This part of my blog is to pay homage to my holiday and working time in Malaysia in April thru June 2014, as part of the "Elective" (akin to an internship) programme at Medical School. At the time of writing I am a 4th year medical student at the University of East Anglia. This is a short page describing why I chose Malaysia and what the plans were. The blog pages themselves will hopefully fill you in on the details!
Why Malaysia?
I am half-Malaysian Chinese! ("Chinglish?"). Simples! My mother was born in a small village (a kampong) in the coastal state of Pahang near its capital city Kuantan, on the east coast of Peninsula Malaysia, and grew up in the city of Kota Bharu ("KB"; translates to "Castle new" - aka Newcastle) in the state of Kelantan, on the north-easternmost point of the peninsula, on the border with southern Thailand.
Mum was one of 11 siblings born to a Chinese father and Singapore Chinese mother. The family moved to Kota Bharu (KB) from Kuantan when she was little, and settled in a four-bedroom bungalow, raised on stilts to avoid damage from regular flooding. Note, at this time there would have been 13 people in this tiny house!! Mum made the incredibly brave and arduous journey to England in her early 20's to train to be a nurse. She is the only one of her siblings to have fled the nest! She remembers taking many flights with multiple refuelling stops, on propeller-driven aircraft, from her beautiful tropical home to the fish-and-chips and rain of our green and pleasant land.
So I chose Malaysia because I had one of two options for the Elective. My initial thought was to spend the 8-week period at Ashford's William Harvey Hospital, my (now previous) place of work for the previous 5 years, as a Theatre Support Worker in Main Theatres. This was looking very likely, to save money, and preserve social contacts, until the medical school announced they'd be introducing an internal elective in Year 5 on top of the external elective in Year 4; the kick was enough - I chose Malaysia instead.
Deciding where in Malaysia was simple - I have so much family in Kota Bharu it would be silly not to choose there. It just so happened that luckily one of the best hospitals and medical schools in Malaysia is situated in KB, the Universiti Sains (Science) Malaysia (USM)!
Deciding what to do while on elective was a combination of factors, the first and foremost being that my mum's 2nd brother (in Hokkien, "gee ku") had a sub-arachnoid haemorrhage and later, ischaemic attack, nearly 3 years ago, and was treated by the medical teams at USM. Secondly, I have an interest in Neurology (though unlikely to develop into a post-graduate career). Thirdly, I developed a real interest in Stroke medicine while at King's Lynn on placement in Year 2 of medical school.
I sent my application by post to USM on some splendid quality A4, having nothing but an address and "To whom it may concern" from an Electives book kindly lent by Luke, mentioning my inspiration for this particular placement. To my surprise they a) actually received the letter (often, post from England to Malaysia ends up in POSMalaysia workers' pockets), and b) actually replied - positively - and the placement was on! Now came the difficult bit - organising travel, accommodation, immunizations, and indeed people.
Developing in parallel to plans for what the Elective would be focused on, was also the idea to get mum back out to Malaysia to see her close family, the last time having been 4 years ago; and the plan to get Emma out to Malaysia to experience the Far East, not an opportunity most people get in a lifetime! The following section is a brief run-down of the plans we made before venturing 6,500 miles by a Malaysia Airlines Airbus A380.
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| Malaysia, consists of two parts, Peninsula Malaysia (left) attached to Thailand (north), sits across the Melacca Straits from Indonesia (south-west) and just above Singapore island (south). The other, and larger, part of Malaysia is one of three countries occupying the island of Borneo, neighbouring Indonesia (south) and surrounding the sovereign state of Brunei. |
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| Peninsula Malaysia in close-up, with Kota Bharu highlighted in the north-east. Note Kuala Lumpur, the capital city, in the middle on the west coast, the island country of Singapore at the southernmost tip of the peninsula, and the city of Kuantan in the middle on the east coast. |
So I chose Malaysia because I had one of two options for the Elective. My initial thought was to spend the 8-week period at Ashford's William Harvey Hospital, my (now previous) place of work for the previous 5 years, as a Theatre Support Worker in Main Theatres. This was looking very likely, to save money, and preserve social contacts, until the medical school announced they'd be introducing an internal elective in Year 5 on top of the external elective in Year 4; the kick was enough - I chose Malaysia instead.
Deciding where in Malaysia was simple - I have so much family in Kota Bharu it would be silly not to choose there. It just so happened that luckily one of the best hospitals and medical schools in Malaysia is situated in KB, the Universiti Sains (Science) Malaysia (USM)!
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| University Sains Malaysia, Kota Bharu campus (Website) |
I sent my application by post to USM on some splendid quality A4, having nothing but an address and "To whom it may concern" from an Electives book kindly lent by Luke, mentioning my inspiration for this particular placement. To my surprise they a) actually received the letter (often, post from England to Malaysia ends up in POSMalaysia workers' pockets), and b) actually replied - positively - and the placement was on! Now came the difficult bit - organising travel, accommodation, immunizations, and indeed people.
Developing in parallel to plans for what the Elective would be focused on, was also the idea to get mum back out to Malaysia to see her close family, the last time having been 4 years ago; and the plan to get Emma out to Malaysia to experience the Far East, not an opportunity most people get in a lifetime! The following section is a brief run-down of the plans we made before venturing 6,500 miles by a Malaysia Airlines Airbus A380.
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| Malaysia Airlines Airbus A380 (Source) |
Itinerary Plan
So after complex arrangements with Thomas Cook, mum, dad, Emma and me all decided on four completely different, yet overlapping, itineraries! Mum, Emma and I would fly out first, and split different ways on arrival at KL international airport. Mum would fly directly to Kota Bharu and be met by her family, staying with her sister (my aunty) Buan, for three weeks. Emma and I would remain in KL for a week and explore the city (the detail remaining unplanned, but with the thoughts of meeting my long-time internet pen-friend Nabila, and as many cousins/relatives in KL I could contact). After KL we planned to fly to Perth, Australia, owing to the absolute novelty of going to Oz for a weekend, and following that, planned a week on a tropical island (Pulau [island] Langkawi [eagle]) before heading to KB for Emma to see the hundreds of family members eager to meet her! Emma would leave after a week in KB, and I would start my 7-week placement. Dad would then fly out to meet us for the remaining 4-weeks of the trip, and the three of us would fly back together in mid-June!
MOST of the itinerary went to plan... But you'll have to read the blog posts for more detail!
