December 3rd 2008, Kuala Lumpur

Our Mature Gap Year Continues in KL

Shopping In KL

Sofia and Sasha went swimming while Basty and I slowly got out of bed and got ready. Once we were all dressed and together, we all headed to Starbucks to benefit from great coffee, sandwiches and cakes and free wi-fi! We did the blogs, facebook, emails etc.

Sofia and Sasha went off to the toilet in a nearby mall, Sasha was so busy powdering her nose in the lift mirror that after Sofia had stepped out of the lift Sasha got whisked up two floors. She is causing quite a stir where ever we go with her postbox red hair and great looks she really does stop traffic!

We got some good news today, seems the trouble at Bangkok airport is over so the airport should be open soon, however none of the travel agents felt that flying into Thailand was a good idea, so after we had picked up our washing from the laundry, we booked a coach instead, going to Penang with the intention of moving on into Thailand within a day or two by road.

We then all went back to the hotel to drop our laptops off, and then we headed off to the Times Square Mall (KL’s biggest Mall) which to put it quite simply is ffffiiinnngg massive and although it has lots of the usual chains, it also has lots of Malaysian-centric shops, including local designers. We spent a good few hours there and barely touched the surface! After quite a wander we noticed the film Twilight was showing, Sasha was desperate to see it, so see it we would, we had a frozen yogurt and some fruit while we waited for the start time, walking up a further two floors to watch the huge indoor rollercoaster do it’s thing.

I love watching films in foreign cinemas and this was another great experience, first the cost was just 28 Rm for the four of us – so that’s less than GB£2 each! And of course the seats are better with more legroom and cleaner than most English cinemas I have ever visited although the air-conditioning is a bit artic,

I love going to the cinema in other cultures, you never know what to expect and this time did not disappoint, quite frequently the entire audience erupted in giggles for no apparent reason, not particular rude or funny parts, but definitely altogether, leaving us all looking at each other in total bewilderment, it was in English with Malaysian and Chinese sub titles (I think), it was a real fun experience, and although some of the people seemed to just be casually chatting throughout the film as if it did not exist for some reason it never really made much impression on me! The cinema was packed though.

After that we did a bad thing and ate at an Outback restaurant, we felt it was only fair to the children to give them a more familiar fair tonight, we wont be doing that too often as it was three times the cost of the local fare and certainly nothing like three times better, there was no atmosphere and a crap music system that kept jumping and sticking, replaying the same tracks, till it drove us crazy.

By then it was just 9:30pm but Sofia, Sasha and Sabastian were beat, so they headed back to the hotel. I decided to go to the Internet cafe for a quick update.

Further good news came when Stefan emailed me to tell me he had made it to Pattaya after flying in to Chang Mai and traveling from there.

I then went off for a walk around the area before returning to the hotel and spending an hour in the hotels spa, it was deserted and not very inspiring.