A Peranakan Type Semi Wooden Villa

 I promised a description of living accommodations so here goes:

First off, our house is a Peranakan type semi wooden villa.  I had no idea when we booked the house what that meant.  It is just very large, so I figured we had only part of it, maybe with caretakers in the bottom apartment.  But no - we have the whole house.  There are beds for 10 people, which in some countries means that there is a bedroom with a couple of beds and 5 mattresses on the floor in another larger room!  But we have 4 bedrooms and 4 1/2 bathrooms.  And yet it costs less than $100 USD per night.  

Peranakan means "half caste" in Malay - this is what the Peranakans are.  They are descendants of Chinese immigrants who came to this area of Asia around the 16th century.  They intermarried with the Malay in this area and kept their Chinese culture while mixing it up with the Malaysian culture.  They still are know by this name today.  They have their own special cuisine as well.

So you ask what is a Peranakan type semi wooden villa?  I will describe it for you. These houses are built for maximum airflow.  There are windows everywhere, however there are no screens.  All doors have "screen doors" or I should say heavy metal doors with decorative designs with lots of spaces to let air in and out. The windows have the same metal designs.  You can leave the solid wood doors open and lock the metal doors.  A lot of the doors and windows leave gaps above and below.  In one of the kitchens an entire wall is slotted open between beams of wood and can't be closed.  Even the stairs are cut for airflow.  The foyer area of the house is open all the way to the top floor.  All of these features help keep the house cool.  See other features below.

                                     

Here is a photo of our house from the street.  The house is located in a upscale neighborhood of similar homes.  It is on a large lot stretching between two major roads.  The house is gated.  You have plenty of parking under the house.  There a couple of "rooms" at that level - but they are locked.  The clothes washing machine is located outside under one of the many sets of stairs.  Next to it is the water storage tank.

                                    

                                    

We are on a hill and there are many levels in the yard.  There is a large water feature at the back of the house.  There are several fruit trees.  The only one we can see that is fruiting is the Durian tree.  We will not be eating any of these.  Look it up if you want to know why!  

                                    

                                               Tree roots in the front yard in the upper area.

                                    

                   The lower level of the back yard.  It includes several fruiting trees.

                                                 

                                                  Including a  Durian tree which is fruiting.

                                       

The area behind fence way at the end of the property (above 2 photos) drops down about 15' to a busy road.

                                                

             The water feature at the back of the house.  The pool is on the level above it.

Steps lead up to the entrance on the second level of the house.  I will have to count all the stair cases outside.  They are coming and going from so many levels.

                                               

                                                

One of the main features of the house is that all windows, doors and walkways around the house are covered with wooden awnings.  Because it is so hot here and rainy, in order to cool the house by keeping doors and windows open you need to protect the indoors from the elements.  

                                      

The front door.  To the right of the wall is a gate with steps leading down to the pool.

                                      

This is the back of the house.  The pool is on the 2nd level.  Underneath is parking and storage.  On the bottom left is the staircase leading down to ground level and the front of the house.

I guess the lion king was popular when they put in the pool.

Another view showing the different levels of the house.

As you enter the house you step into a large tiled foyer.  There is a large stairway of the same white tile leading up to the lounge on the right. There are many choochkies in the wall niche.  

                                       

                                                

 If you turn to the left you enter a large dining area with a half bath hiding behind that door.  There is a pass-through window right in the middle of the picture.

                                    

                                    

                                        The door on the right leads into the "dry kitchen".

                                               

                     There is a door leading to a balcony and stairs leading down to the pool.

                                         

This kitchen has 2 burner electric stove, a sink and a microwave. There is door between the "dry kitchen" leading to the "wet kitchen".  

                                          

                                  The "wet kitchen" has a gas stove top, a sink and a refrigerator.  

As near as I can figure out, the difference between the two is as follows.  The first kitchen is smaller.  It is used for lighter cooking.  The next kitchen (the wet kitchen) is larger.  It has more cabinets and storage spaces.  This area is for heavy cooking.  You are supposed to store your groceries here.  One wall has no glass, but is made of of heavy beams about 3 inches apart.  I think it is for air flow - so smells dissipate and steam is able to escape. 

