Mothers Ruin

Well we were due for an excursion to Penang this weekend, but for a lack of a single hotel room in all of Georgetown (Penang's main city and attraction) we'll be sticking to the greater KL area.  We could chance it, but our backpacking days are well behind us and ending up in a grotty, noisy hostel with shared bathrooms is just not in the cards these days.  In short, we're old and require a good sleep.

There is plenty to do in KL that we've not got round to yet (Islamic Arts Museum, Chinatown, Bird & Butterfly Park), so a good weekend is still promising.  That being said, the sky is looking pretty ominous at the moment and since we didn't get our usual afternoon monsoon yesterday, I suspect we're due for double today and that could turn out further hamper our weekend plans.  If all else fails, I suppose we must suck it up and make what is god-willing our last trip to Ikea. 

If you think Ikea is popular in the rest of the world, you've seen nothing.  It is packed morning, noon and night all day every day.  The majority of people don't appear to even be buying anything, it's just a hangout.  Hordes of awkward teenages swarm the place like they do any mall in America.  Our first week here, we went to Ikea on a Friday night thinking it would be fairly quiet and a good chance to grab some essentials.  WRONG. What do you do on Friday night in a country where half the population doesn't drink?  Go to Ikea.

And whilst on the topic of alcoholic beverages (sort of), Ian, in true colonial form has been in search of the most affordable gin and tonic in Malaysia.  Thus far we have found this:

It's Malaysian and not very good, in fact it's rather terrible and doesn't really taste like gin.  However, if you absolutely douse it in lime, it's drinkable.  And at a mere $3.50, it's very drinkable. You'd think that for all the Brits did in Malaysia and for as long as they were here, they could have taught them how to make a decent bottle of gin, but alas, that was apparently not a priority. Oh well, in this part of the world I consider a good gin and tonic to be a health drink, it's cold and packed with quinine.  It's essentially liquid medicine.