Some of the highlights from our trip to KL

OUR HOTEL-Staying in a great suite at the Berjaya Times Square Hotel whose lobby sits on the 14th floor, because it sits atop a 13 story mega mall! The mall includes a HUGE borders book store, a bowling alley, IMAX theater, children’s amusement park and theme park complete with a roller coaster! We really enjoyed strolling through the mall and got a babysitter one night and saw an IMAX movie called Haunted House which was in 3-D! Our room was great, because we could watch a movie while Catherine slept in the next room and the small kitchenette where we could keep yogurt, apple juice and other snacks.

KL HALF MARATHON- We planned the trip to KL specifically to run in the KL half marathon which we did on Sunday morning. Start time was 6AM. As this was a chip race, Dave and I decided to be the last ones to cross the start (better than the last ones to cross the finish!) as we started 3 minutes behind the official race clock and thought we would see how many people we could pass! We have to check the official results to see how we fared. We ran a respectable pace in the high heat and humidity and probably hovered around 9 minute miles. There were some rolling hills, not ONE mile marker, very few water stops, the fact that this pregnant lady made 2 pee stops in the first 5K and the course was possibly a bit long so the race was challenging to say the least! and We ran the whole way together and finished feeling good. We enjoyed cooling off in the tents with cool mist fans and baby pools! We also met the # 2 finisher in the men’s marathon, a sweet guy from Kenya. He said he didn’t run that well and finished in…2:16!!! In typical African fashion after talking with us for about 3 minutes, he wanted to exchange email addresses! Catherine was in good spirits playing with the babysitter when we returned to the hotel. We REALLY enjoyed the buffet breakfast this morning!

EATING GOOD FOOD- We visited the Bukit Bintang which is the famous street with lots of hotels and restaurants. We couldn’t resist eating at the Planet Hollywood AND the Hard Rock Café! We also ate a wonderful Italian restaurant the night before the race and I enjoyed homemade linguini with red sauce loaded with seafood. Catherine had a pizza with Buffalo mozzarella straight from the fire oven! We indulged and had Baskin Robbins, New Zealand ice cream and Italian Gelato. Dave had his minimum ration of at least one Starbucks daily.

[Note: if we were currently living in the US we would never eat at such a western resto, but we cut ourselves some slack since we live in Dhaka!]

TAKING IN THE SIGHTS-We visited the famous Petronas Twin Towers, the KL Menara Tower, Chinatown, the new train station, the King’s Palace, the downtown park complete with butterfly garden (largest covered zoo in the world?), Independence Square (start/finish for the race), the KL monrail and countless malls, shops and restos.