April 26, 2006

Derosa Daily - Enjoying the Horseless Part of the Journey in Kuala Lumpur

Arriving at Our Destination

The hotel was simple on the outside and very nice when we entered. Everyone was extremely helpful. The mixture of cultures (Malay, Chinese and Indian) and the fact that the main religion is Islamic showed in the clothing the people wore. A lot of women wore something on their head but not all. The outfits are very diversified yet conservative. You don’t see as much “skin” showing as you do in the States. In the lobby of the Legend Hotel, our home through May 4th, were a lot of men working on their computers.

The hotel room included all the usual amenities but was larger than most and included a computer for accessing the internet. On the TV you could choose what language you wanted and most everything then came up in English. Most of the channels feature news. The view from the large hotel window was the best with a view of the Twin Towers above and the hustle and bustle of a big city below.

A few hours later after unpacking and working it was time to head down to lunch. A huge buffet greeted us with everything from cold items, to hot, to an ice cream and dessert station. Much of the food was spicy and it was a mixture of foods united by the three cultures. There’s a lot of curry, beef, chicken and raw fish items as well as salad and a variety of soups. The carrot soup was my favorite.

We had more time to go (thank goodness as the first day is always tough getting through the jet lag) before meeting our guide for dinner and a theatre presentation. Below the hotel was a shopping mall where we exchanged money at a rate of 3.63 Ringgitt to the dollar. Wandering around the shopping area we could see that in general the costs in this part of town were less expensive for clothes, electronics, household supplies and more. A bottle of water was about 30 cents in the grocery store.

Next on the agenda was a Spa we’d heard about. The prices were definitely good costing less than $30 for a 45 minute massage and about $15 for 40 minutes worth of reflexology. The masseurs were tiny women with hands of steel and they approached our bodies in a gymnastic way, straddling as they massaged backs, bouncing from side to side to stretch arms and legs. The reflexology was better than I’d ever. I know all of this has nothing to do with horses but massages for riders, horses (and journalists) is what help us to last the long hours and carry the heavy equipment. Matter-of-fact on our layover in Stockholm we met up with one of the horse and rider masseurs, Tina Butler, who was going specifically to the Games to keep horses such as Anthem and Alibi and riders such as Margie Engle and Laura Kraut supple and comfortable.

What was even more interesting about the Spa setup was that it was more than massages. You could watch a movie, eat a meal, go in the Sauna or Steam Room all as part of the price of your massage. You could even work from there as many were either on computers or cell phones. The place was definitely dominated by men as we only saw two other women and among about a dozen men.