KL, Malaysia Day 15

Again Christian awoke for a sunrise that didn’t happen, due to the cloud cover that my tormented skin gratefully welcomed. We went to breakfast with the family at the buffet, and this time ate very little. It was our last meal at Leguna Redang.
We went back to the room to pack our two large suitcases, then visited the pristine beach one last time for some necessary photos together, since we have actually very few from this trip. I frolicked in the water up to my knees, but some of the waves broke a little high and the bottom of my dress was soaked. Check-out was at 11 for some reason, so we sat with the Wangs in the lobby whilst waiting for Ric and Christine to come down. It was hot and we had no idea what to do for the two hours until the boat departed for the mainland. We ended up remaining in the lobby catching up on the blog and enjoying some freshly squeezed juice, while Christine and Ric visited the internet room.
At 12:30 we boarded the little wooden transport vehicle to the boat, which took off for the mainland promptly at 1pm.
For some strange reason they played rap music, of all things, in the cabin, although it was far better than the cheesy western lounge music they played going out. The ride was a fairly turbulous 50 minutes, and once we disembarked we jumped onto the bus to the airport. Unfortunately, Christian stepped on my tortured, just healing toe. Because it is bandaged, I had no idea what condition it was in. The bus guide, Alan Won, advised us that they would first take us for lunch before getting us to the airport for 4:30pm.
The bus traveled along the road passing many cows and goats, casually grazing exposed on the roadside. We saw coconuts as numerous as the flowers strewn along the ground. Some homes were in fair condition, but many were little better than shacks built with tin and old wood, many on stilts, presumably to protect them come monsoon season later in the year.
We stopped at a roadside "restaurant" called Mat's Keropok Losong, and disembarked the bus enmasse to overtake the establishment. Christian was feeling tummy achy, so he only had a lime ice cream while we had more substantial fair. I settled on nati goreng (fried rice) and an iced coffee. The sight of the muslim waitresses with their headscarves assured me that pork wasn’t on the menu here. For some reason, a gaggle of Indonesian women started hoarding boxes of peanuts, buying some legitamately and pocketing the packets left out for diners on the tables. We paid for the lunch, which amounted to RM21 (£3.05) for 6 people, all of which had a proper meal except for my delicate husband. When lunch was over, Christian and Ricardo decided to get some icecream for the road. Christian took one look at the Hello Kitty Wonder Cup with free toy and couldn’t resist. He thoroughly enjoyed the fluffy chocolate ice cream inside and started to play with the little Hello Kitty figure on a train that nestled at the bottom.
We reached the little, dinky airport at 4, forced to wait in the stifling heat till 4:30 check-in. A single, unsubstancial fan only served to move the heat about the room. A passenger had left their bag unattended and Richard reported it to two bored, disinterested security guards, who handled the situation by walking away and nesting under a fan. Meanwhile, I asked the service desk if I could borrow a pair of scissors so I could re-bandage my toe. She handed me a large razor blade and was happy for me to walk off with it. Instead, I used it within view and promptly returned it.
We were the first to go through security which was blissfully air conditioned, and proceeded to wait almost two hours for our 6:30pm departure. Today we did a lot of waiting and traveling.
I sat complaining about the sheer level of ennui felt while sitting in the utterly uninteresting departures area, and Christian replied 'You can’t even earwig on other peoples conversations because its all in clatterbang.' which tickled me.
My boredom was complete and only relieved somewhat when Ricardo started playing some of Apacalypto on his laptop. The moment we saw the plane land everyone stood up and waited at the gate doors. We were some of the first out, so all got to sit near each other in the front. It was a brief flight back to KL, and Christian amused himself by reading the McDonald's Times, which he found in the seat pocket in front of him. It was one big ad, but with pictures which kept him occupied.
Once the plane landed in KL we disembarked via the stairs and reclaimed our baggage at arrivals. We had decided to get a bus to KL Sentral Station for 9 ringgit, rather then hire a private car which was far more expensive. We had to wait a bit, but finally boarded the bus and headed about an hour to the rail station near Little India. We jumped off the bus, and got into three cars; Christine went off to her flat, Ricardo and his parents, and finally Christian and I.
Because of the many hours of travel, we only arrived at the hotel for 10pm. That left us precious little time to get dinner. The first room they gave us was not acceptable, as it smelled smokey, so they moved us to another, 2118. We raced down to the Midvalley Megamall, and since everything was closing went to the Jusco grocery store on the Lower ground floor, which was just closing up. We grabbed some ice cream, some 100 Plus, and teriyaki chicken, rice, and fried chicken for Christian. Whilst we were checking out at the till, the power in all registers went out. Bugger. We waited so long that I grabbed the nice British store manager and he personally reheated all necessary items for us. Funnily enough, he was from a town about 10 miles from us.
We finished the day picnicking in our room.