*Warning: lots of wide angle pictures coming up
Started our second day at One World's Peridot lounge. They served good coffee and we pretty much had the whole place to ourselves.
The haze situation seems like it has improved quite a fair bit. Nonetheless, my entire trip was mostly confined to hotels and malls so I honestly cannot report on it.
View from the lounge
While not on the same level as say Jakarta or Manila, KL's traffic jams can get pretty bad. Our dinner for the night was at Shangri-La Hotel and our hosts already informed that we had to leave our hotel before 5:30PM.
Lobby lounge of One World Hotel
We made our way down to the lobby and had a drink and nuts while waiting to be picked up by our hosts. Heavy torrential rain started to fall which delayed things somewhat. Anyhow, we made it to Shangri-La in good time.
Shangri-La Hotel, Kuala Lumpur
Lobby area
Lift lobby
The Shangri-La has always been one of my favourites. I think it is ageing gracefully. We visited the day after Deepavali, a public holiday in West Malaysia but not in Sarawak, where we flew in from.
Deepavali Floral peacock at Main Lobby
Paraphrasing the signage at the lobby: Deepavali or the Festival of Lights is the biggest and most important festival for the Hindus. The festivals celebrates the victory of light over darkness.
On Deepavali night, Hindus dress up in new clothes, light lamps and candles inside and outside their homes and participate in puja or prayers to Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth and prosperity. Fireworks follow, sweets are distributed, and gifts are exchanged.
Purple, pink, orange, red and yellow orchids and chrysanthemum pom-poms form this peacock that is 7 feet tall and 18 feet long. The peacock is studded with 750 stalks of orchids and 9300 chrysanthemum pom-poms. The peacock is associated with Lakshmi.
It’s long, flamboyant tail flows down to join an intricate Kolam or Rangoli on the floor. Kolam is a drawing formed by using rice form chalk and white rock powder in different colours to bring prosperity to the home as well as a sign of welcome to all guests.
I mentioned to our second host some time ago that I had fond memories of the Shangri-La buffet many years ago when I was based here. He remembered so made reservations for the four of us.
Lemon Garden Cafe
He is also into the miles and points game, and told me AMEX was having a great deal and he could get 50% off by using two separate AMEX cards and earn points!
Dinner is served
All of them went for the sashimi and seafood for their starters. I headed for the Malay section and their tasty chicken and beef satays.
These are some of the best tasting satays in Malaysia. Period.
I won't post anymore food pics, suffice to say the spread was impressive. If you are into seafood, they do have specials from Thursdays to Saturdays IIRC.
I think I will end the trip report here. The flight back was nothing post-worthy. We got upgraded to business class via MHUpgrade again. The wife took full advantage of the 80kgs and filled our empty suitcases to the brim. My last day was spent following her around in IKEA as she bought stuff to fit out a new retail store back in Borneo.
The wife, IKEA-ing
I was happy as I managed to get the client to sign. The wife was happy because she got all her shopping done. We got a good deal on air tickets/luggage allowances and had one of the best dinners ever at Hinata. Not a bad little trip! Thanks for reading!