I once wrote a scene where the main character has just hit the jackpot and is reclining in luxury. One morning, she wakes up, pads out to the kitchen and sits down. She stretches and thinks “What do I have to do today?” and she realizes, happily, the answer is “Nothing.”
That is pretty much what every day in KL has been like for me. Of course, Gene works like a dog every day but pffft, I’m on vacation. Bring on the nap.
Sunday 11/2: Nap, massage #1, walk over to Petronas Towers, dinner, bed
Monday 11/3: Gene goes to work, I hang out at the hotel, finish book #1, take big nap, dinner with Gene’s coworkers
Tuesday 11/4: Realize I am being a giant baby, so leave to take a cab to Petronas (Gene and I had walked there on Sunday but I feel safer and less like I’m in a real life game of Frogger if I just take a cab there). First, I wait in line to get my ticket to the Petronas Skybridge (a tough ticket – they only give out 1,500-ish per day) then I walk all around the mall in search of a new purse. Then I go on the Skybridge tour. Then lunch (Thai food, yummmmmmy). And then because my feet are tired – and why the hell not? – I go to a store in the mall where they do accupressure on feet (not accupuncture, with needles), but that is a whole post by itself.
Wednesday 11/5: Hang around the hotel, watch election results, get bored (Geez, Ohio, could you not have called it a little sooner??), go to the pool (start book #2), go to lunch, realize that the election is probably decided (it was, though no thanks to my adopted home state of North Cheesecake!) and watch the end of Obama’s acceptance speech. Applaud at the end (yes, by myself in the hotel room). Gene worked until after 10 that night, so I took a five hour long nap and had Chinese food for dinner. (Yes, I am doing a bang up job dealing with the time change, thanks!).
Thursday 11/6: Laze around, not feeling like doing a damn thing, debate ordering half of the kid’s menu from room service for lunch, IM with Julie through GMail, finally get ambitious at mid-day and go back over to Petronas to buy Gene some GatorAde (only 3-ish Ringgit, which is about a US Dollar) and some “Coke Light” (about 2.25 Ringgit, far cheaper than room service, which charges around 14 Ringgit!) and proceed to carry my eco-friendly shopping bag full of beverages around one of the fanciest malls in Asia. Return to the hotel to laze by the pool again and finish book #2. Gene emails to ask if we can have room service for dinner as he is feeling ill. I agree, although I can clearly hear the drumbeats of doom for our weekend in Singapore.
Friday 11/7: Room service breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I think, anyway. I don’t remember a thing about lunch, to be honest. Spend a lot of the day at the pool reading (all of book #3), checking on Gene, fetching him cold cans from the mini-bar to hold against his face. Finally get Gene to sit by the pool with me, he lasts about 20 minutes before returning to the room (and stranding me at the pool, as he has my key and I need it to be able to use the elevator). Have to try to convince the hotel operator that in fact, Gene is staying in room 2118 in the east wing. Spell our last name for her three times, all to get Gene to ride down in the elevator to “pick me up.” The drumbeats of doom do not lie: our plans for Singapore were cancelled. I’m not mad, though. Singapore would have been fun but I would have had to put on a skirt to have a cocktail at the Raffles hotel and the whole nighttime train ride to Singapore was sounding a little daunting for the Princess.
Saturday 11/8: Despite Friday being the first day that I did not have a long nap (probably because Gene was “home”, not because I didn’t want a nap), I was still up and awake around 4 AM. Spend the next four hours reading and writing until Gene wakes up. Breakfast in the Club room (thanks, Marriott points – seriously, the full breakfast would be at least 100 Ringgit for both of us but the breakfast in the lounge is free!), massages etc at the spa (again, probably a post by itself later), then “high tea” (translation: buffet with chocolate fondue fountain, all for the low low price of 120+ Ringgit) for lunch, then back to the room. Where I am now. I’m hoping to get adventurous and steal down to the pool, perhaps to actually swim this time, but it hasn’t rained yet, so I imagine the sky will open soon enough.
(A note on Ringgit: 1 US Dollar = about 3.5 Ringgit. When my calculator isn’t handy, I just mentally divide by three and try to not have a heart attack that a single can of diet soda costs $4 from room service)