that ensures they won't run off with my stuff once payment has been made. I'll make sure this is the case from now on, too.

Note to self: Find another way of obtaining packing material e.g. bubble wrap and boxes because the material they provide may not be the same as what they said they would provide, and not meet my expectations.

I packed like mad the week before the move, until revision  for my actual work was almost entirely eliminated from my thoughts. On the day itself, they came over and closed the boxes (I didn't close the boxes yet as I anticipated revisions to my packing but they didn't seem to care) and packed the rest of the miscellaneous stuff that were bundled together but still not put into boxes.

I asked if there were documents to be signed- that was a no. From what I read online, you're supposed to sign several forms with some insurance documents too, but that may only apply in the states (or with more reputed movers).

Then we left. I didn't go with the lorry but alone.


4. Outcome

They arrived shortly after I did despite using the non-highway roads- probably because I can be slow.
Moved the stuff to the house.

Then when I told them to assemble my furniture, I was met with confusion and slight resistance. The guy who said it was okay reluctantly started on my desk. Over two hours later they still weren't done.

I noticed that despite my insistence that they read the given instructions (which were really clear, as it is IKEA after all) and showing them Youtube videos of people fixing the things, they refuse to do either and preferred to half-heartedly flip through the manual whenever they think is necessary, skipping steps along the way. I offered to help but was refused. Anyhow, after 2++ hours the guy told me they couldn't do it and packed his stuff up, along with his friend. He made to leave but had to wait for my payment.

I flipped, of course. I yelled at him and demanded to know why he said it wasn't possible. It was made to be possible, I could do it myself given more time. He said they aren't used to assembling new things and could only assemble furniture that they themselves disassembled, which- to be honest- was a load of &#@$. Then I asked why he said it was possible when I first showed them the flat-packed furniture and asked if his team could assemble them for me upon arrival. He initially weakly made the excuse that he thought I was going to assemble them first, and then ask them to disassemble them again. This was a pathetic claim. This was also around the time I started yelling really loudly to his face.

There were other things exchanged and he apologized several times, saying it's not my fault. Duh it's not. It was agreed upon ad it's not like he didn't contact me 4 or 5 times at least after the agreement, during which time I reconfirmed again and again that the assembly of my furniture is possible.

I was so upset that I told him he should just leave. He gave me a small discount which he claimed was his and his friend's (there were 2 people trying to fix that small table) payment for that day. I gave him the money and told him again, angrily, to leave me. I guess they were quite eager to do that by then.

He said something about asking some IKEA person to come over and help me assemble it the day after. Obviously nothing of the sort happened. I didn't wait either.

Conclusion: What do you think?

Assembling IKEA Furniture

It ain't that hard with the right mindset and attitude!

I started assembling the remaining things that night, finishing the table within the next 20 minutes and the wardrobe within 2 hours. Then I waited until the next day to start on my bookcases as they require hammering and by then it was really late and I didn't want to wake anyone (i.e. the neighbours) up. All things considered, I think I did quite well on my own.  

 
It's highly recommended to have the basic IKEA toolbox called FIXA with you- it costs (if I'm not mistaken) less than RM 30. Would be even better if you had those automatic screwdrivers because that speeds things up (I don't know what they're called- power screwdrivers?).

Basic FIXA tool set- all you need to assemble any IKEA furniture! The FIXA line actually is not just limited to this.

FIXA power drill/screwdriver. Would have bought it if I had more money; not necessary but perhaps more speedy.

But most importantly, you need the ability to be patient and read the manual thoroughly. It's hard not to do it correctly if you read the manuals thoroughly, because they even illustrated the major but common assembly mistakes, and put large crosses on those incorrect methods. As for the claims that there are very frequently missing screws and other bits in the flat-packs, I can safely say that in my brief experience nothing of the sort happened. In fact the wardrobe I was assembling had extra parts. I know because I count out all the parts and sort them into tiny piles before I even start assembling. Oh, on that note, also ensure you have ample space.

Basic instructions from IKEA, available on the first page of most furniture assembly manuals.

Basically, any able-bodied person who is sane and has the strength of a normal adult could do it- so long as you don't buy the especially large and especially well-made (heavy) furniture, and so longa s you can drag your furniture around on the floor. 8Case in point, I am the least fit person I know and I still could assemble and then drag around the tall, large furniture. Lots of grunting and sweating were involved, not to mention bruises from bumping into the parts or having them fall on me. I just read the last sentence over and realized it could sound very, very wrong and it doesn't indicate an extreme level of perverseness, but is actually normal.

Anyway.

