Many congratulations to Cheryl back in England who had a baby girl last night in what has to be one of the fastest unassisted deliveries that we've heard of.
Meanwhile, it's still dark in KL, and we're off to the airport. Hope I can find a few wireless access point or two...
We spent Sunday morning in KL doing what we do every Sunday morning in Sydney, at the Lord's Table meeting. In fact, since the meeting was spoken 50% Chinese and 50% English, it was very much like Sydney, although with a little less Korean. We felt very much at home, and the brothers and sisters were very warm and open. Lauren, of course, fitted right in, happy to meet new friends, even if she was the only one without black hair and brown oval eyes!
After a typical Malaysian lunch, one of the brothers took us for a quick drive round part of KL, starting with the Eye of Malaysia, a rather poor relation to the London Eye, built on the shores of Lake Titiwangsa as part of Malaysia's celebrations of their 50th year of indepedence. The weather was once again very hot and sticky, which made for rather poor photographic conditions, but it also meant there wasn't much wind, which makes for good reflections!
Next stop was Lauren's choice - presented with the options of aviary, planetarium or butterfly park, she went with the butterflies. At first, the butterflies showed remarkable sense and kept their distance, but it didn't take long before they were landing on her hands, arms and clothes - I don't know, maybe she does wash in ambrosia... Even the chamber of horrors, which contained the sort of spiders that would send Australia's biggest and hairiest running for mummy, was a success, no mean feat when both Emily and Lauren loathe nearly all forms of the six- and eight-legged varieties of God's creation.
We wrapped up the day with a return to the Petronas Towers, this time in daylight, for a few more photos and dinner, then back to the hotel for an early night, as tomorrow's start is going to be an early one.
Here we are in Kuala Lumpur, on the first day of our two week holiday. We stopped off here for a number of reasons: firstly, to visit old friends from our university days; secondly, to visit the church in KL; thirdly, we've never been there before; and fourthly, because it breaks up the lengthy flight to Japan, our ultimate destination.
We took the overnight flight from Sydney to KL, which got us in before dawn; then a taxi to our hotel, and then straight to bed (definitely the ultimate remedy for upset body clocks). Up again for lunch, we met up with Penny and Oliver, and headed out in search for food and somewhere to chat. The searing heat and wilting humidity outside meant that we'd be spending the rest of the day in air-conditioned shopping malls or by the pool at the hotel, so there's not too much by way of touristy photos of KL.
However, we did go out for dinner at the rather trendy Traders Hotel, which is directly opposite the Petronas Towers. We were rather outnumbered by the local Muslim population breaking their Ramadan fasts, but the food was excellent; a small shame that the rather snooty staff at the club on the observation deck upstairs wouldn't let us in because some of us were wearing open-toed sandals...
By this time, Lauren was about to collapse with exhaustion (and had passed into her grouchy phase), so back to the hotel and drinkies in the lounge downstairs, while being serenaded with some live music - a rather eclectic mix of local Chinese pop favourites, Boney M medleys and ABBA. We might as well have gone to the karaoke bar across the way.
