More from KL!

Well, day 5 here in Kuala Lumpur, and things are still going well! Jet lag has been minimal, minus the fact I am dead on my feet by 10 PM and bright eyed and bushy tailed at 545 AM. (This is certainly not my norm - I am a night owl and HATE getting up early). Except for one super long day of meetings from 8AM to 11PM, I have been able to explore the city at night with work pals. Very fun!

By way of an update, I will provide a few more observations about KL and my experience here:

- Our Sheraton hotel must be super swanky, because the Malaysian royal family has been here twice this week already. Now, I don't have the same fascination with them as the British royals, so I wasn't stalking the lobby or anything. Still, sort of fun to walk in from dinner on a red carpet, pass Ferraris at the valet, and run into well dressed "famous looking" folks in the elevator.

- Even though I am not a royal, I am certainly treated like one by the hotel staff. WOW! I had dinner by myself the other night (having to skip the group dinner due to late night calls with the US) and there must have been 5 people devoted to me. One for my water, one for my meal, one to bring me bread, one to pull my chair out for me. They referred to me as "Miss Jennie" and I felt like someone super special. At first it was weird, but I quickly got over that...

- I wake up every morning to the Call for Prayer coming from the mosque. I can't even imagine how they broadcast across the entire city, but I can hear it from the bed of my hotel room. Although it startled me at first, I have now grown accustomed and find it soothing. It's almost like a monk's chant.

- Like clockwork, it rains every day in early evening (the moment we step outside to go somewhere.). And by "rain", I mean "downpour". Then it stops as quickly as it started, and I am left with terrible hair for our excursion. Blerg!

- I want to be open minded and cultural...and I want to not complain...but OH MY GOODNESS I am so tired of the food. I have resorted to eating massive quantities of desserts, Naan, and anything I can find that looks bland and plain. Yesterday it was French fries. You can see why my healthy self is struggling. Don't worry - I plan to devote a whole blog post entitled "What the heck am I eating?" to demonstrate my struggles with the buffets here.


I will leave you on that swell note. :) Things really are fun, and can't wait to share more photos from this fun city!