It was very much a last minute affair. The university was about to start a new semester on Monday, 3 February, but it felt like it was only days ago that the previous semester ended. A few days before the weekend, Afi suggested that we go for a short getaway, even if it was in the city centre. Indeed, we all needed a break, even the boys.
So we scoured the Internet for hotel deals. We looked for the nicest family friendly hotel with the biggest room with a separate bath tub at the cheapest price. We considered Port Dickson at first, but decided that we didn’t want to needlessly tire the boys with the travel. In the end, we booked a room at the Pacific Regency Hotel Suites through Agoda.com. We had friends from overseas who stayed at the hotel last year who praised its large rooms. The hotel sits right in the middle of Kuala Lumpur, opposite the entrance to KL Tower.
The idea was to take things easy. We figured we would take the boys to KL Tower for some sightseeing before checking in on Saturday and later drop by Suria KLCC for dinner and some window shopping. Omar likes fish and animals in general—his current favourites are buffalo, crocodile and tiger, all characters in Les’ Copaque’s Pada Zaman Dahulu—so the night before we bought cheap tickets for the Blue Coral Aquarium (at KL Tower) from Groupon. There were already many people at KL Tower when we arrived at around 1100 that the car park was practically full. However, not many people were visiting the small aquarium, so Omar got to enjoy watching his favourite clown fish and sharks in relative peace.
The bus loads of foreign tourists that arrived were herded straight up to the observation deck. Thankfully, taking the elevator ride 276 metres up was not in our plan. Afi has an aversion to heights and we didn’t think that the boys would appreciate the view. Instead, after the aquarium we had a very nice and quiet lunch at a Northern Indian restaurant at the tower. It reminded us of Rajasthan, our favourite Indian restaurant at Oxford.
When checking in at the hotel, we were delightfully told that we were given an upgrade. I didn’t catch exactly what the receptionist said, but only when we opened our room did we find out that we were given a 603-square foot Premier Suite. The room on the 22nd floor has a small fully equipped kitchen with induction cookers, large bathroom with separate rain shower and free-standing tub, and office area with a large desk and small two-seat table. Very soon, Omar and Imran fell asleep on the huge king-size bed.
After the boys had had their nap, we let them take a long bath in the tub. Imran really enjoyed sharing the tub with his big brother. It took some coercing to get Omar out of the tub afterwards before we could go have our dinner at Suria KLCC. When we returned, the boys had another long hot bath before they went to bed. We requested a cot for Imran, but as usual he didn’t sleep in it long before joining us in the warm bed.
We really had to will ourselves out of bed the next morning in order to catch an early breakfast. I saw people riding bicycles along Jalan Sultan Ismail when I looked out the window after fajr prayer—it was Cycling Day. The plan was to let the boys have their one last time in the tub before checking out. However, they both had a long nap after breakfast that there was only time in the end for a quick shower.
And that was the end of our weekend in Kuala Lumpur.
