Now my husband and I are back in China. The short visit to Kuala Lumpur was indeed a good one. Let me share some details of the trip.
Preview:
I wrote a post on how I previewed our trip here.
Highlight of the Trip
December 19. We woke up very early to catch our flight schedule from Changchun to Shanghai. The weather was chilly and cold as usual. Our flight was actually delayed for an hour. The travel time from Changchun to Shanghai was 2 hours and a half, so we arrived in Shanghai at about lunch time. Our next flight was scheduled at 4pm. So we just hang around in the airport for several hours before we checked – in.
We landed at 10pm in Kuala Lumpur at last, after almost like 12 hours from the time we left Changchun. We were totally dead tired and hungry. There were food and drinks served in the aircraft but you know when you are too tired, you wouldn’t be able to appreciate it.
December 20. Breakfast in the veranda by the pool. After what felt like one of the longest and stressful trip I had this year, I began to feel the warm breeze touched my face. Oh god it felt so great! being able to wear just one thin layer of clothing. I felt so light and bold.
After the relaxing breakfast by the pool, we strolled around the city, that, after a year nothing much had changed. It was good that streets and places and shops were still all so familiar and memories were refreshed. We know where to go, where and what to eat.
December 21. My husband booked a premier room and in there, it was inclusive of some previledges i.e. massage, gym access, and access to the premier lounge.
I enjoyed the aromatherapy massage with essential oils. The masseuse was a nice lady in her mid- forties from Thailand.
December 22. My friend, Aisha knew about my visit beforehand. So she planned to invite us to her beautiful _kampong_ style yet modern house. Aisha is Adam’s mom who had been my good friend since I started teaching Adam. We were so excited to see each other after a year and she hoped that we could stay a bit longer. When we came to her house, Adam showed us around and he was so proud of the white Christmas tree they set up in the living room that he decorated. Aisha’s mom, prepared some local Malaysian dish called bihun soup. It was a soup that you mix with spices, herbs, vegetables and other side dishes such as tofu cubes, chicken chunks, rice noodles, or fish ball.
December 23. Christmas Party at Care Speech Language and Therapy Center. From our hotel to the Center, it only takes less than an hour to walk there. So we just arrived on time for the party at 1pm. Most of the kids were there including their parents. They were all having a happy Christmas celebration. I was so pleased and glad to see Anjan, Bijun, Sashimi, Kyra and the other kids. I just felt so happy to see all of them.
That evening, we went to La Bodega. It was our favourite place to eat when my husband and I were still residing in Malaysia. They serve a mexican cuisine there. I arranged to meet my friend Ruzanna. It was difficult to arrange the time to meet because she works full time and our time was limited too. But then, despite of that, we finally blocked in a time. She came over to join us for dinner in La Bodega however, we didn’t have much time because it was already late for us and we needed to go back to the hotel, to catch sleep for tomorrow’s early flight back to China.
December 24. Bye Malaysia, see you again in time.
Reflection
The whole trip though was short, but it wasn’t bad at all. It was stressful I admit, because of waking up so early to catch all the flights, the delays and all that but nonetheless, it was still good. The weather has been very accommodating to us. It never rained during the day so it was perfect strolling by. It rained at night though, that had a cooler evening December breeze for a tropical country.
The whole city was enveloped with Christmas spirit, that you can feel and see. Shopping malls, restaurants, roads and side streets were brightly decorated and lit up with different colourful and sparkling lights and other beautiful and attractive Christmas ornaments. The city was so alive, fanciful but calm. If you can picture that out.
It wasn’t a surprise to me. I have seen 2 Christmases in KL when I was living there. And by far, they celebrate it the way the rest of the world does. It is noted that it is a country wherein the greater percentage of the locals and other residents from other countries are Muslims, but the beautiful thing about this country is that everybody respects the different traditions that these different believers and races have. Because of this, all the major traditions of Indians, Chinese, and Muslims are well and exclusively higlighted.
I had in mind to also try to meet up with 3 of my friends there but later that I knew from Megan that they were not there when I came. Robert and Megan are now back in the US while Jenn was on a holiday trip to India.
Evaluation
I evaluate the trip as 3 in the scale of 1-5
1 – worst
2- bad
3. good
4. Excellent
5. Phenomenal
… because it was short.
