Ford encourages us to leave the country four times per year: two weekends and two week trips. We wanted to make our first trip an easy one and we wanted to shop. KL fit the bill: a non-stop, 3.5 hour flight and plenty of shopping.
We arrived in the morning and were picked up at the airport by a Mercedes sent by our hotel. We marveled at the quiet roads in which cars drove in single file in their own lanes, the roadside was clean and landscaped, and the buildings were modern and clean.
We were driven in style to our hotel, the Traders Hotel, and met at the curb and greeted by name. Our room wasn't quite ready so they sent us to the lounge to have breakfast and coffee. We had upgraded to a Traders Club room which included a huge buffet breakfast (one of my litmus tests for a good hotel), tea and snacks in the afternoon, and happy hour with more snacks, beer and wine in the early evening.
After our breakfast we walked to a street of malls. The first one we walked into was just gorgeous. It had several departments stores, a large grocery store, and a huge food court with really nice looking food stalls serving all things Asian and Western. We just walked around and, honestly, felt like prisoners who had been released and were stunned to see a world that was clean, orderly, and full of stuff.
After visiting several such malls we stopped at a shop for a fish pedicure then a foot massage. And Mr. R joined me, can you believe it?!?
By this time it was 3 or so. We went back to the hotel for tea, took a quick nap (we had only grabbed 2 hours of sleep on the flight the night before), then went back down to the lounge for happy hour. And this was not a nice polite glass of wine sipped over 2 hours. We gorged ourselves!
The hotel is across a beautiful park from the Petronas Towers, the world's tallest buildings until 2004. The lounge had a great view of the towers.
After happy hour we wandered around the hotel looking for a dinner spot but found all the restaurants and bars were smoky, so we called it an early night.
Saturday it was up for breakfast and more shopping. We took a cab to a huge mall that was like Twelve Oaks but much nicer and larger. We spent hours there. At one point we were in a department store like Sears or Penney's, looking at TV's, appliances, home goods, office supplies, etc, all from one spot and I had to cry a little bit. It was so overwhelming and it really hit me in the face how different our world is in India. Where it's a struggle to find things at little stores that sell only one type of good and the selection is so small. And you know I don't really like to shop, so it means something when I can spend hours at a mall.
Anyway, our feet were sore and we had a lounge to visit. After some small sandwiches and water we went to the hotel spa and got pedicures. Yes, Mr. R joined me again! The environment there was so pleasant and soothing. So, with clean toes and smoothed calluses we went back to happy hour. Pumped up with wine and sushi we took a walk in the park to the Petronas Towers and watched the fountains in the park. Back to the hotel for their international buffet dinner and a bottle of champagne. Yum!!!
Sunday morning found us a bit tired. We walked to the towers and poked around there, took the city train to a touristy little city market, then decided to go back to our mall (we hadn't even visited the mall across the street on Saturday). We found a bar which had a big beer selection so stopped there for a few minutes. After a little more shopping we admitted we were tired and headed back to the hotel for a shower and one last happy hour, then back to the airport. The airport there is really nice so we did some duty free shopping (see the trend here?) then scooted to our gate.
It was so weird to get to Chennai and say "Welcome home" to each other. I'm just going to admit that we did not say it with pleasure. The airport is old and dirty, it was crowded with people who do not form lines nor respect personal space, we had to give meaningless forms to people who didn't care about them but wouldn't let us pass until they had received them, and the streets are not pleasant. But we are back in our house with our washer/dryer, our good food (we left with two empty suitcases and returned with each of them half full), the cats were happy to see us, and our bed welcomed us back with open arms.
P.S. If you are ever in Malaysia stay at the Traders Hotel in Kuala Lumpur. It was fantastic!!!!! Four thumbs up.
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