5-7 Feb: KL

Monday

Took the 8am coach with Elv @ Golden Mile. Five Stars coach was pretty ok, although i must comment that the duration is very looooong. i reached Royal Bintang Hotel around 245pm! The driver gave us an unofficial tour by going round & round Bukit Bintang area before he dropped us off.

Called & confirmed my meetings before we went window shopping. Was supposed to meet Ge Ping for dinner, but he was filming until past midnight & couldn't get away. Anyways it rained, so Elv & I grabbed quick lunch at Lot 10 foodcourt before heading back to the hotel. I had tom yum noodles & my lips felt swollen after that. Very spicy!

Tuesday

Met up with M'sia partner before meeting up with the President of the anti aging association in M'sia. Meeting was great, & we all went to Shangri-La buffet lunch to celebrate. All I could remember when we had our company Christmas dinner @ Shangri La The Line buffet last year, was a few of the girls were on diet...kanna bitch at by us after that. KL Shangri La wasn't bad either. Lunch spread seemed smaller, but the food was fresh. I really enjoyed the lunch, because all of us can really eat! Sashimi was very fresh; salmon, tuna belly, oysters, crab & abalone. The soup was also nice, except its too oily; bamboo clam with oriental herbs. Judith tried the salmon with cream sauce & steak with mint & brown sauce. Meat was well seasoned & tender. Then there is the regular Chinese spread (dim sum) & Indian spread (naan, tandoori chicken). & the desserts. oh my goodness the desserts! I think we literally tried ALL the different types of desserts there is available! Elv & Judith are not dessert eaters, but Meiting & I sampled all of it. My fav was a petite-sized choco cake with a layer of melting choco on top with berries....yum....

Elv & I went for spa @ the hotel before we retire that night. I opted for the "Herbal something" package, which includes a steam, seaweed wrap, massage & eye treatment. ok. i must tell you the whole procedure, because this is the 1st time I did a full-fledge spa, & it felt weird....

90 minutes of SPA treatment...

1st, we were asked to shower and steam. I think it's also sauna. After the steamed process, they lay us down & covered us with seaweed. lots & lots of seaweed. & it smelt...very seaweedy, like a fish market. it really stink big time. then they wrapped us up in giant "glad wrap" & turned on the electric heater. At that point, i felt like a sea otter...then after a horrendous few minutes of enduring the smell, they put an eye pillow on my eyes. That was my favourite. The eye pillow was filled aromatic herbs (lavender & some other herbs i couldnt identify) and nice cool beads. The smell calmed my nerves & I don't feel like a sea otter anymore....they finally unwrapped us for a good rinse. Then came the massage. It was.....ok lor. Nothing very fantastic. Give my the eye pillow anytime! Actually, I find the massage quite painful to endure, & the lady massaging me has got pretty strong hands. Finished the massage without too much screaming & finally it was over. I slept really well that night, but I noticed that I still smell like a sea otter....

The spa experience reminds me of cooking. To cook great tasting meat, we need to marinate & make sure the flavour will enter the meat (sauna). Then wrap it with sauce to ensure the taster & sauce gets penetrated into the meat for a duration (seaweed wrap). If necessary, tenderise the meat (massage). Then you either fry, bake, steam or bbq...maybe I'll bring GR to try it in April...

Overall, I think the trip was great...almost a make-up reward for the stress i experienced in Jakarta!