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Top of the Table tea |
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Sunday June 27, 2004 Today, another first… We paid 55 ringgits - $20 - EACH for afternoon tea! But it was worth it.
Delicate little sandwiches, fairy
cakes, savouries, strawberries, scones – all were served to us by
very attentive staff at a very grand hotel, which in an earlier life
had been the residence of the Governor of the Straits Settlements..
Now, the former Governor’s home, along with an adjacent mansion built in 1896, is Kuala Lumpur’s most exclusive hotel, and counts Queen Liz and Phil amongst its guests. Not that it has many guests – there are only 13 suites in the two mansions, with rates for a single night ranging up to RM3500. Mind you, that includes a 24-hour personal butler service. When we arrived at Carcosa Seri Negara, a very personable maitre d’ asked if we had a reservation. Now, it had never occurred to me we might need a reservation for afternoon tea, but this Sunday afternoon session is in demand even at its price, so a booking might have been a good idea. Nevertheless, they found us a very elegant table in a nook on a verandah (right), and started bringing food, and more food – until we cried “No more! No room!” So, for me at least, dinner is off the menu tonight. Monday, June 28 Taxi drivers never cease to surprise me. And in less than a year in KL, I have spoken to more cabbies than in 30 years in Newcastle. Today’s was the best-informed driver I have come across so far: he accurately picked I was Australian, then mentioned that we were due for an election, and that John Howard was behind in the polls. “But,” he said, “Howard will probably pull something out of the bag just before the election, and then walk it in…” I fear he might be right. |
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***
(left) Cutting up durian for sale at a supermarket – the yellow bits are the supposedly edible portion. Now, with a glut of the pongy fruit, supermarkets have taken to offering cartons of bite-sized durian, freshly cut for those wanting a snack as they shop. As a result, I don’t linger long in the fruit and vege section, but even that doesn’t let me escape it – the smell is distributed through the rest of the shopping mall via the airconditioning system. Maybe to a Malaysian nose it is delightful, but not to me. *** |
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Many craft centres and tourist spots around town feature artists doing portraits while you wait, or copying photographs of loved ones. The idea of having a painting of the Foreign Correspondents Club in Phnom Penh appealed to me, having seen such painting in Siem Reap. So I took along a photograph showing the aspect of the club I wanted, plus a photo of the painting which had taken my eye, to an artist at the Central Market. Today was the big day when I went to pick it up. Big disappointment – I hated it. Maybe he was good only at portraits. Nonetheless, I paid the agreed amount and refrained from putting my thoughts into words. There was no point in hurting the artist’s feelings. Tuesday, June 29 The smoke haze of last week is but an unpleasant memory. Today, KL woke to a sparkling morning, with all the mountains surrounding the city crystal clear under a rare blue sky. Almost like an ideal Australian sky, in fact. *** Randall returned from his two week stay in Australia late last night, but nearly didn’t have a room to come to. A breakdown in communication between the company and the Pacific Regency meant the hotel didn’t have him on their list. The building is just about fully booked at the moment, and reception was alarmed when I asked yesterday afternoon what apartment they were putting him into. I needed to know because we were minding the belongings he didn’t take home, and I wanted to put them back in his unit, ready for his arrival at 10.30pm. A hasty reshuffle somehow, and a room was made available. It’ll be good to have Randall back – although there are increasing numbers of company staff now in KL, none of the newcomers is as congenial company as Randall and Michael, who (unfortunately for us) won’t be back for another month or so. Maybe R & M are just used to us, and we to them. Wednesday, June 30 An incredibly crisp day again, with the ridgelines atop the mountains strikingly clear. It appears the wind has changed direction just enough to steer the Sumatra haze away from the Malaysia mainland. This morning, I am a little the worse for wear, after we had three others for a lamb roast dinner last night as a welcome back to Randall. I called it quits at 11.30pm, leaving them to continue without me. Randall at least is now used to my party-pooping habits, and the others are being educated that I like to go to bed at a reasonable hour. Lucky for them, David is a bit of a party boy. For me, a quiet day is called for. (later) Quiet days are boring after a while, so it became a question of where did I want to head? I’m still on the lookout for fabric for a quilt for back home, so this time, I started checking out stores in Chinatown. Still nothing really suitable, or maybe there was, but I just couldn’t make up my mind.
On my walk, I caught sight once again of a church which has eluded
me before. From various high vantage points, this European style
church is very obvious, but on the ground, in Chinatown, taller
buildings block it from sight. My previous attempts to find it have
just resulted in dead ends in insalubrious back alleys. This time I was more successful, but only after I had checked out a few less-than-attractive back lanes, and through what looked to be school grounds. The school itself is noteworthy – a Wesleyan Methodist school catering for Chinese pupils, in a secluded corner of Chinatown. As it turned out, the school was attached to the church, or vice versa. So Chinatown, which already has a slightly incongruous Indian Hindu temple along with its several Buddhist shrines, also has at least one functioning example of the work of Christian missionaries here a hundred years ago. Chinatown’s Wesleyan Methodist church |
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Thursday, July 1 One of David’s colleagues, Rob Bruce, whom I’ve mentioned here before, is getting a first hand understanding of the Malaysian private hospital system. Rob was admitted last night to Pantai Medical Centre at Bangsar, with kidney problems, but there’s no word yet on how long he’s likely to be there, or indeed what the prognosis is. If the hospital’s website is anything to go by, it’s a pretty spiffy, high-tech place (or maybe they just have a good website designer!) ***
After much searching, I have found
what I’ve been trying to buy for weeks – a new bedspread for It is an extremely colourful Asian version of patchwork, with gold and silver threaded pieces used to great effect (right). Now, it just means that new drapes, or maybe wooden shutters, are called for back home, because this will certainly clash with the existing bedroom curtains. Luckily, I think our new carpet at home will still be OK. *** More on durians…. The New Straits Times today reported that Malaysia is to start exporting the fruit to Australia! I hope they’ve done their market research: somehow, I just can’t see the durian being a big seller. |
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One symptom that a permanent return to Australia is overdue is regularly checking the RTA’s web cam of the Hawkesbury Bridge on the Sydney to Newcastle Freeway, just for a glimpse of Oz. And the need for home is really serious when the verdict on the traffic across the bridge is that “it doesn’t look too bad”! (left) Saturday, July 3 A quiet day today, recovering (again) after a night out last night, farewelling another colleague who has slipped the yoke to return to Melbourne. He’ll find the weather in Bleak City a trifle harsh after the warmth of KL – as we will when we leave here in a few weeks. But the winter weather and the harsh winds of August will be a lovely problem to deal with.
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It’s
durian season over here, and while that might not mean much at home,
here it means that the abominable fruit it everywhere. Westerners
generally dislike both its taste and smell, and I am no exception.
home.
When I told David, his typical male response was “How much?”. I
told him he didn’t want to know, and he accepted that (he really is
a dear).