Day 28 – September 28 2024 – Kuala Lumpur – کوالا لمڤور: Petronas – Waiheke Island

Egg, one of nine stations, including fresh juice bar, Malay, Chinese, Indian breakfasts, curries, salads, fresh roti, French toast, pastries, pickles, cold meats, kefir, coffee, choosing of course the Masala,

Breakfast alone worth the 10 hour flight we were to undertake. And the Ritz-Carlton,

J in Matthew Barney moment,

We committed to a sybaritic morning at the Ritz-C, spa-ing, steaming, sauna-ing and poolside, (about which, I managed to lock my clothes in the locker and lose the combination, in which my keycard also was, then lock myself out of the men’s spa, having in the first place carefully jammed my jandal in the door and in the second forgotten to do so, panicking, with noone to be seen, wearing one jandal and a bathrobe and not being a credible guest of the establishment … help did arrive, eventual. It was established that my locker was poorly chosen since it was a known dud.),

after which, to Petronas Towers, the headquarters of Petroliam Nasional Berhad, known all in caps, PETRONAS, proud sponsor of Formula One, which is progressing energy,

We had a tour booked … (snap, snap),

and ascended, expecting to be underwhelmed, we were overawed … by the attention to detail, in the interior and exterior, and in volume, namely the volume of stainless steel.

Take it to the bridge,

To the top,

And to the store,

where I was tempted by the merch, the t’s, but thankfully demurred, and picked up the best T ever for NZD-equivalent $7 on the street at a stall.

Hungry, we searched the mall,

for anything that appealed,

emerging,

we decided to go back to yum, those greasy fast-food meaty pastries around our quarter,

Stopped by a bookshop, part of the BookXcess chain, but not the really cool one,

Last minute snaps, (note the video truck below),

a pretty car outside the Ritz-C,

then taxi time, a silent driver and smooth transition,

Onto our Air Malaysia flight. Relegated to the rear of the plane, it having become, by force of numbers, less a matter of choice than one of expediency, to pay to choose seats, we, and the Japanese couple behind us, were invited to chop our legs off to fit in; the seats oddly spaced, as if the whole plane had been cobbled together out of spare parts.

Added to, my inflight entertainment didn’t work. So began the arguments. The central section boasted adequate legroom. Japanese man and I settled on us moving there and he and his partner taking our two plus their seats, as the middle three didn’t appear to be allocated.

Turns out they were for staff.

I have never heard of this before. Here they are, staff, sleeping like babies,

The trade-off was less advantageous to the Japanese couple: we would watch our movies in the staff seats but return to our own when it came time for the staff to sleep like babies.

So we did. Great movie: Knox Goes Away … The food was execrable,

And the plane took off and landed, for which we were grateful.

fin