Looks Like Sarawak Is Becoming the Kind of Place We No Longer Have to Leave

Note: Created by ChatGPT

For years, many of us Sarawakians left our home state and moved to Klang Valley because we believed we had to. We left to study, work, seek more opportunities, and eventually build entire lives away from our hometowns.

About 30 years ago, I was one of them. I moved to Kuala Lumpur to study at Universiti Malaya. It was a practical thing to do because I had secured a spot at the most prestigious university in the country. I couldn't give up the opportunity; I had to grab it.

Fast forward to today, I am still here. I have a career, am married, and have children who are growing up knowing West Malaysia as home. I have also completed my master's degree study at Sunway University. Our routines, schools, work, friends and lives are here.

Relocating back to Sarawak is obviously not as straightforward as deciding one morning, "Okay lah, let's go home."

But lately, something has been making me think about whether I could consider building a life back in Sarawak.

Sarawak suddenly feels like it is developing at a breakneck pace.

Lately I have been seeing one development after another coming out of Sarawak. At first, I thought it was just my social media algorithm feeding me more Sarawak content.

Then I started looking deeper into it, and there really is quite a lot happening:

Note: Created by ChatGPT

• The economy is growing. Sarawak's economy reached RM153.5 billion in 2025, while GDP per capita stood at RM73,757, higher than the national figure of RM59,167. Source: Department of Statistics Malaysia, 2026
• Billions in investment are coming in. Sarawak recorded RM10.8 billion in approved investments in the first half of 2026. Source: MIDA, 2026
• Investments and plans are also emerging in renewable energy, hydrogen, digital infrastructure, AI and data centres, including the planned 500MW FutureData Park in Kuching. Source: InvestSarawak, 2026
• Phase One of the Kuching Urban Transportation System (KUTS) covers almost 70km with 28 stations, using hydrogen-powered Autonomous Rapid Transit (ART) vehicles and feeder buses. Source: Sarawak Ministry of Transport, 2026
• A feasibility study for the proposed new Kuching International Airport at Tanjung Embang has been completed. Source: Sarawak Ministry of Transport, 2026
• IKEA is opening its first East Malaysian store in Kuching. Source: IKEA, 2026

Then there is one development that caught my attention more than all the shiny new infrastructure. Maybe this is because I am a parent now.

Free Tertiary Education Scheme in Sarawak

From 2026, Sarawak has allocated RM250 million for its Free Tertiary Education Scheme. The scheme covers 64 undergraduate programmes across four Sarawak-owned institutions: Swinburne University of Technology Sarawak Campus, Curtin University Malaysia, University of Technology Sarawak and i-CATS University College.

For eligible students from lower-income households, there is also a living allowance of up to RM15,000 a year. The programmes are not randomly chosen. They include areas such as STEM, medicine, law, accounting, finance and psychology, with the stated intention of developing talent for Sarawak's future workforce.

There are other initiatives too. The 2026 Sarawak Budget includes RM30.5 million for the Free Laptop Programme, RM36 million for the operation of Yayasan Sarawak International Secondary Schools, and RM8 million for the Graduates Return to Sarawak Initiative, which subsidises flights for Sarawakian students studying in Peninsular Malaysia, Sabah and Labuan.

Wow!

Almost 30 years ago, I was one of the many students leaving Sarawak for tertiary education. If I were 18 today, looking at all these developments, would I still make the same decision?

I genuinely don't know.

And perhaps the more relevant question for me now is, "What does all this mean for my children?"

Here's where the numbers become more complicated.

I don't intend for this blog post to become one of those "Sarawak is booming, everyone let's go home!" pieces.

To put things into perspective, economic growth and shiny infrastructure are only one side of the equation.

Sarawak's unemployment rate was 3.2% in 2025, according to the Department of Statistics Malaysia. Although Sarawak's economy is substantial and growing, its economic structure is very different from Kuala Lumpur's. Services accounted for 39.3% of Sarawak's economy in 2025, compared with 91.7% in Kuala Lumpur.

These numbers matter to me because my professional background is in the service industry: marketing, content and digital work. My professional networks are here. Moving somewhere with a growing economy doesn't automatically mean there will be equivalent senior-level opportunities in my particular field.

