Shop Shop Shop

In the morning we headed to the fifth floor for our buffet breakfast. Thankfully we were still full from gorging ourselves yesterday, as the buffet was very unappetizing and tasted as good as it looked. City and transit map in hand, we made our we to Sentral Station just across the street, via the same alley we experienced the night before. With superior skill we quickly deciphered how to navigate our way through the electronic gates and access the platform for the train. Six stops later we arrived at our destination, quickly figured out the blue token (good thing we kept it) goes in the slot so the gate will let us out, and upon exiting the station, behold, a "Starbucks"! Marie's eyes lit up and she started to tremble and sputter. It was too funny! So in we go and order up a couple of cappuccinos. Same name but definitely not same taste. Darn! Slightly disappointing but still better than our breakfast coffee and much better than Vietnamese style coffee. Really not very good. Oh well.
We noticed many of the woman wear the hijab and learned that in Malaysia roughly 60% of the population practice Islam and are Muslim adherents.
Twenty nine shopping places and our first pick was Low Yat Plaza, 7 stories of nothing but electronics and IT products. Yowza! Checked out a few shops, Toshiba, Apple, Samsung, Sony also shops carrying a variety of brands and quickly learned prices were the same as at home, if not more. Outta there and off to Berjaya Times Square. Unbelievable how many levels (12floors) and the number of stores! Marie tried on a bunch of clothes and an hour later we left with a bag full. Nice stuff! Lots of brand specific stores, Nike, Adidas and so on. Prices same same as at home. Also a Famous Amos kiosk which surprised me as I thought they only had the packaged cookies. We thought of sampling some but then saw the "Muffin Top" which only served to play on our self-consciousness and abort any thoughts of chowing down on those only to obvious delicious cookies!
Burnt out from trying stuff on we headed out to check out some of the other shopping centres in Bukit Bintang. The Pavilion and Starhill Gallery housed the likes of Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Dior, Fendi, Prada, Davidoff and more, all priced so extreme us normal working class folk would rarely, if ever, purchase anything. However, it is still a lot of fun to look and let our imaginations run wild.
With sore feet, tired everything and the day drawing to an end, it was an easy decision for us to go to the movies. On the way we stopped in for a quick bite at a Lebanese restaurant.
We got our tickets (reserved seating here) and popcorn, then sat and enjoyed The Hobbit. The movie was fantastic but the theatre's AC was so cold we nearly got frost bite sitting there in our shorts and T-shirts.
The level of shopping available in Kuala Lumpur easily compares to that of New York or Paris. A fantastic city! We can hardly wait until tomorrow.