I assembled large IKEA furniture and smaller, simpler things too and succeeded in all of them. The table is being used right this moment, after I fixed what the movers gave up on; the wardrobe is filled with clothes, the bookcases are holding books and the other stuff are functioning well. So even with almost zero knowledge of furniture assembly, I feel rather accomplished.

Now to rearrange more stuff, after I get some zzzs.


P.S.: I'm loving this house so far!

Brief Update

I am now living among quite a few boxes and a lot of mess, trying to deduce where to put what, and when.

We have gotten our PTM locations but have yet to receive the physical letters, though the digital version has been made available to us (thanks, overly-prepared batchmate who shared it on Facebook)!

I currently owe my Dad a ton of money;
I might talk about this in a later post.

I have, of course, decided on a moving company. Until after the day of moving, though, I would rather not talk about it. I had three options to begin with and chose the one I found most reliable- where movers are concerned, none are very punctual, and you shouldn't expect them to be unless you're employing the services of famous, multinational companies which cost a pretty penny.

I went to a preparatory course for housemanship. I found it rather beneficial. I owe my Dad for the fees, but I figured it was a worthy investment if only to motivate myself. And yes, it was highly motivating and surprisingly, even tears were shed. Sorry not talking about this further, but my advice is if you can afford it and are not as disciplined to start revising for your HOship (which actually applies to many of us), you better attend a HO preparatory course shortly before your HOship starts. :)

I certified many, many documents with the help of a friend's relative. Not as many as I copied, but quite a few copies each. Until now I am unsure what exactly I really need for the day, but according to the PTM letter they're pretty much what I listed in an earlier post, minus parents' IC copies (nobody even mentioned these among my cohort).

And I went shopping again.
Madly.
Obviously, otherwise why would I owe my Dad a ton of money?
But like I said, maybe an elaboration later.

And I'm off! Toodles!

House Hunting

For quite a few of us, our hospitals/working destination requires moving away- far, far away- from our current residence. In fact, when deciding your hospital, this is probably something that goes into careful consideration. I have been stalking several sites rather religiously for the past few months in an effort to find the perfect accommodation in several hospitals of my choosing, even before I knew that I got into the number one hospital of my choosing.

Needless to say I'm glad I got the one I was most religiously stalking.

This post is for those of us who do not already live close to our future workplace, and need to find our own accommodation prior to starting work. Of course, this is for when you already know where you're posted, i.e. post e-housemen.

First things First: To Hostel or Not to Hostel?

If only...

Back "then", there weren't many HOs running around the hospital. As such, for all HOs, their accommodations were provided by the hospital by means of 'hostels', which are dorm-like accommodations within hospital grounds. I heard that there was a time when HOs were made compulsory to live in these hostels for the entire year of housemanship (yes, it used to take a year kan).

Now it's not the same, mainly because there are too many HOs for the hostels to be adequate.

Currently, in most hospitals, the hostels are only allowed for a fixed amount of time before you have to move out and find your own accommodations outside. And even when they are available for perhaps longer than a few months, you have to remember that many hospital hostels are dorm-like; i.e. the bathrooms may be outside of your unit, and the furniture immovable, and the space generally not that big or open to creativity. I say 'may' because I am unsure of how the newer hostels are.

Yes, you have to pay to stay in the hostel, and not that little either. It will be deducted from your salary, should you so wish to stay there. I know of a district hospital where the supposed rate of a hostel room is RM 400, shared between two people. And in the (highly likely) event that you have to move out after several months, remember that you still have to hunt for a house while being busy with HO duties, and with that move your belongings too.

So, to hostel or not to hostel?

I would say, yes to hostel if you do not mind the relative lack of space and privacy, have little belongings, and have no means of transportation of your own (cars or motorbikes).Yes if the hostels are available for more than a few months; or if you don't mind having to move out after you started working. Yes if you are pressed for options, for example if you cannot do proper house hunting for any reason, or other options are simply to expensive for you (very unlikely). Yes if you simply want to live the hostel life. Yes if the hostel is actually very decent for you, and you like the thought of living there.

And no to the hostel, simply, if any or most of the above things don't apply to you.

In case of the latter, onwards to house-hunting.

People-finding

There are several ways you can go about it. One of the best ways is to use your family members and friends who already live in the locality of your hospital, if they are available. Ask them very nicely to help you find a place close to the hospital. At least someone you know and trust is dealing with the process, and it takes a great burden off your mind. I happen to have some relatives living in the intended area of my posting, and thus the process of finding an appropriate place was made easier. It helps that I'm also very close to these relatives.

Sometimes, you can even get heavily discounted or free accommodation because your relatives ask you to merely take care of their existing house! This is of course very much welcome for those of us who are very new at handling money.