Now lets go back to the foyer and go up the steps.  Not just the white tile I showed you before.  But there are two sets of steps right next to each other.  

This is a very odd feature of the house.  We speculate that perhaps the area to the right was added on later.  At the top of the dark wood steps you turn left and continue up another set of steps to the next level. 

This area is the lounge and has many wood architectural features.  Note what looks like doors behind the sofa.  They are not doors.  The wood above that is purely decoration.

                                                     More wooden architectural features.

The dark wood steps from the lounge lead up to this area.  A nice seating area with a tv and to the left a large desk.

                                          The master suite is behind the wall of the unit above.  

A very noticeable feature of the master bedroom is this very large stained glass window.  The sofa in front of it is facing a TV.

The baster bed with netting.  To the left and behind the bed are huge desk areas.

The next room is the dressing area.

The master bath is strangely shaped.  

The toilet and bidet are down this long corridor, facing a wall.  If you were a tall person, I'm not sure there is enough room for you to sit down on the toilet.  I have no idea what the shallow area on the right is for.  There is a mop and other cleaning supplies in it now.

If you look up from the communal area next to the master suite you can see up to the top level. Note the angled open areas in each step below.  This is to allow for airflow.  

                             At the top of the steps are 4 (or maybe 5) bedrooms - one door is locked.   I am on that floor.

My bathroom

Another feature of this house is the 1 1/2" step between different kinds of flooring.  Here is an example - between the dark brown wood bedroom floor and the tile in the bathroom. 

                                               The bedroom - most rooms have a desk area.

There is a weird trap door on the floor right next to my bed.  I have not opened it as I am afraid of what might jump out at me.

If you look on the left side of my bedroom wall you will see what looks like a storage unit.  It is not - it is a large set of doors that can open up to this area right next to it.  The area is empty except for that strange thing on the left.  It looks like a small bucking bronco exercise unit.

Looking down.

                                                  The hall way to the other bedrooms.

This room is interesting.  On the door is what looks like a native American dream catcher.  But I have not seen one like this before.

And then, inside we have these swinging saloon type doors to the bathroom!

Miscellaneous:

A bank of light switches and a remote for the cooler.

                                                        Outlets - note the on-off switch.

We very quickly discovered  that the kitchens are equipped for Asian cooking not Western.   So we have found things like a  rice cooker and steaming pots   There are no blenders or Cuisinart's.  The silverware drawer has mostly forks.  There are no butter knives.  There are a large number of small rounded plastic spoons for soup.  There is a drawer full of chopsticks.  There is a large round cutting board.  There is a wok and tools to use with it.  We went out and bought 2 butter knives so we can butter our toast with something other than a sharp knife.

Because of my fall in Sicily I have become very leery of steps that are not the normal depth.  So the small steps between rooms has been disconcerting causing me to take all steps and transitions between rooms very cautiously.  There are a lot of stairways on the outside of the house and they are not consistent.  It feels strange to walk up steps that are 8" high versus the 7" high steps I am used to.  But there also steps that are only 5" high that I don't have as much of a problem with.  Curious!

Fun Fact:  The manager, Robert, told us to stand on the road in front of the house when ordering Grab (rideshare company because the locator in the App often mistook the road to the back of the house to be the location for pickup or delivery. 

                                                

So was this place an extravagance for us?  Yes it was, but it is not entirely our fault.  We had high hopes that youngest daughter and family would be able to come for a while.  We had slim hope that Lisa and family now living in Shanghai would be able to get out of China for a few weeks.  But, instead, China "opened up" and things got worse in China.  Alexis and Rob had been excited and were thinking Amsterdam travel options on getting to Malaysia, only to find out later that Denmark travel options are very poor and extremely expensive.  Our cancelation policy with this house owner gave us 48 hours from reservation to cancel.  The timing didn't work out for us.  Also, when we were planning our trip to southeast Asia most all of the housing options had the same cancelation policy.  

According to the house manager, we are the first Americans to stay in this house.  We got the feeling that it had not been rented out in a while.  So we are both having a new housing experience.