Third Day in Kuala Lumpur

We started our day with a return trip to Central Market to complain about Christina's new watch that had stopped after 6 hours. Before we took off for the market we decided to book a City Tour for the afternoon. At the travel desk we met 3 more Swedes and they were also going on the same trip. Christina's watch got a new battery and is still working.

After the market we went to the Italian coffe shop for a bite to eat before our sight seeing trip. We were picked up at the hotel and it was only us 5 Swedes on the tour, which was great. First stop was at the Royal Palace. It turns out that they have 9 "kings" in Malaysia and they take turns every 5 years to be king!

Next stop was at Thean Hou Chinese Temple. Ninni and I had our fortunes told. Not very exciting, but the temple was nice. It was raining quite hard on and off so if it was raining we didn't stop. After the temple we went to a place where they showed us how they make hand painted batik. That is one of the specialties of Malaysia. After the batik place we were taken to a pewter factory - Royal Selangor which was founded in 1885 and is the world's largest pewter factory. They export to 20 different countries and much of the work is done by hand. Our final stop was at the National Monument, which is there to honor all the soldiers that have died in the wars.

After the sight seeing we went back to the hotel for a little rest and then we went to a steakhouse for dinner, followed by coffee and cake at Starbucks. Oh, between the Central Market and sight seeing we had time for a little shopping (shoes).I am eating far too much!

Second Day in Kuala Lumpur



Lunch



Today we were planning to shop. We had planned to go to China Town and got a taxi from the hotel. However, the driver convinced us to first go to a leather factory outlet store for handbags - he waited for us while we browsed the store. We didn't like any of the bags so now we were heading to a batik place and other Malaysian crafts. Even this place was  bust! We didn't buy anything there either. Our driver had now deserted us and we were stranded at nowhere and had to walk for a while to get to a bigger street and get another taxi. Now we were were heading for Central Market. This was mostly an indoor market with gizillions of little stores offering an awful lot of stuff. We had lunch here and the only purchase was a watch that Ninni bought. However, it has already stalled so we will go back tomorrow and complain.

After all this shopping, which didn't result in much, we headed for our daily fix of Starbucks accompanied  by Chocolate Tuxedo cake which was (is) delicious! After Starbucks we headed back to the hotel to rest and we had planned to tackle China Town in the evening. That did not happen and instead we went to a Mexican restaurant for Quesadillas and beer (yes, more beer for me too!). China Town will have to wait until tomorrow!

First Day in Kuala Lumpur

We had a slow start in the morning, but the sun was shining and it was very hot. We took a walk in the neighborhood and discovered that there are lots of shops and restaurants practically just around the corner from the hotel. We stopped at an Italian cafe and had freshly squeezed orange/carrot juice, iced latte and lovely tosted whole wheat panini bread with Camembert cheese. After our brunch we went to a supermarket and bought eatables and drinks to have at the hotel room.

For the afternoon we had booked a KL Park & Garden Tour. Lake Garden is the most popular park in Kuala Lumpur. It is built around two lakes on 92 hectares and consists of Orchid Garden, Hibiscus Garden, Butterfly Park and Bird Park. The bird park houses over 5000 birds where 90% are local and 10% from overseas. After the birds we were suposed to visit the Orchid and Hibiscus Garden, but quite a thunderstorm with lightning and thunder as well as rain, made us skip that part and instead went to the Butterfly Garden. We didn't see that many flying butterflies but there were some that looked exactly like dried leaves. They did have a lot of beautiful butterflies that were dead and mounted.

After resting for a while we went out for dinner to a German restaurant and had sausages with potato salad and rösti. I even had a beer :-)

Hong Kong airport

Finally arrived in Hong Kong after 14 hours in the air. Many hours, lots of food and four movies! Drinks and nuts to start, followed by a salad (I could have had caviar or salmon, but you know me - much too exotic for my palate.) The salad had fake crab meat in it so I passed on that part. For the main course I picked filet mignon and dessert ice-cream with warm chocolate sauce! The movies I picked were "The Social Network", "The Town", "Black Swan" and "Burlesque". I enjoyed all of them. The first two movies were shot in and around Boston, which of course always is fun to see and the Social Network also had a scene from the Henley Regatta and the Leander Club in Henley-on-Thames, England close to where my sister lives and where my niece got married last year. I did manage to sleep a little and since leaving Boston I have have almost read a whole book - The Keepsake by Tess Gerritsen. That is a murder mystery that is also taking place in Boston and at a museum that possibly have the Museum of Fine Art (MFA)as the main place of action (that's where Kim, my daughter works) so that is interesting as well.
My flight to Kuala Lumpur leaves in 2 hours and it will be Friday afternoon there by the time I arrive. My sister is flying in from London and she will get there before me. Starting tomorrow I should be able to start to add some picures as well.

Boston to San Francisco

So the trip has begun. It started kind of abruptly because my ride to the airport was one hour earlier than I had written down! The first segment was Boston to Chicago. Warm nuts and a drink to start followed by a shrimp salad. For dessert we got a just fresh out of the oven warm cranberry/walnut oatmeal cookie and coffee.
Changed planes in Chicago on route to San Francisco. Once again we started with WARM nuts and a drink. This was a longer flight so they had to feed us more stuff. After the nuts we got a salad and a shrimp cocktail. The entrée for me was chicken with a pepper sauce and it was yummy. Dessert was an ice-cream sundae and coffee. The movie was "The King's Speech".
Right now I am waiting in the BA first class (yes first class!) lounge to board the flight to Hong Kong. It will be a 14 1/2 hours flight and we will be served a lot of food. I shall return as a rather plump thing!

Trip to Malaysia March 2011

Well, I first have to see if I still remeber how to do this. On Wednesday March 9 I will start my trip to Malaysia and SWEA's World Meeting there. I will try to write something every day and also post pictures. Today is Saturday March 5th and I will start with finding out what clothes will fit me so I will know if I need to dash out to the Mall to buy new stuff or not!

Trip to Malaysia 2011

On March 9 I will start on my trip to Malaysia and the World Meeting of SWEA International. It will be a long trip with many stop-overs getting there and back and I will try to write something every day!