There are also questions that GDP figures cannot answer. What are salaries like? What kinds of senior jobs are actually available? What about healthcare and specialist care as we get older? What opportunities would my children have as teenagers and eventually young adults? Would they reach 18 and tell me that they need to leave Sarawak for the same reasons I once did?

Those questions matter much more to me than the number of new buildings going up.

Because moving "home" after 30 years isn't really going home.

I still call Sarawak home, but I have spent more of my adult life in West Malaysia than I ever did living there. The Sarawak I remember from my childhood is inevitably imprinted somewhere in my memory, while the actual Sarawak has continued changing without me.

So relocating wouldn't really mean returning to my old life. It would mean building another one.

And this time, I couldn't make the decision only for myself. I have my family, career, friends, routines, and an entire ecosystem that I have built over nearly three decades.

Which is also why I am definitely not packing boxes now. Lol.

But I guess I can start preparing my children for the free education in Sarawak.

Maybe that's where this begins. Not with a plan to move home, but with the realisation that Sarawak has changed enough for me to start thinking about it.

Disclaimer: The views, reflections and opinions expressed in this post are entirely my own. This blog post and its accompanying images were co-created with ChatGPT, which I used as a research, writing and creative tool. All final editorial decisions, interpretations and opinions are mine.

My Kids' Paediatric Endocrinologist Has Put His Foot Down About Sleeping Early

During a recent dietitian appointment for my youngest kiddo, while we were discussing food, calories and how to help him gain weight, the dietitian reminded us that sleep is also important for growth.

This means I need to think about more than just feeding my child more. I also need to make sure he sleeps earlier and has adequate hours of sleep, just like what his dietitian mentioned, and as reaffirmed by his paediatric endocrinologist, Prof. Dr Yazid at UMSC.

So naturally, this sent me down another research rabbit hole, because I wanted to understand why sleep was being treated as such an important part of his growth plan. Okay, I don't know how this happened, but I seem to have conveniently forgotten that kids grow during their sleep.

What does sleep actually have to do with children's growth?

As it turns out, quite a lot.

Growth hormone (GH) plays an important role in childhood growth, and its secretion is closely associated with sleep. Research has found that significant GH release occurs around the first period of slow-wave, or deep, sleep, particularly during the earlier part of the sleep period.

Source: Instagram

Research suggests that adequate, good-quality and regular sleep is important for children's health and development, and sleep is closely connected to the normal secretion of growth hormone. Children who get enough sleep at the correct timing tend to be able to grow taller.

For children aged 6 to 12, the American Academy of Sleep Medicine recommends between 9 and 12 hours of sleep per 24 hours, while teenagers aged 13 to 18 should generally get between 8 and 10 hours.

Guess what the timing is? 

Children should already be asleep no later than 10pm, preferably by 9pm.

Seriously?

But why wasn't this emphasised more?

Look, my kids have seen paediatricians throughout their childhood for general checkups, vaccinations, nutrition and growth charts, along with all the other things that parents normally discuss with their children's doctors.

Of course, we've also been told that children need enough sleep. I don't think there is a parent alive who doesn't know that children are supposed to sleep early.

But I now realise that there is a significant difference between being told, "Make sure he gets enough sleep," and being told, "Sleep needs to be part of how we manage his growth."

Those two statements would have landed very differently with me as a parent.

It was only when we started seeing a paediatric endocrinologist that I began to understand how seriously I should be treating sleep in the context of growth. Now that the dietitian has reinforced the same message, I find myself wondering why I didn't understand its importance much earlier.

How I wish somebody had made the connection much more explicit. If someone had told me years ago that when we assess a child's growth, we should be looking at nutrition, sleep and the overall growth pattern together, I would have treated bedtime very differently.

Anyway, turning bedtime into another reason to beat myself up isn't going to help anyone. What I can do is take what we know now and change what happens from here.

So Operation 'Sleep Earlier' Begins!

I'm realistic enough to know that announcing, "From tonight onwards, everybody goes to bed before 10pm!" is probably the fastest way to make the whole exercise fail.

Our bedtime has gradually crept later over the years, so I'm treating this as something we need to reset rather than something I can change overnight.

1. Move bedtime earlier gradually.

Instead of suddenly trying to shift bedtime by an hour, we can move it earlier in smaller increments. Even bringing bedtime forward by 15 minutes every few nights gives their bodies and our household routine some time to adjust.

