Here's the final part. I'm sorry it took this long to show up here and sorry this'll be a bit vague. ^ ^
Dec 5Woke up pretty late that morning, I don't think I was awake at the time the others (Gary & company) left but I'm not sure. It was the last day of our stay and we were to leave (the hotel, our coach trip was at 7 pm or 7:30 pm or something) during the late afternoon/early evening (about 5 pm or so). According to Colin, lunch was gonna be provided by our sponsor but I wasn't gonna be able to attend (it turned out to be a good thing (for me anyway) later). It was to be held at the lounge which was also on the 23rd floor of the hotel we were in.
Anyway, I got up pretty late, stayed in the room till pretty late too. I took a bath, packed some of my stuff. No I think it was most of my stuff (I would later find out (later as in 'back in Singapore') that I had left my toothbrush, toothpaste and shampoo behind). I left the room just as Colin came back from breakfast to get something. Anyway I made my way down to the 23rd floor for breakfast, and it was pretty much routine about what I ate at that point (with the exception of a mushroom omelette).
I had gotten to the place a bit too late (half an hour before breakfast hour was over (9:30? 10:30? I can't remember anymore)) to join any of the others at a table. Well, not that there would be any space for me anyhow since the tables were only large enough to seat four and the only table occupied with the volunteer group was filled. I took a corner window seat. Not the best since my back was to the main window but I could see to the side (the window was from floor to ceiling). Ate my fill before heading back up to my room (I was holding on to the access card and room key).
After I got back I made a call to Dawn. Making phone calls with area codes was new to me so it took me two to three tries plus a call to the hotel operator before I managed to get a call out. We spoke for a bit and arranged a meeting spot. Due to my ignorance of the city and failure to mention a local landmark (which the hotel was right beside (almost under but more about it later)), we arranged to meet in Books Kinokuniya at a nearby mall (which I found out the name of but I can't remember now (was it Petronas mall?) ^ ^).
After getting directions from Colin and Richard (the one bunking in our room), I walked over to mall. And after a bit of wandering I got into the book shop to do a bit of browsing (I can lose an entire day in a book store! =)). I met Dawn a little later and we went over to a Japanese restraunt for lunch.
We talked and also caught up a little on AMRN stuff though I can't remember exactly what now(urmm, my memory's imitating Swiss cheese, there are holes all over the place ^ ^). ^ ^ Dawn suggested a coupla places we could head over to after lunch and we decided on the Menara tower.
A short taxi trip later, we were there. Menara tower, the tallest building in Kuala Lumpur. And also incidentally next to the hotel I was staying at. ^ ^ Yeah, I noticed that there was a tower next to my hotel, just not that it was _the_ tower in KL (yeah, I can be remarkably dense at times). ^ ^ Anyway, we paid for admission and went to the observation deck.
It was a really great view from the top, it was a circular deck and we could see all of the surrounding city. At the top, I was given (lent actually) a MP3 player that had contained desciptions of the surrounding city. Pretty nifty but since I had a guide with me, I didn't listen much to the player. =) Dawn descibed the surrounding city and also pointed out certain landmarks. Wolf's Game Shop (or at least the building containing the shop) and her place of work among them. The city wasn't very built 'up' but was very built '(spread) out' (well, to my perspective anyway. Singapore has a lot of tall buildings together in a small area).
After the tour, since Dawn had some time to kill before she had to leave for work, we went next door to the hotel. To the lounge to see if we could catch the others. We did, and it turned out they were starving. ^ ^ Somehow or rather, there was no lunch. I didn't find out why though.
Dawn stayed with us for a while, talking until she had to leave. It turned out that it was next to impossible to get a cab from our location at that time of the day. I have no idea why though. Eventually Dawn did managed to get a cab and left for work.
Soon after she left, we had to leave too. We (well Colin rather) had bought a large amount of boardgames to be brought back to Singapore. To do so, we had to divi up the 'spoils' to get them past customs, at about 2 games per volunteer. ^ ^ Eventually we got caught three cabs (two at once at first and the third much later) and got to our departure point (it was the same hotel we arrived at on Friday). Some of us took the time we had until departure to make a food run to a nearby McDonalds. Since I wasn't hungry, I just asked Richard to help me get a chocolate milkshake. We don't have that in McDs in Singapore anymore. =(
The actual trip was uneventful and I actually slept for most of the trip after dinner was served (also a tray of rice noodles about 15 mins into the journey). We did make one stop midway back to Singapore, at what seemed to be a large American styled diner (just off the highway seemingly in the middle of nowhere ^ ^). I was sleepy enough that I just stayed in the coach, waking up once we reached the Malaysian customs. At the Singapore customs I wonder what the officers were thinking when we showed up with all those boardgames in tow. =)
Anyway, after we reboarded the coach, we made our way to back to the hotel that was our departure point three days ago. From there it was a shared cab ride back home and to my nice warm bed. =)
I think I slept till noon. ^ ^
Well, that's it for my Malaysia trip. Dawn, if I got anything wrong, let me know and I'll correct it. ^ ^ Thanks! ^_^
BTW, the game I named 'Pit' was actually 'Halli Galli', or spelt something like that. ^ ^ My mistake. ^ ^
