The second part

Today we left the hotel for the second part of our trip, the bit to Adelaide. A last view of the hallway in our hotel.

Last rainy view of the towers, even when it rains they're beautifull.

And a rainy fountain.

We hired the "limo" to drive us to the airport. You know, we're all about comfort!

The outskirts of Kuala Lumpur can look quite different from the center. These apartmentbuildings look nice but sometimes it seems like they're actually trying to hide it.

Streetview...

More streetview...

The check-in hall of the KL International Airport. This is a superspaceous building with a remarkably calm atmosphere. Quite different from Schiphol Airport in The netherlands.

Having coffee at some coffee place at the airport.

We saw an airplane! So exciting...

The long mile to our gate.

We arrived really early so our gate stayed empty for a very long time. We sat at the end, staring over the take-off and landingstrip.

The monorail

The other side of the breakfast area in our hotel, towards the bit with bread, cakes and other wheat products.

On our way into town we saw that they had finished building the monorail.

The trains running on it look nice.

I'm always fascinated by the contrast between the polished and clean streetfronts of shops/offices and the way their sides look in the alleys next to the buildings. It makes a cool photo too, I think.

Looking across the street, underneath the monorail.

The cornerfront of the LOT 10 shopping mall. It wasn't actually very exciting inside so we left pretty soon.

This is one of the stations of the monorail. What I find very fascinating is that the whole station seems to "balance" on only a few poles in between the motorways. This is a neccesity because the monorail was build in between 2 motorways, there was no space for a big builduing on the street-level.

To cool the air on terraces, here you often find fans that spray water into the airstream. The water then vaporizes actually within a few metres, thus cooling the air (as vaporizing uses the energy stored in warm air).

Streetview.

The intersection infront of LOT10 is possibly the busiest and most exciting one in the heart of Kuala Lumpur. Homebound traffic is nuts here. You could put up a chair (and put on a gasmask, too!) and watch this for hours. On this picture the light has just turned green and the mopeds are speeding away like it's a Formula 1 race.

Like I said, it's nuts. Here go the mopeds...

BB Plaza is another, kind of hidden mall opposite LOT10. This is where the malaysians go themselves I think. It's INSANE inthere, but in an amusing way. There was something going on in the bottomfloor that created TONS of noise and people flocked around it. This mall possibly has 600 shops spread over 6 floors. You can get EVERYTHING here, especially mobile phones. There must be at least 50 shops for mobile equipment inthere. If you're the "shop till you drop" kinda person, you probably drop before you reached the last shop.

Fridaynight in KL. Very busy and crazy, it's a jungle outthere...

I bought a 4GB USB2.0 pendrive at some obscure shop in BB Plaza for 60% of the price in The Netherlands. It actually works!

The towers and the toilet

We had our first breakfast in the hotel today. There are 3 area's to get your food, this is the 'warm' food section with a mighty fine choice of Indonesian, Malaysian, Japanese, Indian and English food. There were a few other Dutchies looking for cheese and ham and chocolate sprinkles but they didn't have those, poor bastards.

Nicole colouring in mandala's while I'm doing emails etc.

The view outside is still pretty grand...

I wouldn't want to make anyone jealous but here's another view.

The towers were still there. All good, nobody took them away over night.

Lateron we walked through the park downstairs, next to our hotel and infront of the Suria KLCC's main entrance. I kid you not, those towers don't stop impressing me!

We then proceeded to have some lunch followed by a capuchino that says "screw you" to a LOT of capuchino's we ever had in Amsterdam. It had some mightfine foam on top. It's not hard to make it you know. I figured if they can do it here, why can't those suckers in Amsterdam do it? It's not like we're closer to Italy here or anything... And while we're at it, they still know what "service" means here. Plate is empty? They come to take it away. Glass is empty? They come to offer you more. And the staff is not 100% uninterested student idiots (I wanted to use a different word but Nic talked me out of it...) but the staff is actually 100% friendly, smiling and caring progessionals. I didn't even have to send out a bloody searchparty to find them!

This is an object Nicole knows a lot about I think. I just think it looks nice. Must have to do with the Deepavali festival that started today. I didn't notice it in any other ways btw...

Esp. for The G. A photo of the directionboard on the G-floor of the Suria KLCC shopping mall. Those colourfull columns on it are actually the names of shops. There are a LOT of them. We went into a L'occitane shop that was half the size of the Amsterdam branch where there are 2 staff working there. Here in KL they have 6 staff employed. I wanted to write "working" instead of "employed" but I just can't imagine them actually working like that...

This poster is just funny. I actually saw the Simpson's movie on the airplane and it was hilarious. if you have time, go see it!

The towers by night. Those things are just so beautifull, a picture cannot do it any justice. It's like they are made of the shiniest silver, gorgeous darling, just gorgeous.

And now for some serious ranting. As my former colleagues know I am pretty damn annoyed by unneccesary, thoughtless design or usage of bathroom accessories. I'd like to think about where we should put the toiletroll holder. In every single hotel I have been, even this great one I'm in right now, they put it right next to you but BEHIND you!!! WHY IS THIS????!!!!! Do I have to turn around and wipe with my face above the toiletbowl????

Look at how much space there is to put a toiletroll holder right infront of you, or next to you on the wall infront of you. But no. If ANYONE has an answer to this mystery of stupidity, PLEASE let me know. Thanks.

The warpdrive

We reached the hotel in Kuala Lumpur around 9:00 in the morning but we couldn't get into our (UPGRADED - YAY!) room untill 10:00. We couldn't do anything but wait...

Looking outside made me slowly forget the weather in The Netherlands. It's like all the buildings in this country were put right in the bush.

This cup of capuchino made me feel human again after that flight. There's bad and slightly better airplane food but it all still sucks to me.

After a 4 hour nap in our hotelroom we hit the KLCC Suria shopping mall hunting for an ATM and a supermarket. We are now stocked with water and a few snackies, we have the internet so I guess we'll get by *grin*.

The KLCC Suria shopping mall is about 5 stories high.

The KLCC Suria shopping mall sports an elevator shaft that looks like a warpdrive that makes the one from Startrek looks like a peanut.

A view outside, close to our hotel.

The base of our hotel; the Mandarin Oriental.

The top of our hotel.

The famous Petronas towers in broad daylight.

The famous Petronas towers at night. It's purrrrrrrrdy.

Nic in our bed.

The remote control comes in a fancy, green, leather case.

After they make your room, this is what you find next to your bed.