But more importantly (or slightly less; it is after all relative): find fellow people posted at the hospital you're going to. This means batchmates of the same gender who aren't married, or are married to a non-HO and are willing to live as bachelors/bachelorettes at least on working days. You may even know people of the same HO intake but from different learning institutions who are going to the same place. Seek them out.

Make a chat group for yourselves. Discuss if you want to share in the process of finding the right accommodation, or if any of you prefer to X-Wing it, or go Han Solo. Having others around is undeniably easier. And even if you do not end up rooming together, you will still be in the same hospital and attend the same PTM so it's still useful to have a group chat (on WhatsApp, or Facebook, etc), at least until you start working and going to different departments. Even after separating to your respective departments, it's always useful to have these contacts that you are (hopefully) more familiar with. Especially if you end up in the same accommodation!

Choosing the Right Place

You may choose to find an entire unit (house/apartment) and share with others, or have it all to yourself. OR you may opt to rent a room with existing tenants. This is entirely up to you (and your budget).

The more convenient way, if you can't do it personally or have someone do it personally for you, is to browse online. Several sites that are very handy:

• google.com
• mudah.my
• ibilik.my
• homes.mitula.my

I think the first two in the list are more than sufficient.

A number also take to Facebook to find their house. You have many contacts on Facebook, do you not? Make sure your request status is made Public so it can be shared or seen by strangers who know your Facebook contacts and can potentially help with the process. 

Facebook also contains many people promoting their houses for rent or homestays (which can be converted to rental accommodation if the owner feels like it).

By now, you will probably be facing many options.

Here are things to consider very very meticulously when choosing your accommodation from all those options:

Price

I made a semi-flexible budget. You should too. Make sure the chosen accommodation is within your budget for monthly necessities.

Duh. ;)

Location, location, location

You will, of course, want to look for accommodation close to your workplace. If you do not, what are you thinking? Have you even heard tell of news of road traffic accidents caused by exhausted doctors??! Ahem. Make sure to employ the services of Google Maps, then Google Earth and Google Street View (if available) to check the exact location of your intended accommodation in relation to your workplace. 

If the location is not so clear from the listings, ask the owners to provide you with the address and Google Map it. This usually proves accurate. They shouldn't hide it for whatever reason.

Disasters?

It may also be useful to check for the potential of getting natural and man-made disasters in your place, i.e. floods and landslides. These are very common in our country, particularly during monsoon season (you should have checked this before you chose your hospital too, but some may purposely choose hospitals that are known to be directly involved in these disasters for their own reasons).

And... avoid disastrous places, to the best of your ability. Or if you can't, make sure you are reasonably equipped in the event of said things occurring. Pray that they don't. Take care of the environment. Et cetera.

Security

If you are living alone or of the fairer gender, then the safety of the neighbourhood is really important and should be one of the first things you look at. Ask the owner if it is safe for you; more often than not, they will tell you that it is, no matter what. So to be even more safe, ask around instead. Do google searches. Everything is at the tips of your fingers. 

One of the ways in which the owners try to reassure you (and ask for higher rental) is by implementing safety measures that are probably a necessity in our country nowadays, particularly grills, secure locks and gates, and adequate porch lighting (if your house has a porch). Alarm systems? All the better! Make sure you know how to use them.

Facilities

Before making your decision, enquire ceaselessly. Make sure you are paying for something you will not regret.

You will be spending money on the house/room, and you have your rights. It is easy for us to feel intimidated and presumptuous when negotiating the needs of the house, but this- again- is part of growing up. Learn to put your foot down and make your intentions clear to get what you think is necessary, but be reasonable about it. There is no set formula for doing something like this, so experience really counts. Ask your friends and family members if need be, but make the final decisions for yourself. After all, you are going to be making life and death decisions later at work, no? 

Timing

You need to be clear on when you expect to move in. As the PTM will be done within the area of the hospital we're posted at, it is better to move in prior to the PTM date; remember that there is only a gap of one or two days before we start working after PTM. If you feel that you have many things to settle with the house, in particular moving and buying furniture or appliances, it is better to settle in a few days earlier than the PTM date so that you may familiarize yourself with the new surroundings and not feel too rushed. Make your chosen accommodation as cozy as possible. Feel it out. Baca Yaasin ramai-ramai every night for 3 days straight. Whatever calms you down.

Because it will be only a short while before the REAL struggles begin. *evil laugh*

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Okay, okay, no worries. Just chill and take it easy. But seriously, how do some of you just do everything last minute? I do not comprehend this fascinating ability. I honestly wish I can be less prepared and more 'in the moment', but alas this was not how I was programmed or raised. ^^;

Have many belongings? Movers will be required so start looking around.

More on that in coming posts, after I gain more exp in that particular subject.

Good luck! :)