Advertisement
Published: March 7th 2012
Edit Blog Post
And that is (mostly) what happened. I was able to sleep a LOT on the flights going over to KL, and had picked up some flu medication, hand sanitizer, tissues and mints in London to use on the plane. So by the time we landed, while I wasn’t feeling good, I certainly was feeling better – no fever, for one!
We were flying Emirates, which was an interesting experience. I was pretty excited that they had hummus as an appetizer for pretty much all of the meals, so that made me a happy camper. For some reason, even sick, I can still manage some bread and hummus.
We landed in Dubai in the fairly early morning, and the airport was pretty quiet (I only know this because when we got there midday today, it was a mob scene). We did a quick stop at the ladies room, and it was the first time I’ve ever been in a ladies room that was totally silent. No one said a word. There were a lot of women in various forms of burkas – some were full, with only their eyes showing, while others had their faces showing. It was always interesting
to see a couple, where the man was wearing a very casual outfit of shorts and a tee shirt, while the woman was covered head to toe. Although, as I said to my dad, at least it was easy for her to pick out what to wear that day – like my former days in a Catholic school uniform!
The thing that struck me the most though was that the terminal we were in really wasn’t as fancy as I’d expected. With their being SO much money in Dubai, and having had a conversation with a friend about her experience with seeing all the gold and money there, I was expecting something grander.
Now, granted, they are in the process of refurbishing the terminal, so I’m sure it will be grand at some point. But it was much more tired looking than I was expecting.
At any rate, we were soon off to KL – and that IS a grand airport. If you ever get the chance to go, do it. The airport’s architecture by itself is beautiful and sweeping, and the shops inside make you feel like you’re at a fabulous mall – they have everything
from designer brands to the “Made in Malaysia” shop. My favorites, of course, are the Harrods and L’Occitane shops, though after last year’s debacle with having the lavender lotion taken from me in Paris, I wasn’t stopping in there again!
We landed in KL quite late and I was so glad I’d arranged with the hotel to pick us up by car. The airport is FAR from the main city – about an hour. It wasn’t too bad at that time of night to get into the center of town, fortunately, and before we knew it, we were at the hotel – the Westin Kuala Lumpur.
Our host had recommended the hotel, since they are a friend and client of his. Our group hasn’t stayed in a Westin before, so we weren’t sure what to expect, but it was lovely and comfortable – they do have those “heavenly beds” after all! And boy, were they ever.
The Westin focuses on creating a peaceful and pleasant experience from the get-go, so they’re very sensitive to having lovely smells in the lobby, soothing lighting, etc. I zipped up to the 29
th floor, and thought I’d been upgraded – it’s
the Starwood Preferred customers floor, and with my Starwood card, I thought I’d lucked out – and I did. I had a beautiful view of the Patronas Towers, which were particularly lovely at night.
But the one who really lucked out was my dad – somehow, he was upgraded to a suite, where he had a living room type area, with a dining table and couch, and even two bathrooms! Very nice.
I was just glad to lie down in a comfortable bed, and would have been happy to sleep there forever. But because we’d had to be in London for a few days earlier in the week, we were getting into town later than we normally would in advance of a meeting. So that meant meetings in the morning, and the conference kicking off the following night.
We met with the hotel and events planners and ran through the full program, as well as toured the hotel’s facilities. We agreed to decide by 4pm that afternoon whether the evening reception and dinner would be in or outside, and sure enough, it started to pour. I was napping when the storm started (and had already spoken to
the hotel about moving it inside), but there were a few loud thunderclaps that broke me out of my jet lagged sleep!
Soon enough, it was time to kick off the conference. We had a buffet dinner in one of the hotel’s restaurant – Splash (it’s poolside) – and a true mark of a good kick off is when you can’t get the delegates to leave the dinner. We were all pretty much finished eating by 9pm, but the group didn’t leave until 11pm.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.168s; Tpl: 0.037s; cc: 10; qc: 52; dbt: 0.1007s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb