{"id":39399,"date":"2025-11-25T01:13:37","date_gmt":"2025-11-25T01:13:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/usa\/i-never-imagined-retiring-abroad-life-on-a-southeast-asian-island-feels-like-a-permanent-holiday\/"},"modified":"2025-11-25T01:13:37","modified_gmt":"2025-11-25T01:13:37","slug":"i-never-imagined-retiring-abroad-life-on-a-southeast-asian-island-feels-like-a-permanent-holiday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/usa\/i-never-imagined-retiring-abroad-life-on-a-southeast-asian-island-feels-like-a-permanent-holiday\/","title":{"rendered":"I never imagined retiring abroad. Life on a Southeast Asian island feels like a permanent holiday."},"content":{"rendered":"<figure><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i.insider.com\/6920129fe1a9cbb014deb047?format=jpeg\" alt=\"A woman leaning against a stone railing in Penang, Malaysia.\"\/><figcaption>Lisa Williams moved from Australia to Penang, Malaysia, when she retired.<\/p>\n<p>Thinnesh Kumar for Business Insider.<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<ul>\n<li>Lisa Williams lived in Penang, Malaysia, in the &#039;60s, late &#039;80s, and early &#039;90s.<\/li>\n<li>When retiring, her affinity for the country and the availability of visa options made returning an easy choice.<\/li>\n<li>Now 65, she says Penang&#039;s food, warmth, and community make it a great place to live.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><em>This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Lisa Williams, a 65-year-old Australian retiree living in Penang, Malaysia. It has been edited for length and clarity.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>I first came to Penang, Malaysia, in 1968, when I was 8. My father was in the Australian Air Force and was stationed at the Butterworth base on the mainland for three years. My family loved it.<\/p>\n<p>For many in the Air Force, it was considered a dream posting. The food, the warmth of the people, and the blend of cultures made it unlike anywhere else.<\/p>\n<figure><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i.insider.com\/6916a5fee1a9cbb014de32fb?format=jpeg\" alt=\"An old image of a family in the &#039;60s in Penang, Malaysia.\"\/><figcaption>She spent three years living in Penang, Malaysia, as a child.<\/p>\n<p>Lisa Williams.<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>When I graduated, I followed in my father&#039;s footsteps and joined the Air Force. I later married a serviceman, and together, we ended up being posted to Penang twice, in the &#039;80s and early &#039;90s.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Retiring in Penang<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Business Insider visited Malaysia to meet some of the people who&#039;ve been drawn to Penang, one of Southeast Asia&#039;s most sought-after places to retire. Read more in our series:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>An American couple sold their house in California and retired in Malaysia. They love &#039;not owning anything.&#039;<\/li>\n<li>She&#039;d dreamed of retiring in Malaysia for years. At 58, she packed up her life in New Zealand and went for it.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>By then, Malaysia was well and truly in my heart. I had plenty of local friends and knew the place like the back of my hand. I eventually left the Air Force and moved back to Australia.<\/p>\n<h2>Retiring, and then un-retiring from a job<\/h2>\n<p>In my last job, I was a training coordinator at a company in Western Australia that laid underground power cables.<\/p>\n<p>I&#039;d never really imagined retiring abroad. But when I started thinking about retirement, it was a natural step for me to consider Malaysia. I had such strong ties to the place, and with the Malaysia My Second Home visa available, I thought, why not apply and see what happens?<\/p>\n<p>It helped that my second \u2014 and now current \u2014 husband fell in love with Penang when I brought him here for a holiday in 2016. We were both open to the idea of retiring here.<\/p>\n<figure><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i.insider.com\/69200eb8e1a9cbb014deb02e?format=jpeg\" alt=\"A couple walking along a park on the beach in Penang, Malaysia,\"\/><figcaption>Her husband hasn&#039;t retired yet, but comes over often to visit her.<\/p>\n<p>Thinnesh Kumar for Business Insider.<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>We applied for and were granted the visa in 2018. I retired from my job in August 2019 and came to Penang to set things up for our eventual move. In early 2020, I went back to Australia for a wedding, and that&#039;s when the pandemic hit.