Despite the musty smell in the room, we both had a decent night sleep, and the free breakfast buffet did much to raise our spirits. It was a very extensive buffet with stations everywhere, and with every imaginable cuisine to service the diverse customers. We discovered that the governmental center is here in Putrajaya, so there were all nationalities here. Hubby managed to find and devour 3 soft-boiled eggs on toast, so he was feeling much better after having two good meals and a good night sleep. Today's adventure was to explore Kuala Lumpur. We started off trying to follow a non-toll route I had downloaded to my phone to the MATIK, the tourist information bureau, which also happened to be the old British Armed Forced HQ when Hubby was there as an entertainer in the 1950's. Well, it turned out to be very easy to make wrong turns here, and even easier to end up on a toll road, because they don't have big "Last Exit Before Toll" signs here (or at least, if they did we couldn't understand them, all the signs are in Malay), so we ended up stuck at a toll booth. Eventually a couple of toll workers helped us get through, but that became the theme of the day: making wrong turns, ending up on a toll road, getting rescued by sympathetic toll workers, repeat. Eventually we made it down to the MATIK building we were searching for, and I let Hubby out there so I could look for parking. I found a place in front of a restaurant next door, but the guy there would only let me park for a fee, even if it was only for a few minutes. I said fine, parked, and went off to find Hubby. We wandered around collecting information and speaking with the helpers, then stumbled on to little amphitheatre, which was exactly as he remembered it. It was one of the first places his song and dance troupe performed when they first came to Malaysia, for the British Officers, and it was quite an emotional moment for him. He said he could still hear the sounds of the clicking of the military boots on the tiles around the building. Eventually, we decided to take the HopOnHopOff Bus, and we bought tickets, discovering that we could park for free on the other side of the building! Would have been nice if the valet on the other side had mentioned that! So I retrieved the car (for 10 ringgits, about $2.25 for half an hour) and moved it to the free parking area, then we got on the HopOn Bus in front of the building and we were on our way! This particular service had pretty bad reviews, and we soon knew why. The commentary was seldom on time, and it was read as if it had been done by a computer. It didn't matter, though, because it took us to all the places Hubby wanted to go, so we just sat back and enjoyed the ride. It was slow going, though, as the traffic was really bad, though better than in Sydney, I must say! As we made our way through the city, we devised a plan to come back to the Tower, where they had a revolving restaurant, and have dinner if possible. By the time we got to the famous Petronas Towers (with the skybridge made so popular from Bond and Mission Impossible movies), they had sold out for the day (which closed early, being Friday). This is a Muslim country now, and most of the women are dressed in hajibs (even the ones riding motorcycles!), and everything closes early on Friday, so we were out of luck for that. We got back on the bus until we reached the Tower, and discovered that we were too late to make dinner reservations as well, so we grabbed a taxi and went back to the MATIK building, and had dinner in the restaurant there, which we enjoyed very much (though they were out of Guinness, so we ended up with Tiger draft, the beer Hubby always drank when he was here in the 1950's). After dinner, we made out way back to the hotel, got REALLY lost this time, now that it was dark, and once again ended up on toll roads at the mercy of the toll workers. Eventually we made it back to the hotel, realizing now that it was impossible to go anywhere without paying tolls, so I did some research and discovered the best way to solve the problem was to get a TouchNGo card that I could purchase at any gas station, so that little chore has been added to the schedule tomorrow! We headed up to our room, which, although a little better, still had that musty smell to it. Too tired to care!
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