Day 93 : Hotel Nikko Kuala Lumpur

Penang to Kuala Lumpur

High point:  Discovering we had been given a room each at the most amazing hotel we have ever seen!!

Low point:  No music!  With the stereo out of action we continued with the fantastic Rubik’s Cube (only 1 though !)

No point:  The multi-purpose room at Kellie’s Castle

Quote:  “she’s a witch, she’s a witch, burn her!”   The simultaneous chanting of the Monty Python line at the girls who saw into the future that it would rain.

After a morning of truck maintenance and servicing in the tropical Malaysian heat we left Penang.  We made to the intended destination, Ipoh, in good time and decided to move on to Kuala Lumpur a day early!

The planned destination for the day was Ipoh, where we would visit the main attraction of the area, Kellie’s Castle.  The road and driving conditions were good for most of the journey, except for when the hot, dry, sunny day dramatically changed to a heavy storm within seconds.  The girls seemed to have some special powers to see into the future as they said it smelt like rain was coming.  To the amazement of the guys this prediction came true out of nowhere.  The rain didn’t last long so we got to Ipoh and the Castle by early afternoon.  The Castle is the unfinished residential home of William Kellie.   We spent the half hour or so walking the beautiful grounds and Castle.  Inside the building wasn’t particularly impressive!  Each room had “information” describing what the room could have been used for, had the Castle been completed!  The most amusing being the “multi-purpose” room, i.e. it could have been used for anything!  Pretty pointless!  But as we went upstairs to the roof the views of the grounds were much more interesting!

After meeting some new friends and a short photo shoot we decided to keep going and get to Kuala Lumpur a day early. The last minute change of plan to move on from Ipoh meant navigator of the day, Paul, spent most of the journey looking up somewhere to stay in KL.  With several options in mind we approached the city centre.

Fortunately, this was a waste of time for Paul!  Tim Haslett was on the case and amazingly with the short notice managed arrange rooms for us at the Hotel Nikko!  After several months on the road, camping, squeezing the crew into small rooms and budget accommodation, we were going to get our own rooms! When we arrived a the hotel, a space had been reserved for Martha outside the main entrance with a huge welcome banner and staff waiting to greet us!  It certainly did make us feel welcome!  Then we swiftly checked in to find that our rooms had been upgraded!  The hotel and rooms were fantastic. Huge 2.2 meter squared beds with LCD TV, luxury bathroom with special Japanese toilets, a very nice office, lounge area with sofa and superb views of Kuala Lumpur!  What a welcome to this great city!!

Seve

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