The goal isn't to achieve the perfect bedtime immediately. It's to gradually make an earlier bedtime feel normal.

2. Work backwards from wake-up time.

This has been one of the more useful ways for me to think about it.

Instead of asking why my children need to sleep so ridiculously early, I can start with the time they need to wake up for school and work backwards according to how much sleep they need for their age.

Once I do the maths, bedtime becomes somehow less negotiable.

3. Start the bedtime routine well before bedtime.

I've also realised that saying "bedtime is 9pm" cannot mean that we start preparing for bed at 9pm.

BUT there is coming home from tuition or football, showering, packing school bags, finding things and, inevitably, remembering something important right before bedtime.

If I want them asleep earlier, the entire household needs to start slowing down earlier.

4. Screens need a bedtime too.

This is probably going to be one of the harder changes because "five more minutes" on a phone has a remarkable ability to become half an hour.

Rather than focusing only on what time the children get into bed, I think we need a clearer time when screens stop too. That gives them some time to wind down before they're expected to fall asleep.

5. Aim for consistency rather than perfection.

There will inevitably be late dinners, homework, football, family activities and weekends when everything goes completely off schedule.

I'm not trying to run a military camp where everybody must be unconscious at exactly 9.37 pm.

What I want is for an earlier bedtime to become our normal routine rather than something we attempt only when there is school the next morning.

Parenthood is not for the faint-hearted.

The more I learn about children's growth, the more I realise that there isn't one magic food, supplement or habit that determines how tall a child eventually becomes. Genetics matter, nutrition matters, overall health matters, hormones matter, and sleep is another part of that complicated picture.

There are many things about their growth that I cannot control, and perhaps that's the part of motherhood that makes me the most anxious. I can do all the right things and still have to accept that I cannot personally command their bodies to grow.

What I can do is make use of the information we have now.

I can work on his nutrition. I can add the extra oil. I can make his snacks more substantial. I can keep taking him to his appointments and keep monitoring his progress.

And I guess I can also occasionally be that mother who starts shouting across the house every night, "GO TO SLEEP! YOU NEED TO GROW!"

Haha.

Wish me all the best!

Oral Health Is Part of My Midlife Maintenance Now

By now, I have accepted that perimenopause has opinions about almost every part of my body.

Sleep? Affected.

Mood? Definitely affected.

Metabolism? Don't get me started.

Skin, hair, brain, joints? Apparently everybody gets a turn.

And now, my mouth has joined the conversation. Omg.

A Visit to the Dentist A Few Months Ago

A few months ago, I had an episode that sent me to the dentist. I blogged about it here: Apparently You Can Floss Religiously and STILL End Up at the Dentist 😭

Because of that episode, I discovered something I hadn't really thought about before: oral health can change during perimenopause and menopause.

Research has documented oral-health concerns during perimenopause and menopause, including dry mouth, gum and periodontal problems, oral discomfort and changes in the tissues of the mouth.

Hormonal changes, particularly changes in oestrogen, are thought to play a role, although of course not every dental problem in your 40s can be simply blamed on perimenopause.

This realisation has led me down the rabbit hole of oral probiotics, interdental brushes and toothpaste ingredients.

Welcome to midlife. Hehe.

The Product I Didn't Even Know Existed: Oral Probiotics

During that dental visit, I was given the usual treatment, but my dentist also recommended that I take BioGaia Prodentis for a month.

My first reaction was essentially: Har? There are probiotics for your mouth? Until then, probiotics lived firmly in the yoghurt-and-gut-health section of my brain.

BioGaia Prodentis contains the active strains of Limosilactobacillus reuteri Prodentis (a blend of L. reuteri DSM 17938 and L. reuteri ATCC PTA 5289).

Unlike swallowing a probiotic capsule, it comes as a lozenge that dissolves slowly in the mouth, so the bacteria are delivered directly into the oral cavity. BioGaia specifically developed the combination for oral health and gum support.

I have been taking BioGaia Prodentis for the past four months. And so far, my gums have been behaving themselves. I no longer have the bleeding or soreness I used to notice.

At the same time, I also started using an interdental brush properly.

I Changed My Toothpaste Too

As though oral probiotics weren't already enough of a departure from my old routine, about a month ago I switched toothpaste and started using Boostoral Restore+ n-HA Prebiotics Whitening Toothpaste.

