Ending on a high

A move to the Meridien for a splash of end-of-trip luxury. This place is a far cry from my usual backpacker haunts. Gorgeous pool, an exotic cocktail and oh, what a welcoming comfortable bed. It's definitely been worth the splurge, although I simply can't bring myself to pay RM16 for a soft drink - how do they justify that? So am having the best of both worlds by eating delicious cheap Indian food in Brickfields and shopping there for my own drinks etc before swanning back to this world of opulence for a long island iced tea by the pool.

And then last night, the best possible end to this trip. I met up with Margy and Karin and Chong in PJ and the afternoon turned to evening as we caught up over dishes of hokkien mee, taufoo and porky things, moving gradually up the street from one Chinese coffee-shop-come-hawker-centre to the next. I love these places, full of semi-mobile stalls each dishing up its own speciality amidst the cacophany of clanging woks and shouted orders that bounces through the cooking smoke and sizzling smells. I stood in a grubby kitchen waiting for the toilet, watched a rat run by and thought with pleasure how normal this is, how at home I feel here, in this place, with these people. We talked on, laughing and gossiping until suddenly, quite a few kopi-o and beers later, it was heading for midnight and time for goodbyes. Time to realise how much I miss these friends, this place.

Today has been a lazing by the pool day. When the afternoon rain came I sat in a little gazebo and watched the storm, marvelled at the power and persistence of the downpour. Then in the early evening Martin came (what a treat to find him back in KL!) and we sipped mojitos and watched the daylight fade through my favourite twilight shades as the lights came on and everything twinkled, still wet from the rain. I felt quite overcome by how lovely it was, this place, my friends... and probably the mojitos. Another downpour meant getting soaked running to the poolside bar to pay the bill, where the barman kindly (stable doors come to mind) draped me in towels for my wet dash to the hotel. I splashed through three inches of water and tumbled indoors, loving it all.

Then another farewell - KL seems to be a city of goodbyes - before heading off for my wee hours flight back. Not much to say about that, except for spending a very pleasant hour in Dubai airport discussing Shakespeare and Chekov with a rather dashing Ukrainian seaman.