<\/p>\n<p>Since my husband was still working, we decided that I would stay in Australia and see how things unfolded. However, as the situation took longer to recover than we had expected, I ended up returning to the job I had retired from.<\/p>\n<p>I stayed there for over two years before retiring again in January 2023, this time for good. I&#039;ve been living in Penang since then. My husband hasn&#039;t retired yet, but he flies over from Perth, Australia<em>,<\/em> regularly to visit.<\/p>\n<h2>Daily life in Penang<\/h2>\n<p>Moving here for retirement feels just like coming on a permanent holiday. You can get nearly everything here, even Vegemite.<\/p>\n<p>My daily routine changes depending on the day of the week. Since there&#039;s a big expat community here, there&#039;s always something happening.<\/p>\n<p>On Monday mornings, there&#039;s a coffee group that meets at Pulau Tikus, a neighborhood in George Town. Some days, I play mahjong, and other times, I teach fellow expats how to play.<\/p>\n<p>Wednesday afternoons are for playing Canasta, a card game, at a coffee shop, and by Friday morning, there&#039;s another coffee meetup to round out the week. Once a month, usually on a Thursday, I play mixed darts at a local bar.<\/p>\n<figure><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i.insider.com\/69200f6589026fbb4d0e209e?format=jpeg\" alt=\"A woman holding up a cup of coffee in Penang, Malaysia.\"\/><figcaption>There&#039;s a large expat community in Penang, Malaysia, so her social calendar is always full.<\/p>\n<p>Thinnesh Kumar for Business Insider.<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>I&#039;ve also started organizing a few meetups of my own. Every Sunday, a group of us goes out for dim sum, trying out different spots around Penang each time. My next plan is to start a high-tea club.<\/p>\n<p>My friends and I have started knitting blankets for hospitals and hospices, and we also volunteer with local charities on various fundraising initiatives.<\/p>\n<p>The best thing about Penang is the food and the people.<\/p>\n<p>I post a lot of food photos on Facebook, and people ask, do you ever cook at home? And I say, why would I? I can go two minutes down the road, and have roti canai for breakfast, congee for lunch, and Thai food for dinner.<\/p>\n<p>Every Tuesday, I go to a night market with afriend, and we&#039;ve been trying all the different food stalls available.<\/p>\n<figure><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i.insider.com\/69201049abd5e944effb360c?format=jpeg\" alt=\"A woman leaning against a stone railing along the coast in Penang, Malaysia.\"\/><figcaption>She says she sees herself staying in Penang for as long as she can.<\/p>\n<p>Thinnesh Kumar for Business Insider.<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>My budget is about 3,000 Malaysian ringgit a month, or about $725. That&#039;s for going out, buying shoes, and anything else I want to do, like lunches, dinners, and all the little extras. I get by comfortably on that.<\/p>\n<p>My dad is 88 and lives in Brisbane. My daughters, who are 27 and 34, have their own lives too. It really depends on what happens with them, but for now, I see myself staying in Penang for the long term \u2014 as long as I&#039;m able to renew my visa and nothing unexpected happens.<\/p>\n<p><em>Do you have a story to share about relocating to a new city? Contact this reporter at <\/em><em>agoh@businessinsider.com<\/em><em>.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Read the original article on Business Insider<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Lisa Williams moved from Australia to Penang, Malaysia, when she retired. Thinnesh Kumar for Business Insider. Lisa Williams lived in Penang, Malaysia, in the &#039;60s, late &#039;80s, and early &#039;90s. When retiring, her affinity for the country and the availability of visa options made returning an easy choice. Now 65, she says Penang&#039;s food, warmth, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":39400,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-39399","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-usa"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39399","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39399"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39399\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39400"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39399"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39399"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39399"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}