From the Gardens to the Sheraton

On Saturday Gary and I packed all of our stuff up, 2 luggage carts worth, and moved from the Gardens Hotel in Mid Valley to the Sheraton Imperial Hotel.  With Gary being in the Hotel room most of the day working on school work and such, living at the Gardens was kind of an island.  All that we had was the Mega Mall to go to within walking distance.  Gary wanted to go out and explore and seeing as how he isn't much of the shopper the mall just didn't do it for him.  The other guy that is here from Nashville, Jonathan, also felt the same way, so while we were in India he moved to the Sheraton.  Our secretary, Umi, is a great negotiator and she got us this place for a great price.  It's not an apartment like the last place with a kitchen and everything, but it's a suite.  We weren't making much use of the kitchen anyway, so I don't think we will miss it too much.

We were picked up from the Gardens in a Mercedes.  We warned the driver that we had a lot of stuff, but once he saw how much we had he had to kick his wife out of the front seat so he could get more stuff in the car.  We didn't realize we had that much stuff, but since we weren't packing to go home I was just throwing stuff in bags, which always makes for more luggage.  We felt bad, but the they were both really nice about it.  As we were driving he kept calling somebody and telling them "We're _____ minutes away."  Then when we pulled up to the Sheraton we were instantly greeted by about 30 or 40 Sheraton employees!  This one man introduced himself and said he would be showing us to our room.  We didn't worry about our luggage we just followed him.  A lady stopped me as we walked in and gave me a bouquet of flowers, bowed, and said, "Welcome to the Sheraton Mrs. Washer."  We felt like celebrities, royalty, and awkward all at the same time.  I had chosen not to take a shower that morning and just threw on some jogging pants and a t-shirt.  As soon as we got there I whispered to Gary that I wish I had chosen a better outfit to wear because I felt underdressed for this welcome.  We went to our suite on the 35th floor and were amazed!  It was gorgeous and spacious!!  The man that was our guide told us the amenities and then offered to take us on a tour of the hotel.  I'm not sure why I didn't take pictures of that, but we will be there for a while so hopefully I'll remember to.  We got to see the executive lounge where we can have breakfast in the morning and appetizer type food and drinks in the evening.  Since we don't drink alcohol we use that time to get a free coke or two since the ones that are in our fridge cost about 20 ringgit.  He then showed us the spa, gym, and pool!  Whew weeeee were they nice!!  Once we got back to the lobby where we started our tour guide told us if we needed absolutely anything to contact him and gave us a business card.  We went back to our room and then the rest of our luggage was delivered.  Jonathan came up and checked out our new place because he is not in a suite, but just one room.  He was extremely impressed.
I don't know about you, but when I was growing up we were never able to stay in places like this and I know that Gary and I would never be able to afford this ourselves so I just want to give a BIG THANK YOU to Umi for hooking us up and being a great negotiator so that Service Source would let us stay here!!!  Thanks Umi you're the best!!

Here's the tour:

Here are some pics too:

The Lobby.  Sorry it's a little blurry

This is made out of rice.  They have just recently started putting things all around KL.  I think they might be part of the Hindu Holiday, Deepavali, that is Friday, but I'm not exactly sure.

A closer shot so you can see it's painted rice.

My beautiful bouquet of flowers.  We can pretend they are from my husband if you want : ).

The bathroom view from the hallway

I decided to take a flower bath the first night we were there.  It felt really fancy!!

The vanity

Our view from our bedroom of the twin towers.

Our bed!!  I wish I would have gotten a pic this morning after I had gotten up and Gary was still asleep because he sleeps in a very small spot on the right side and I take up the rest!!  I LOVE IT!!!

Our TV gave us a little welcome message!

Even with my name!!

There were fireworks beside the KL Tower our first night there.  We like to think that the Sheraton did that for us because they were so excited we were there.  There were also fireworks last night!  They just can't get enough of us : ).

Gary already taking a nap on the couch.

We went to dinner last night with some people from church and when we got back our curtains in the bedroom were closed, there was this mat with slippers sitting beside the bed, and...

we had pillow mints!!!  I have never had pillow mints before!! 

We love our new home and we are so thankful that we were given this opportunity.  Sometimes it feels a little weird that we have such a nice place to stay in especially when we think about some of the places that people in India live in. 

I am consistently working on the updates about India, but I am doing each day as a seperate post and I want to make sure everyday is posted together.  So, please check back!

Peace, Love, and Pillow Mints,

Kimberly