{Team Somerville Travel} KL Day 2

We woke to miserable weather this morning and it continued all day!

The best thing to do with kids in KL when it's raining ... shopping! (oh yes, and a visit to the aquarium - but more on that later).

Sadly our planned visit to the KL Bird Park was abandoned due to the bad weather, so after a leisurely breakfast we hit the shops ... again!

Before we left the hotel we checked out the infamous Sky Bar on level 33 - an indoor/outdoor pool area that turns into one of KL's funkiest bars in the evening i.e. kids, casual dress and flip flops are discouraged after 7pm!
 

SkyBar pool and cabanas

 

SkyBar view



Mackenzie and Georgia - Traders Hotel SkyBar

In wet weather Traders Hotel is the perfect base to reach the Twin Towers shopping mall. There is an underground walkway linking the KL Convention Centre (next to the hotel) to the Suria Shopping Cenre at the base of the Towers.

The shopping highlight for Georgia and Mackenzie was the visit to Toys R Us in the basement and the Video Ezy store selling dvds (i.e. "real" ones!) for $8 each. They stocked up on Dibo the Gift Dragon, Strawberry Shortcake and Care Bears!


Suria Shopping Centre - at the base of the Petronas Twin Towers

Back into the KLCC tunnel, Rob and the girls stopped at the Aquarium while I went back to the hotel for some "quiet time!"

Unfortunately I don't have photos of the Aquarium to post as Rob says it was too dark inside (hmmm, I think it was the photographer's fault!), but the girls had fun in the underwater aquarium tunnel.

At 35 MYR for kids over 3 years and 45 MYR for adults (i.e. around $40 for an adult and 2 kids), it was a relatively inexpensive way to entertain Georgia and Mackenzie for a couple of hours!

This evening we weren't organised enough to arrange a hotel babysitter in time (for future reference Traders Hotel charges 50MYR per hour for a minimum of 3 hours) so we bravely dragged the girls to the fine dining restaurant on level 6 of the hotel.

Gobo Upstairs - Lounge & Grill serves up imported steaks and sides, at pretty reasonable prices. It is also the choice of venue for many loved up couples, so we took a risk taking our room-service fed, tired toddlers there to watch us eat dinner!

Thankfully we had a window spot, so we settled the girls on the floor (hidden from view under the table!) with dessert and the laptop so they could watch Strawberry Shortcake while we ate in peace!

Rob - Gobo Upstairs



Me at Gobo Upstairs




















As I post, it is almost 10pm, the weather is still crap and Rob is out at the shops buying Georgia and Mackenzie's birthday presents at Toys R Us.

Tomorrow we're flying to Langkawi for a 7 night stay at a resort on the beach. We're keeping our fingers crossed for sunny weather!

{Team Somerville Travel} Kuala Lumpur

I woke with a start this morning at 6am (that's 5am Vietnam time!) to the sound of the morning call to prayer echoing around the city from a nearby mosque.

The fact that the sound of a morning prayer startled me to the point of wondering for at least 60 seconds what the heck was happening, led me to the sleepy realisation that this was actually a new experience for me.

I took my first international flight at the age of 21 (yes, I was a late starter!) and with all the places I have travelled to since, I realised as I lay listening to the prayers that Malaysia is the first country I've visited that has Islam as its predominant religion.

Despite the early call to prayer, the girls slept in so we had a late start to our KL shopping day.

Even without the lights, the morning view from our room was still pretty spectacular.

Twin Towers by day

Unfortunately Georgia and Mackenzie spotted the massive playground/park in front of the Towers from our hotel suite, so we left for breakfast with a promise to go there in the afternoon.



Georgia...breakfast at Traders

Our main destination for the day was the shopping area of Bukit Bintang. The strip has a number of malls catering to both high end and high street shoppers.

We took a taxi from the hotel to Pavillion - a sprawling 6 storey mall with far too many shops for us to visit with the toddlers in tow.

The girls did well, helped along by the numerous Chinese New Year displays to divert their attention when they got tired of shopping.


Chinese New Year dragons - Pavillion shopping mall

Mackenzie

With everything from Malay to western food, and some random items in between, the Pavillion food court was also a welcome diversion.

The girls and Rob ate Malaysian food, while I got enticed by the Subway outlet. A bad call...Halal salami does not taste so good!

What the?

We shopped until we dropped (almost) and kept good on the promise to take the girls to the park, despite a few spots of rain.

While Rob and the girls spent the afternoon at the park...

... I indulged in additional retail therapy at the Suria Shopping Centre at the base of the Petronas Twin Towers. A lot of the same shops as the Pavillion and then some. Definitely need to spend a few more hours there tomorrow!

{Team Somerville Travel} Malaysia here we come!

Our view from the Traders Hotel, Kuala Lumpur

As Vietnam winds down for Tet (aka Chinese New Year), most expats in the know either escape the big cities, and head to Vietnam's beach resorts, or leave the country altogether. 

As we did last Tet, we are heading overseas. Destination...Malaysia!

After rushing the girls out of the classroom on the final day of school (they missed the Tet afternoon tea so they were not happy!) we had a 1.5 hour flight to reach KL. 

Unfortunately it is a 45 minute journey from the airport to the city (not to mention the 5 minute bus journey from the arrival terminal to the baggage/immigration terminal...what the?), but it's a comfortable journey on the clean, wide freeways where the drivers seem to abide by the road rules (unlike crazy Ho Chi Minh!).

Arriving at the Traders Hotel, it was just as the Trip Advisor reviews had described. A classy hotel with numerous staff to help you out of the car and on your way to check in.

We checked in on the Club level and got an upgrade from a city view suite to the twin towers view suite guaranteed as part of an online package deal.

The suite is goregous, with a living room separated from the bedroom and a huge bathroom...not to mention the view!

The downside...we walked inside the room to find that the sofa bed we had booked was indeed just a sofa with bedding, not the pull out kind I had imagined Georgia and Mackenzie sharing!

A quick trip back to the Club Lounge check in and I was placated with a rollaway bed free of charge.

On tomorrow's agenda...shopping, shopping and more shopping!