Leaving London
Not such a bad day on leaving London.
With an afternoon flight, we had an easy and relaxed start to the day, catching the X26 bus to Heathrow terminal 4 around 10:30 am. the only hard part was the weight of luggage due to the books and other things that we are taking to give to orphanages & schools in Cambodia & Laos.
First leg of the Ethihad flight was uneventful apart from the in-flight entertainment being broken. The girls behaved really well considering the 9 hrs or so flight. Abu Dhabi airport stopover for only 1.5 hrs was not bad. Next leg of the flight dragged a bit, I couldn't sleep, although Eunmi scored a row of seats to stretch out and catch 3 hours or so sleep, and the girls conveniently dropped off an hour or so before arriving at KL, so ended up carrying Ruby for a while.
Kuala Lumpur 5th April
Found our way out to the bus stop for the hour or so ride to KLC Sentral sation, passing miles of oil palm plantation that I'd seen from the plane coming in.The heavens opened on the way as a typical tropical squall blew through. All the bikers taking refuge under the motorway bridges.
Arrived at KL Sentral station and what felt like close to 40 degree heat and trauersed some stairs with all the heavy luggage only to find it was bad info so back down and about 10 min's sweltering walk to the mono-rail station. The little two car monorail wound its way through suburban and then central city areas punctuated by huge very modern high rise typical of Asian cities, much more interesting than the utilitarian buildings of the west. Very soon we got off at Bikat Bintang and it didn't take long to find the Paradiso guest house we'd booked. At the entrance a small group of 'masseuses' half heartedly touting for business which as based on the 1st floor with the Paradiso on the 2nd.
Paradiso turned out to be nice, clean and friendly, apart from having no windows our room was pretty good, with A/C which was a must.
After a bit of rest and a wash we went out for a bit of a wander round, ending up in a little street market where we had a bite to eat, not sure what it was, perhaps deep fried tofu with satay, not bad. Ruby had a baby octopus. We also shared a fresh coconut juice and some Chinese style barbequed pork slices, one of my favourites! After stocking up on water and cigs the jet-lag was kicking in so back to the Paradiso for a fairly quiet and early night.
We did chat a bit with a guy working there who had actually lived not far from our place in London for a while. And a large 'Aussie lady who had been living in Jakarta for a couple of years working for a news daily paper.
April 6th.
Woke up about 8 but dozed a bit, still a bit lagged out. Dragged myself up to the rooftop around 9 for a cig and met a nice mixed couple from Darwin. The Petronas Tower loomed garishly above the surrounding high rise not far away, emphasising the contrasting street scene below where a little eatery shared the street with cars & motorbikes.They were still open at 3 am the next morning.
Eunmi wanted to go out Ketam(crab) Island to try some chili crab that was famous on the Korean blogs. It involved about an hour bus ride and a short boat trip which wouldn't be too bad, but in the end both girls slept to noon before we had to wake them, so we ust went to the 'Pavillion' nearby where we'd been told there was a good food court, which there was, and quite cheap at around 7.5 ringgit each(around £1.50). Good people watching place too. KL seems to be very cosmopolitan mixture of Malay, Chinese, Indian and a sprinkling a various European tourists, and a few African looking people. The Muslim influence is quite obvious with many woman wearing hijab.
After eating we walked around to the Petrona Towers about 10 minutes away. They are enormous building but didn't feel that awe inspiring for some reason.
We escaped the heat into the A/C luxury of the Towers and found a photo shop to get some visa photos of the girls. Eunmi couldn't help buying a nice camera cover as well.
On the way out to the metro station the girls amused themselves and others on these funny massage/exercise chairs in a shop.
Caught the metro to the Central Market about 4 stop away. At first we missed the market and went through another street market full of fake watches, and handbags, etc,. and bought a new pair of crocs for Ruby, pink of course. We tried some sandal which was like a yogurt drink with some sort jelly like stuff in it which was nice, but they tried to overcharge a bit. Eunmi sorted them out! Found the central market which was a stand alone building on a palm lined street. It had everything in there, some really nice stuff. Bought sunglasses for the kids and Eunmi almost bought a lovely embroidered coat but backed off. We had to buy travel alarm so found on that included a thermometer for 80 ringgit. Had a nice meal in the food hall there then took the easy route taxi ride back to the hotel.
That evening Eunmi felt like some beer so I wondered down the market and bought this Belgian beer, Bison -12.2%. Big mistake, I got absolutely bladdered, to the point of throwing up!
Before I got to that stage though, I spent some time talking to the Aussie woman again. The kids were there too, watching TV, but yabbering away to the Aussie woman as well.
Somehow the conversation turned to the exercise chairs the girls had played on in the Petronas Towers shop, and they were telling this poor fat woman she should get one si she could lose weight! And then Ellie asks her why she had such big muscles(fat) on her arms. Cringe! Luckily she was pretty good about it.Beyond that my memory of the evening is patchy at best. Vague recollections of joining a group on the rooftop who were also drinking. One of the guys there was actually from Nelson. I remember wondering where Eunmi and the kids at some point, and it turns out Eunmi had taken them down to KFC in her also rather inebriated state.
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