Day 2 in KL

Woke up a little late in the morning, and after some coffee/tea, took an LRT (local train) from 'Ampang Park' (10 mins walk from the hotel) to 'Masjid Jamek', which straddled Little India and Chinatown. This was strategically planned out, so we could have lunch in Little India and proceed post haste to Petaling Street to pick up where we had left last night. Quickly located a 'Saravanaa Bhavan', and stuffed our tummies with a meal (consisting of rice, sambar, carrot curry, tomato pachdi, and TS). Change of plan - we decided to go to the national museum and orchid gardens first, and Chinatown later. Another cab, another RM 15 to carry 5 people, and we got to the museum.

The museum was fairly dry stuff, but pretty informative about Malaysian (and South East Asian) culture and people, and flora and fauna, and weapons and pottery. The ladies lingered around the section on Malaysian clothes a bit longer, while we walked around fairly aimlessly :-) After this we crossed over the highway to the Lake Gardens, a sprawling complex of gardens, a planetarium, a bird park and a butterfly park. After much walking we arrived at the Orchid and Hibiscus gardens, which was truly beautiful and cooling, and enjoyed by all. None of us could locate the Hibiscus though. Another loooong walk later, we came to the butterfly park, and decided to give it a miss. We did, hoewver, sit in the air conditioned cafetaria there, had a couple of cokes and water, and did some souvenir shopping.

Took a cab immediately outside, and rushed back to Petaling Street. Today's shopping was much more relaxed, as we go there around 5-ish, and took our time walking around and bargaining. Today's spoils included:

1. A Louis Vuitton handbag (RM 45) which Sa had been lusting after for a while.
   
2. A pair of sandals for Vi (he had a blister on his foot due to his existing shoes). This pair of sandals lasted exactly 3 days, giving way the day after we returned to SG.
   
3. A Franck Muller watch for Vi (RM 110)

You might have noticed the watch cost a lot more than what I paid. This is because there are 2 kinds of pirated watches - the cheap, and the really cheap. The former category are very close imitations of the real ones, down to the automatic mechanisms (not quartz or battery), and the face and the back, and even the strap. This is really high quality, with steel bodywork and sapphire glass face. My cheapo version on the other hand had none of these, and was battery operated.

You may also notice that we seem to have a thing for Louis Vuitton merchandise, but not the money for it. What to do - we have expensive tastes. I'll post pictures of all these items up so you can take a look.

Got back to the hotel after this round of shopping quite quickly, and after a short rest, decided to head out for dinner. We quickly located a nearby restaurant called Bombay Palace. It appeared to be fairly posh, but looking at the price list, we realised that in SG$ terms, it was very reasonable. After a twenty minute wait for a table, we were ushered upstairs and ate sumptuously. Rotis, parathas, roomali rotis, daal, aloo gobi etc etc.

Once again, full to the brim, we walked back to the hotel. We were to head to Genting the next day, so I made a booking for a taxi and we headed up to sleep…