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| KL was a bit of a contrast compared to Vietnam and Cambodia. For a
start, drivers stuck to their lanes and obeyed traffic lights. It is a
very modern and fast growing city with, compared to Sydney, a seemingly higher
concentration of large office blocks and major hotels.
JP picked us up on Sunday afternoon at KL Sentral, where the very efficient train from the airport terminates. He and Alicia have a great apartment with views out over a valley about 20 minutes from down town (traffic dependent), backed by bush and designed so that it feels more like a house. They were terrific hosts, particularly since they were in the middle of kitchen renovations. It was actually quite miraculous that JP was home, given his hectic travel schedule (he left for the Philippines on Monday night). And Alicia was about to start a new job, but had deferred by a day so she could show us round on Monday. Sunday night we headed out to China Town so Flick could indulge in a bit of copy-market shopping followed by a pleasant meal at one of JP and Alicia's local restaurants. On Monday we headed into KLCC, a massive mall at the base of the twin Petronas Towers (which were the world's tallest office buildings for a while until being gazumped by Taipei and soon Dubai). JP (whose office is in the towers) met us for lunch, in the Chinese restaurant of the adjacent Mandarin Oriental Hotel. Alicia ordered all sorts of yummy treats for us including delicacies such as Chicken's Feet. Dave was feeling rather under-dressed in his Vietnam souvenir T-shirt, surrounded by suited business people in a fairly rarified atmosphere.
Next stop was the Menara KL communications tower, where the view from 300m was pretty spectacular. We also checked out the colonial zone, a group of attractive heritage buildings in a fusion of British, Islamic and oriental architectural styles, clustered around a grassy park.
Then it was off to the Mid Valley Megamall (reputed to be Asia's biggest) which features "430 stores laid out over three miles": retail therapy to the max or high blood pressure material depending on your point of view. Still, the prices were very reasonable compared to home. JP met us at the mall and we picked up take away Malaysian food (Roti Chenai etc) for dinner back at the house so JP could finish packing. And the next morning it was our turn to head for the airport, concluding a most excellent adventure.
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