There could be no better way to end this trip than by spending my final night in the Hilton, Kuala Lumpur - in a room which couldn’t be more Lost In Translation if it tried (unless, of course, it was in the Park Hyatt in Tokyo). Here’s the view which greets you as you come out of the lift onto my floor:

- and yes, that is (those are?) the Petronas Towers you can just see there behind that skyscraper -

And here’s the view from my room right now, as dusk is falling:

Not too shabby, eh? Wait ’til you get a load of the room, too. It has a gorgeous deep bath (a bath! Bliss!), magazines in the toilet (well obviously not in the toilet, but you know what I mean) and a seat in the shower. Yes, I may just take a shower sitting down because I can.

T and C drove me all the way from Ipoh to the outskirts of KL - where, like a spy, I was handed over to R, T’s colleague (who was, appropriately enough, the very first person I met here at the airport two months ago). R brought me to the Hilton, and will be returning in a few hours to hang out avec moi for the evening. I’ve also just given A a call - my friend from Penang who spends most weekends in KL, and who is in town tonight. I’m going to be meeting both of them downstairs in the lobby bar (or ‘Cosmo Lounge’ as it’s called. Not sure why) because that’s where K, the jazz singer from Canada who’s working here for three months, and who I’ve been chatting to on IM, is performing. I’m also hoping to hook up with the manager here who emailed me some weeks ago about possibly doing the same gig… So, to paraphrase George Peppard: it looks like the plan is coming together .

I fly out at 6pm tomorrow; so hopefully will get to see some of KL during the day. Well, at least those famous Petronas Towers, which I’m dying to photograph; and quite possibly, hopefully, the Hilton’s outdoor swimming pool, too ;-).

I’ll write one last post - probably before I go to bed tonight - to round off the trip. Unless I have any sort of deep and meaningful and hugely insightful thoughts following that, of course (unlikely), in which case I’ll probably be blogging from the departure lounge of KL Airport. Either way, watch my Flickr page for more pictures of KL which I may not feature here.

Speaking of photographs: I’ve also added my final ones of Penang (including the street market), and ones of the stunning scenery on the drive down to KL, to Flickr (here, in a nutshell, is what Malaysia looks like):

And finally: for the curious amongst you, here is the famous, the wonderful T - his less famous but just as wonderful wife C, and their children H and N. Thank you so much again, guys, for everything. x

This entry was posted on Monday, March 31st, 2008 at 8.25pm and is filed under Malaysia, The people. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.