Kia Kaha KL: Good times at the weekend

Going away parties are a regular part of living overseas. During my time living in Britain these occasions were another excuse for converging upon the local and not so local watering holes andtoasting friends who we would most probably never see again. Over a decade later, it is still a pleasant excuse for a knees up and hence another such occasion occurred on Saturday night for Phillip and Yuri’s leaving dinner and drinks. We met them through kindy and their son Nico has developed a great friendship with Isaac. They are returning to Phillip’s country of origin, Belgium, and Yuri, who is from Thailand, will begin the task of learning the local tongue, Flemish. These parties are a great way to meet other people also and get to places in KL that we would otherwise miss. Dinner was had at Chutney, a North Indian curry house in Bangsar, followed by drinks at the ‘classy’ Waikiki bar. A planned early finish ended up at 3am for which we suffered the next day. Undeterred however we were pleased we made the effort the next day to attend the KL Performing Arts Centre open day. It would be fair to say that you must really scratch well below the surface to access the arts in this city, but if this facility is any indication, then it is in fine shape. There were performances throughout the day and the artists were very friendly and helpful with a refreshing lack of pretentiousness that can be discouraging amongst the western art scene. It was a gorgeous Sunday evening so we topped it off with dinner at the Bangsar night market. Sunday nights are unlike those in NZ. Instead of tucking away at home preparing for the working week, Sunday is just another day to get amongst it in Asia. We really feel that we are getting the full bang from our weekends.