The Madcap Memoirs Of A Maniacal Musicmaker: Jade's Malaysian Mini-Journey!

Hi everyone! It's been a pretty good few days, mainly due to the arrival of my dear friend Jade and her lovely mum Liz for a holiday in KL! Yaaaay!

It was just a short trip; they came here on Thursday night, and we met up for a lovely lunch on Friday at Straits Cafe in Centrepoint. They did their own thing for most of Friday; and then we met up again on Saturday and spent most of the day together. First off, we headed to the twin towers, KLCC; a partial car ride and train journey away:

The twin towers. As you can see, it was a pretty cloudy day, which made it perfect for walking about!

There we had lunch before doing the touristy thing and taking some snapshots (click on the thumbies for bigger views, folks!):

Jade and Liz, inside and outside KLCC

Afterwards we hopped on the train and headed over to Central Market, where we made our way towards our very own Chinatown, along Petaling Street:

There, Liz and Jade had a blast, getting approached by eager and overenthusiastic vendors selling everything from clothes to timepieces to shoes to pirated DVDs (which Liz bought several of!) and tacky knick-knacks. They even mastered the intricate art of bargaining, which allowed for some very interesting moments as they conversed with the vendors, who tried to sell them things in their pidgin Engleesh. "No laaah, too cheap, too cheap no profit!" they'd go, while Liz and Jade would go, "No, I refuse to pay more than this amount, so it has to be lower. Lower, I said. Lower." Good times. Here they are:

Buying some silken scarves from a vendor and haggling their way through it. Bargaining sure is thirsty work!

Finally, we visited a bookstore before heading back for a break; they at One World Hotel, me at my apartment. Incidentally, those two locations are literally only three minutes apart by car, arf arf. Can you guess who influenced them to book that particular hotel? Heh.

We were supposed to go into Bangsar for a street festival and lantern walk that evening, but we opted for a quieter evening instead; so Liz, Jade and I headed to 1-Utama shopping centre for a lovely and pleasant steamboat dinner. Oh, it was good fun. First of all, it was a lot of food, for little ol' me having just come off the diet, arf. But also, it brought back lots of memories for Jade and me of the numerous steamboat dinners we've had in Perth. Aaaah. Good times...!

After dinner, it was time for a stroll around the shopping centre:

....before adjourning to the hotel for drinks up in their room:

Ah, that was a good night. Didn't get too hammered, arf arf, but all in all, a great time.

Finally, today, Sunday, Liz decided she wanted to rest and chill out at the hotel, so I met up with Jade and we headed to The Curve for lunch at (gasp!) Marches. Hmm. That doesn't look like how you spell it. You know the place? The one that's set up like a Swiss marketplace and you go from stall to stall ordering food that they cook for you on the spot?? Arf arf. So much for easing back into regular-sized meals, oy vey. But we had a good time regardless.

No, I didn't blur out her shirt. It's really like that. Heh.

Sadly, I had to abandon Jade at the shopping centre because I had to work (yup, on a Sunday, flippin' by-elections and ridiculous Malaysian politics!)... but all in all, it was a lovely mini-reunion! Would've been great to have had a little bit more time (and if little Jo in Singypoo could've made it up for the weekend, which, alas, wasn't meant to be)... but nevertheless, Liz and Jade said they've had a wonderful, wonderful time, and they'll definitely be back next year for more Malaysian meyhem! So... hurrah!!