It has been a while since I posted here, compared to 2019-2024 my life slowed down a lot and became a mix of routines, some smaller trips, a lot of work and figuring out where to set up my future base.
After more than 6 months in Penang, I had a 4 way week stay in Germany, which was supposed to be a summer vacation but ended up in bad weather in 25 out of 28 days :D In July and August!!
Anyway I had a really nice time with friends & family full of home comforts, nice people, good food and some smaller day trips around Germany & the Netherlands.
It was time to return to Malaysia and try my last attempt to apply for a long term visa there. I took a flight via Guangzhou, China to Penang and at my entry I already got warned by an immigration officer that this will be my last entry in Malaysia for 2025, next time I will be denied. At this point I was still trying to apply for a "DE Rantau" Digital Nomad visa , lasting for 2 years. I fulfilled all their requirements listed on the official homepage, but they just continued more and more paperwork that was not even part of the requirements. Eventually I gave up on project "Malaysia long term visa", wrote them a long feedback mail explaining to them that their digital nomad visa is a pure PR bullshit without any real value for people who qualify and focussed on new goals.
But before leaving Malaysia, I had another 2 more nice weeks in Penang and 4 weeks in a small town called Taiping in the state of Perak. During my time there I pretty much worked 14 hours every day to put some savings to my depot (which will be helpful later for any further long term visa and property projects) and just worked my ass off. I think out of 30 days in Taiping I had one day off, while all other days have been work, meals, reading many books and long walks around town.
Taiping is actually quite a charming town with a high life quality, cheap prices and green hilly surroundings. It used to be the states capital and the British Sirs built a lot of administrative big buildings like post offices, prisons, palaces and government offices there. I rent a tiny apartment for 150 USD a month 15 minutes out of town in the middle of nowhere. I stayed in between some green hills and next to a big mosque that told me I should go to sleep after a night full of work with the morning pray at 7 am in the morning.
After an uneventful month in that random town, I decided to get some more action for the last months of 2025 and decided to spend 6 weeks each in 2 different Asian mega metropolises following in the next 2 posts :)
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| A rare day of sun in Germany |
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| My good old friend |
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| Table grill in my hometown |
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| Ping Pong with Felix :D |
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| Watching Twente Enschede vs Kaizer Chiefs from South Africa |
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| Summer nights in my hometown be like: |
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| Minigolf in the NL |
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| Off to Shiphol, AMS |
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| Above the clouds in Russia |
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| Stopover feast in Guangzhou, my 4th transit in the Cantonese capital |
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| New jersey |
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| Penang! |
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| Garlic Naan, Chicken Tandoori & Tea Tarik, I missed it |
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| One of my very favorite writers, Hermann Hesse, who visited Penang |
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| A beautiful concert in Penang |
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| This guy dropped his glass of red wine, priceless face :D |
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| First day in Taiping |
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| Impressions of Taiping |
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| Hornbills also live there! |
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| My favorite monkeys in the world |
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| Speed train between Butterworth and Kuala Lumpur |
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| Sea food restaurants in Butterworth |
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| Sunset in Butterworth |
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| Malaysia, where you can actually see a Chinese temple, a church, a mosque in a Tamil Hindu temple within a few meters from each other |
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| Crocodile warning in a park in Butterworth |
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| Reading session in a coffee shop, Taiping |
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| Last day in Malaysia, haircut and off to a new country |
