Mandarin Oriental, Kuala Lumpur
This hotel is pretty cool. The help is a bit too eager — for example, I counted the number of times my waiter came to my table during lunch today, just for fun, and it was 27 — but other than that they’ve got this hotel thing down. And the “club privileges” concept means, because I’m staying in a fancy-pants room on one of the top floors, I get things like free drinks and free breakfast and access to a big lounge area for club-privileged snobs only. Makes me feel so superior that I want to push one of the regular guests down the stairs.
And whenever I connect to the free high-speed internet, I want to call the help desk just to talk to these fun-looking guys …
These photos are of the hotel, the view of the towers from right behind the hotel, and the convention center next door. Microsoft’s office is in the towers, so everything I’m doing here is within a short walk. Thanks to my friend Dr. Dzahar driving me here from the airport, I’ve not set foot in a taxi since I arrived.
This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 11th, 2007 at 6:20 am. You can subscribe to comments on this post through its RSS feed.
on September 11, 2007 at 8:16 pm Tom wrote:
I like the middle guy — the only real tin-foil-hat guy I’ve ever seen.
You’ve been at the foot of the Sears Tower, too — do the towers there look notably taller? They’re not much taller in actual feet and inches, but the design seems to me to be so much more monolithic and imposing. And that skywalk must be a trip.
And how is it that you keep ending up traveling on September 11? You were stranded the first time, as I recall, and you’ve been in exotic locales for others since then, right? And now Malaysia, which is 60% Muslim. Must be interesting to see the coverage (if there is any) from there instead of here.
on September 12, 2007 at 7:21 am Tom wrote:
Hey, did you feel the quake? Everything okay?
on September 12, 2007 at 8:39 am Doug wrote:
No, I didn’t feel the major earthquake that struck off the coast of Indonesia nearby. And when I post the photos of this evening, you’ll know why — at 9:40PM this evening, I was quite distracted from anything as subtle as an earthquake.
As Mardi Gras is to Lent, so this evening was to Ramadan, which starts in a few hours. But before explaining further, I must get a good night’s sleep.
P.S. Yeah, I’ve spent 9/11 in some interesting places, starting with Indian Valley and then Vietnam for the first anniversary. But I think Malaysia takes the curry puff. (by way of explanation, the headline in this morning’s New Straits Times was “Auditor General’s Report: can’t have your curry puff and eat it too.” The other great headline this morning: “Don’t shed a tear for the imperial power’s boy president.” Geez, in the US, we’d never dare that headline without capitalizing “Boy President.”)
Good night!
on September 12, 2007 at 10:00 am Tom wrote:
Good. They said it could be felt in parts of Malaysia and that the entire region was under a tsunami alert, but if I understand correctly where the epicenter was, a tsunami would have to actually completely submerge Indonesia before it got to you. Can’t wait to see the pics.
And I believe it was Marie Antoinette who said, “let them eat curry puff.” At least according to this Bahasa-Malaysian-to-English quotation dictionary I have …
on September 12, 2007 at 4:25 pm Mom wrote:
I was glad to see your blog post when I got home from work today. I was worried when I saw the news this morning and wondered if you were close enough to be affected by the quake.
I liked the picture of the longons and remember our visit to that longon farm. Did I tell you that I bought longons, lychees, and rambutans when I was on Granville Island in Vancouver B.C. earlier this summer? I should try to get down to the Farmer’s Market here and see if they have any.
You go to San Fransico when you leave Malaysia, don’t you?
I’ll catch up with you and Megan when you get back here.
Love,, Mom
on September 16, 2007 at 8:32 pm George Siede wrote:
I think that the combination of low light and slow shutter speed (which gives your photos that slight double vision effect) captures the mood of this event just about perfectly. A friend of mine had a digital point and shoot that actually had a setting called “party mode” which was a slow shutter and flash combination.
Keep on shakin’
Xorge
on September 19, 2007 at 4:29 am AUNT MARSHA wrote:
As a former, though decidedly short term, waiter myself-I’d say that 27 times at your table during one meal is a bit above and beyond. Was he , uh, bringing you things? Taking things away? Or, just checking to see if you were happy—as you so obviously were.
Wanting to push the less superior down the stairs…Oh, Doug—I do love you so! If only you could somehow multiply and repopulate the world with more of your kind. Ahhhh…just imagine the greater good that could be accomplished.
A new order.
A cleansing perhaps?
Wait! Hey….would I be wiped out?
Huh. Short term, indeed. I’d be the first to go, right? (should it come to pass, give me a few days notice as there are some folks I plan to take out with me, OK?)
And about the foil hats—”SIGNS”! One of the best scenes when the dad comes home and the kids and his brother are on the couch—all befoiled to ward off the alien influence??? Member? If I didn’t have to see Mel G, I’d watch that movie every week. I do love headgear.