Week 29 Kuala Lumpur Malaysia

Dear Ethel, Family and Friends,
Blood tests came back negative for malaria and I just had a case of the flu, 3 days in bed was all it took to recover. This made our trip to Penang rather dull, as our hotel wasn’t very close to the center of town so Louise was stuck at the hotel with me most of the time. We did get to see Danny and Barbabra for a meal and also caught up with Tana and Robert from the Sea English Academy for dinner, we also met Tana’s dad as well. It was good to catch up with people even only briefly.

Thursday, we flew to Kuala Lumpur for a 4 day stop over. We booked into a 5 star hotel on Wot If because it was so cheap and found out why. On one side of the hotel a building was being demolished and on the other side a new one was being constructed, fortunately we were on the construction side. Still it was right in the middle of KL on a train line.

Unfortunately, our friend Tony was in Sydney while we were in KL this time, so didn’t get to catch up, however the other student from our TESOL class, How Seng Lee, lives in KL as well. We phoned him and he showed up at the hotel to pick us up in a Saab convertible. First stop was Yum Char, a 15 course breakfast. We did a tour of the city and then we were taken out to How Seng’s garage. How Seng is an automobile fanatic and runs and owns a full auto garage to support his habit. He does this as a sideline to his main business of renovating houses and furniture manufacture. We wandered about his garage and counted about 5 complete Minis and another 20 or so in various stages of restoration.

Not long after we arrive another couple of Mini’s showed up and another owner to pick up one of his cars from the garage. How Seng had planned a Mini rally from KL up the hills behind to Fraser's Hill, about 120km away and 4000 meters up. We started out as 5 cars, one overheating before we left town and another driver got called back home for domestic duties, so we we ended up as 3 cars going up the hills. It was a fun day, as every time we stopped, a crowd of on lookers gathered to take photos of the shinny wee cars. How Seng had a friend who runs a guest house up at Frasers and we were treated to Tea and Scones at an old stone colonial hill station.

We had a fantastic day out and it is a terrific drive up the hill, through the jungle on the narrow windy roads. We will be having steam boat for dinner tonight, a Chinese specialty.
India on Tuesday. PS see the photo album for photos of the Mini Rally.

All the best Ric & Louise