Started the day the same way he had the last few days – waking up at 9 then having breakfast with Thomas. I think we might be a bit snooty the way we pretend to have ownership over him – walking around the Sahabat with a bit of a strut… Anyway, Lucie then joined us for breakfast, with Bertin apparently still snoozing. These mornings have been exactly how we hoped our last few days at the Sahabat would be. Shame Thomas won’t be here tomorrow morning – not sure what we’ll do…
We spent the next few hours sorting out bits and pieces, before we headed out for lunch. We couldn’t remember where our usual lunch spot was… Will have to check the blog/diary – the Suria and Warisan were our stalwarts in KK so I guess in honour of that we went to the Pavillion Food Court. Had some chicken and duck (not had much duck here actually?) noodles with wanton soup. One of the best things about Malaysian food for me has been the chilli sauces – each shop has its own unique homemade sauce and they are always delicious. My taste for chilli has really skyrocketed over the last few weeks!
After lunch we wondered around BB Plaza for hours. We were confident enough to even go to different floors. Its such a big mall (continuous with Sungei Wang Plaza as well) and I cannot imagine people actually getting to know the layout of it all. We saw one of the toilet themed cafes of Metro newspaper fame – completely bizzare. The seats were shaped like toilets and there were shower curtains separating the tables. We were still really full from lunch but even then the food wasn’t particularly appetising – there was a whole page on the menu for cheesy rice?!
Back to the Sahabat in time for Lupo’s arrival. He came upstairs to the computers and we gladly followed him down to the kitchen area to sit and chat. I can still remember the first time we met him, when he kept his cards very close to his chest – Claire and I really didn’t know what to make him back then! He enthusiastically talked about his new K:Yren product, which was a real joy to watch. Sounds like things aren’t going quite to plan yet but we have no doubt that they will take off very soon. Lupo will make it a success – cannot deny that ambition. Was so sad to say goodbye (Claire cried). Lupo was very calm about it, confident that we would meet again, but I think we both feel a little more emotion from him would have given us better closure (especially after Nora…).
Soon after we regained our composure, Lucie and Bertin returned from their trip to the travel agents – booked up for their trip to Borneo. So jealous of their continuous travels – but maybe this is just our fear of final year talking… Bertin brought down his laptop and showed us some of their art, which he had photographed. So cool to see Bertin’s computer geek side – obviously we knew about his blogging and photoshop expertise (he wants a new alienware computer!) but was nice nonetheless. We really enjoyed seeing their art and the progression of certain pieces – such a romantic aspect to them! Was also great to see their pride in what they had done.
Hunger set in so we went out for some dumplings at the Heritage Food Village. Took us a while but we finally found the stall. Will miss these dumplings – the frozen ones from home are good but nothing like these… We then took the monorail to Chinatown. Forgot how cheap the monorail was – saved us a lot of money in KL; the taxis really drained us in KK… Petaling Street in Chinatown at night is meant to be one of the top attractions in KL so we thought we had better check it out! So busy – stalls crammed next to other trying to sell fake goods to tourists – watches, bags, shoes. Can imagine it feeling a bit overwhelming – so claustrophobic and such aggressive salesmen but we quite enjoyed the atmosphere. Don’t think we have such big targets on our back anymore, or maybe its just that there were bigger and better targets other than us? Was interesting to see how different people haggled – we saw some hopeless efforts by the poshest British girl (will definitely get ripped off) and some really aggresive haggling from an arabic couple (will be surprised if they don’t get shouted at back…). We managed to haggle down a tripod, which we were happy with – after two months, we might have cracked it! Problem was that there was nothing of real value at the market to haggle for…
Back to the Pavillion and straight to Dragon-I. We ordered some braised beef and veg, garlic kailan and pancakes with mince. Was one of those meals where my hands couldn’t keep up with my tastebuds. It was all so delicious – could have easily eaten another portion of all that! To top it off, we saw Trainee No. 5 (but was thankfully not waited on by him – Trainee No. 2 impressed us).
Finished the evening by revisiting Athena, which we visited months ago, one of the first places we went out too. We ordered a creme brulee, which looked a complete disaster but, when we confronted the waiter, he was quick to pull the ‘maybe its different in your country card’… Cheeky. Nice to sit and chat about everything – we have been rather reflective the last few days in KL and I’m sure its no coincidence that we found ourselves drawn here once again. I think we had hoped to spend the evening with one of the other couples but actually it turned out to be a lovely intimate evening to ourselves.
