Weekend Jaunt To KL

I was talking to one of my friends a couple of weeks back and mentioned off hand that I wouldn't have minded getting out of the country over the weekend and added tongue-in-cheek that it would be a pleasure to have somebody as pretty and intelligent as her as a travelling companion. To my surprise, she said "Where?"

"KL? Hong Kong?," I played along.

To my astonishment, she said, "I prefer KL".

And so we were on our way....

I must say the trip didn't get off to the most auspicious of starts. For one, I was held up and arrived close to an hour late. And then during the flight we entered a pocket of turbulence which caused the most violent pitching and shaking that I have ever experienced in my years of travel. On hindsight, that was a scary thought, considering that my life jacket had heretofore been dislodged from my seat.



I'm happy to say, however, that things improved somewhat hereafter. We stayed at the Radius International at Bukit Bintang, which is like the closest hotel to like the happening-est pub place in KL. It was close to midnight when we arrived but as usual, the entire stretch was teeming with patrons, including the Western seafood place that we ate at.



I had eaten here almost a year earlier with Jac and we had then both reckoned that the food, in particular the butter fish, was real value for money but my friend didn't really think so. I'll admit what Jac and I had was better, however, as on this occasion, the fried butter fish kept crumbling such that the meat detached from the batter, making savouring the full flavour of the dish difficult.




I was surprised when my travelling companion wanted to visit the Museum of Islamic Art the next day, but oh well, I guess it's always good to broaden one's horizons with, well, knowledge of Islamic Art.

Before that however, we managed to catch some historic landmarks, courtesy of me getting my bearings wrong. There was the old Court house standing stately in front of a large field (was that Merdeka Square?). Notice how it mirrors our old Court house standing in front of the Padang? British influence no doubt.



And the National Mosque...



And what I think was the old train station... I hope we preserve ours too...



But right... The Museum of Islamic Art....



Where my friend spent the greater part of an hour just reading every single word of every single placard describing every single photograph depicting historic Muslim monuments in India. Scary lady.



From historic we went to ultra-modern as we headed to KLCC...



And the Petronas Towers, where we sat down in the fading light...



You know how Leonardo da Vinci tried to paint objects over and over again to see how they looked when exposed to different kinds of light? Well, he didn't have a digital camera, did he? Notice how artistic we are?



The next day, I wanted to show her how well-acquainted I was with the Malaysian capital and so suggested we take a train to Kelana Jaya and then a taxi to go to Subang so as to take a Firefly propeller plane home. I got my bearings right but my price estimation wrong. So taxi it was therefore to Bukit Jalil at the other side of town - a different State (Federal territory as opposed to Selangor) actually - to take a coach. She didn't complain - was touched.

The ride was ok and it got even better when we were upgraded to a VIP coach containing such amenities as movies-on-demand. Cool ride, cool companion, cool trip...