Shop till you drop

Welcome to Malaysia, the world of mega malls! At least in Kuala Lumpur. It's lovely to be back in Malaysia. A couple of years ago we went to Borneo, which we thoroughly enjoyed! The last week has been a bit of a waiting game; waiting for Jenny's sister and her boyfriend (Anke & Tim) and her parents to arrive, but it has been very nice and relaxed!

(Jenny in mega mall, complete with rollercoaster!)

David was looking for a new Deuter bag, new shoes, new sunglasses. And Jenny needed new flip flops, new prescription glasses, a new camera and a new phone. And we found it all (except the Deuter bag, still looking!)! Kuala Lumpur is a shopping mecca. It is quite cheap here and Jenny has been very impressed by David's shopping abilities! We shopped till we dropped to find his beloved Trans Alpine Deuter bag. Unfortunately, we haven't found the specific bag yet (only the fake thing), but it allowed us to shop and shop and shop and to hop from one mega mall to the other without Jenny even having to promise David an ice cream once we finished shopping!

Poor David couldn't find any shoes in his size, so he had to get is old shoes fixed on the corner of some street. It worked out well. In one shopping plaza, the ceilings were so low our heads actually touched the ceiling! We're not being giggled at so much anymore, but people still stare in amazement at our height (and we're not that tall!).

Apart from shopping we have admired some old Dutch architecture in Melacca, a city ruled by the Portuguese, Dutch and English before Malaysia was finally independent 50 years ago. Melacca was a nice relaxing place and we stayed in the best hostel ever. While we are happy not to be in Indonesia any more (although of course it wasn't all bad), we admit to miss bungalows with private bathroom and banana pancakes for breakfast! However this hostel in Melacca was great. Cheap and very clean. And very important, free WiFi, but that seems to be everywhere in KL as well. But new to us...

The weight we lost in Indonesia due to sickness was easily gained in this last week in Malaysia, due to the delicious Malay/Indian food we've been consuming. We've forgotten what hungry feels like and stuffed our faces with roti, roti, roti and devil curries to die for!

Yesterday we had a wonderful family reunion! Anke and Tim, Jen's sister and her boyfriend, had a stop-over on their way to New Zealand and we got to spend 12 hours with them! We had a great time catching up. It's been nearly two years since we last saw Anke and Tim and David hadn't seen each other for over three years! we had a great time, although it was a bit short!
(sisters reunited)

Jenny's mum and dad are arriving in Kuala Lumpur tomorrow morning and we will spend ten days with them. Our plan is to go to the Cameron Highlands and then to Langkawi. Perhaps they might set their big toe in Thailand, since we're so close to the border once we're in Langkawi, but we'll see.