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Second week in KL

Dear Friends and family,

Back to business! Last week was my first week in the office. I’m doing my internship for Kollektion Distribution. This is a daughter company from Pensonic (not Panasonic). Pensonic is a Malay company with a Chinese boss and mostly Chinese employees. The marketing department where I’m working on is responsible for the brands Princess (Dutch), Lebensstill (German name but nothing to do with Germany) and General Electrics (American). Last week was more an introduction for me, to get used to the way of business here in Malaysia and the company culture. So far everything looks good and I have very friendly colleges. The manager is a bit harder to understand but this will come over time. Because it was my first week I haven’t done much and was very happy to have a few breaks during the day. The first one was on Thursday when a lion dance was organized. A lion dance brings in the Chinese culture prosperity and luck for the rest of the year. It happened this week because the Chinese new year is still going on (totally 2 weeks). The 2 lions walked around the company building with a lot of drum noise. After entering the building I thought that it was over, but I was wrong, starting with the desk of the boss, afterwards the managers and then every desk in the company had to be blessed, even my desk! The showroom with all the products we sell got a special treatment and after 2 hours the lions left the building. Before they could go home they blessed as last the cars of the employees!!! For me this was a totally new experience and for the Chinese a serious case. The next break was Friday afternoon when my colleges took me to the showroom to learn about our products. After 2,5 hour I was till not aware of the products we sell, but I do get the whole Chinese gambling thing. We were busy as kids who are trying to steel some candy. Every time we heard a sound we jumped up, grabbed the cards and cash and did, as we were busy with a product! So my job is good, colleges are friendly and I think that I can learn something about the culture and how to do business.

At the moment I am sitting in one of the many shopping malls and just Skyped with my parents and brother for a few hours. I feel a bit crap because of my cold due to the air conditioning in the office and the hot weather outside. The rest is from last night when we went out with a few Dutch guy’s. Ilylia and her sister joint Sven, Maarten (future house mates) Martijn, Franklin and me for dinner and later a drink at the Sky Bar. The Sky Bar is situated on the 33rd floor of a hotel and offers an unbelievable view of the city. Because Ilylia had to go home, Martijn took us along. He has done his internship in KL a few years ago and came back after graduating. Because he was more familiar with the city then us he was a great tour guide. I definitely have to thank him for a great night with a lot of crazy stuff. Especially the Beach Club was a shock for me. You hear a lot of stories from fellow travelers but to be there is different. The Beach Club is owned by a cop, and looks like any other club. The only difference is that all the girls have a price tag. You see a lot of older (mostly white) guy’s having a drink with a young girl. On the beginning I didn’t know how to behave, I have never been in a place like this. Martijn showed me how to deal with this and to see the fun site of this craziness. He has a girlfriend for years and will not cheat on her but a little talk can’t do harm. After a while I was talking with a few girls and start enjoying it. After the club closed we had a discussion who was a female or shemale (a female who was born as a male) in front of the club. This is really hard to see, so you are better off by just not going for it at all. I found a shemale who wanted to spank me with his/here wooden stick for 2 hours in my hotel room, all for only 20 euro. Yeah it’s a sick world we live in….

Check out the pictures and see you hopefully back next week!!

Groeten Bas