Previously, toothpaste was… toothpaste. Now I read ingredient lists. Haha.

Boostoral caught my attention because its formulation is built around two things I hadn't previously looked for in toothpaste: nano-hydroxyapatite and oral prebiotics. The toothpaste also contains hydrated silica, while other ingredients in the range include things such as xylitol and tea tree extract.

Nano-hydroxyapatite, or n-HA, was particularly interesting. Hydroxyapatite is a mineral that naturally makes up much of tooth enamel. Boostoral uses a nano-sized form designed to interact more closely with the tooth surface and support remineralisation and the formation of a protective mineral layer.

Then there are the oral prebiotics, which are there to support the environment in which beneficial oral bacteria live.

So in a sense, I have somehow arrived at this situation:

Prodentis = probiotics

Boostoral = prebiotics

I have gone from buying whatever toothpaste seemed reasonable to apparently managing an ecosystem inside my mouth. Midlife is wild. Hahaha.

There is another reason Boostoral caught my attention that has absolutely nothing to do with microbiomes.

The branding is ridiculously eye-catching. Their packaging doesn't look like the traditional toothpaste packaging I've been staring at in supermarkets for decades. It looks almost like skincare.

And then there are the flavours. I started with Pink Guava, which sounds much more like something I should be drinking at a beach resort than brushing my teeth with. I've since bought Watermelon and Magic Mint. The one I actually wanted next, Lemonade Burst, is currently out of stock.

Looks like I've also started collecting toothpaste flavours now. I don't know when this became my life either. LOL.

And perhaps that matters more than it sounds. The best oral-care routine is still the one you actually keep doing.

Disclaimer: This is simply my personal experience with the products mentioned, not medical or dental advice. My oral-health routine also changed in several ways at the same time, so I can't attribute the improvements I've noticed to any single product. If you have persistent bleeding, swelling, pain or other changes in your gums or mouth, see a dentist rather than attempting to probiotic your way out of it. 😆

September Is Perimenopause Awareness Month

What Exactly Is Perimenopause?

If there's one thing I've realised from learning more about this stage of life, it's this: many women enter perimenopause without really knowing what to expect.

We know that menopause is when menstruation stops. This is the simplest explanation.

But perimenopause, the transition phase before menopause, can last up to 8 to 10 years before menopause actually occurs.

During perimenopause, which Dr Mary Claire Haver describes as the Zone of Chaos, hormones such as estrogen, progesterone and testosterone become increasingly unpredictable, and the effects can show up in ways that don't immediately seem hormonal at all: brain fog, anxiety, poor sleep, mood changes, joint aches, palpitations, changes in body composition and many more.

Which is why, so many women in their 40s seem to describe similar experiences:

"Maybe I'm just stressed."

"Maybe I'm just getting old already lah."

"Why don't I feel like myself anymore?"

And then you finally start connecting the dots.

Discovering the Perimenopause Rollercoaster

My Blog Posts

I thought estrogen was just a reproductive hormone. Here's what I learnt about estrogen's role in brain fog, mood, sleep and other perimenopause changes.

Why do anxiety, irritability, and poor sleep feel different in perimenopause? Here's what I learnt about progesterone and feeling less steady in midlife.

Feeling flat, less motivated or low in energy? Here's what I learnt about testosterone in women and how it may affect drive, strength, and midlife.

Aha. No wonder lah!

Perimenopause Deserves More Conversations

Awareness matters because recognising that these changes could be related to perimenopause gives us more context. It helps us ask better questions, seek appropriate support and have more informed conversations about what is happening to our bodies.

If you're wondering whether some of the changes you’ve been experiencing could be related to perimenopause, you can also reach out to Menopause Asia.

It is a digital platform that connects women with independently licensed doctors, reliable information and practical midlife health resources, with the aim of making menopause support easier to access and navigate. Menopause Asia itself is not a healthcare provider; medical consultations are provided independently by licensed healthcare professionals.

Sometimes, knowing what might be happening is already a very useful first step.

So this September, maybe tell another woman what you've learnt too.

Because the more openly we talk about perimenopause, the less likely someone else is to spend years thinking: "What on earth is wrong with me?"

❤️ Share this with a woman who might need her own Aha, No Wonder Lah moment.