The college.
In this blog, I will be talking about the accommodation here in UPMKB. Before I decided to study here, one of the main information I was searching for on the internet is information related to the accommodation but it was so limited. Not many people had written blogs to share what the accommodation looks like and that's what I'm here to do today.
The accommodation that I got put in is called College Sri Rajang which I am pretty sure if you got into one of the diploma courses, you will be placed here too. First off, there are a few blocks for the girls and a few blocks for the boys. Both are not allowed in the opposite gender’s dorm area obviously. There is a cafeteria near the dorms which I will explain in another blog. So far, there are two types of rooms in the whole block of dorms. It’s either a room with two double-decker beds like mine (I will insert pictures below) or a room with two single beds. Each room is equipped with lockers based on the amount of bed that is available in the room.
They also provide two shoe racks which are quite big and out of my expectations to be honest. There’s 4 rows on each rack and each row can place about 3 pairs of shoes. Table wise, everyone will get their own but if you get situated in a room for 2 persons the table will most likely be bigger than the ones with four beds. (no idea why lol) The size of my table is pitifully small in length and width so I hope and wish you will get the room with single beds and bigger tables. You will understand why I say this when you compare the pictures between my room and my friend’s room. I betul betul envy her HAHA
This is my friend's room. Only two HUMANS are sharing this room but the table size is enough to fit 4 people I would say HAHAH
That is the size of my table! How unfair!
I wouldn't want to imagine the scenario if my room was shared with 4 people. Currently I have 2 roommates, so in total 3 of us are sharing a room and trust me, there is NOT enough space for us. But then again, you'll change rooms every two sems, so it wouldn't be a big of a deal anyways!
Picture on the right is a picture of the locker that we get, so don't bring too much stuff if you're lazy to get them from your luggage all the time HAHAHA. Some lockers will have mirrors in them, some unfortunately no, so you just gotta check yourself when you get there.
Next on, the toilets.
Now don’t get your hopes too high on the conditions of the toilets but maybe it is not as bad as you think HAHA.
FYI, every floor has one public toilet and about 20 dorms. The number of rooms are different on different floors because on the second floor, there is a pantry and tv room. On my floor, which is ground floor (we call it aras 0) there are 20 rooms.
In the toilet, there are 4 toilets and 9 wash rooms. The conditions of the toilets are not good I would say because there’s basically only one toilet which you can do your business in because all the other toilets have problems with the flushing system. But if you can hold it in, there are other toilets around the campus that is confirm flushable LOL.
The only flushable toilet & the only usable squatting toilet.
Don’t worry too much tho! The toilets at other floors work perfectly fine! The seniors staying on those floors are very friendly (seniors stay on upper floors) and will not give you the face if you go and use the toilets upstairs! I do it all the time :P
As simple as it is, only a stationary shower head is provided and that’s about it. You go in the small washroom (where you can’t even fully stretch your hands) and open the tap that gushes out ice cold water, then you can start your dreadful bathing session. For those who are already used to bathing with cold water, kudos to you! If you are like me, someone who has already gotten used to showering with burning hot water, then I suggest that you start using cold water and get used to it if you’re planning to study here, or any other local universities LOL
Daily necessities that you might wanna consider bringing or buying here..
1. Pails for your laundry/toiletries
2. Some hooks so u can hang your towel (I prefer to hook them instead of hanging them across the wall, if you can visualize what I mean)
These are some pictures of the dorm toilet.(Swipe to see the pictures) You can see that one of the washroom is occupied and the towel that is hanged on top of the wall is what I meant in point 2 stated above.
OH, almost forgot, there is a room situated inside the public toilet that has a small washing machine and a spinner that is often out of service but it still comes in handy. The lid of the washing machine is MIA (missing in action) but people still use it without the lid anyways. The spinner, well it is a spinner, so it spins without completely drying your clothes. You’ll have to hang them outside your room after and hope that there’s sunlight. At least it’s free right?
** Update (12/3/2020) The washing machine was removed a few months ago because the management claimed that it was using too much electricity! Sad case indeed.
But!! there is a laundry service provided by the UNI just outside the dorms. I wouldn’t say it’s near, so you’ll have to carry your laundry all the way to the ‘DOBI’ to get them clean. It is a public DOBI, so you’ll have to wait if it is fully occupied.
Well, there is a place where you can manually wash your clothes! In the toilet, there is this very long sink where there’s pipes for you to wash your shirt manually. But, of course, detergent or brushes are not provided.
As I mentioned above, there are pantries and a tv room in every dorm building but I would personally consider them useless HAHAHA. The “pantry” is not as fancy as it sounds and the tv room as well. It's just a simple room with a sink for the pantry whereas the tv room has a tv and a few wooden sofa.
There will be water boiler in every pantry but 4 out of 5 of them are spoilt. The sink is quite dirty in some of the pantries and sometimes you’ll see some cockroaches lingering around…that's a norm because our campus is literally surrounded by greenery so it is only natural to see some cockroaches or even scorpions lying around. especially after the rain
Not much to comment about the tv room, just sometimes you are required to drag yourself up there when there is block meeting. Everyone from your block would have to squeeze in this not big yet not small room to have meetings.
I know there will be people wondering if you can cook in your dorm room and the answer is no (yes). Legally, you are NOT allowed to cook, but ILLEGALLY, people do it all the time. But there is a risk of you getting demerit points if you are caught by the KSR officers. They will conduct spotchecks once in a blue moon and if you are not smart enough to"get rid of the items", then, byebye pots and pans and hi demerit points.
Usually people would buy an electrical cooker that’s small enough to be hidden and big enough for your late night cooking. Water boiler is also not allowed apparently (just bring your own), so don’t expect to have hot water to bancuh your milo or cook your cup Maggie. Unless you find a working water boiler in one of the pantries OR you can always ask someone who has one to pinjam [lend] you. (what i always do hehehe)
There is a Coway machine outside every building (coway pls sponsor me HAHA), but trust me, that thing does not work. When I just came here, the machine was working fine but still sometimes it would malfunction and all kinds of problems would appear. Most of the time, there will be no water left for you unless you wake up at 5 or 6 am to go refill your bottle. Hot water wise, its almost ALWAYS empty. Sometimes the hot water that comes out from the machine is cold water lol. So make sure you test the water before directly pouring ‘hot’ water from the machine into your milo powder etc. You’d risk drinking some yucky room temperature milo early in the morning.
Although the maintenance workers will come once a while to fix the machine but you'll still have to be mentally prepared that it will stop working again. :/
But anyhow, you kena la pandai pandai boil water yourself or get hot water from the kuliah or library! Those Coway/ water dispensers are working perfectly fine. There's also water dispensers upstairs and you can get them there instead! Bear in mind I stay on ground floor so what I'm describing in this blog does not apply to all floors! The toilet wise, yes they look the same on every floor.
All in all, it is quite a fun experience to stay in the dorms. You get to hang out with your friends and spend 24/7 with them. Literally you will be stuck with them..in a good way i guess? HAHAHA I'm lucky enough to have roommates from the same course so we get to rush assignments and go to classes together. Living in the dorms means you can come back and have a nap between classes! Plus, living in the dorms is necessary for all first year students so I guess you will have a chance to experience dorm life yourself!
Trust me, it'll change your life.
Feel free to comment below if you have any further questions!
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