I had worked 12 days straight. No time off since Singapore. So come 6 pm last night, it was time to declare a BREAK.

We walked to Sentul Park. Always a nice walk, this, along Jalan Ipoh (see here and following).

We had dinner at Bistro Richard. A pleasant little place, with its terrace overlooking the pond, and its Tiffany lamps. Nothing wrong with the passion fruit lemonade, the Caesar salad, or the creme brulee, either.

After dinner we watched a Malay opera. At the KL Performing Arts Centre. This featured the tale of Puteri Saadong, a 17th-century princess of Kelantan.

It's a terribly sad story. Although the princess is betrothed to Raja Abdullah, whom she loves, her beauty fires the desire of the king of Siam, Raja Narai. In order to possess her, he lays waste to Kelantan, and threatens Abdullah. To save Abdullah's life, Saadong allows herself to be dragged off to Narai's palace. Although her magical hairpin saves her from further unwelcome attentions, the power of the spell also wears both of them down. Eventually allowed to leave, Saadong makes her slow, painful way back to Kelantan, only to find that Abdullah has married someone else... As the programme puts it, she was "overwhelmed with rage", and "unintentionally stabbed him with her hair pin". But it didn't look that unintentional to us... She then disappears off into the mountains.

So everything is ruined... Nobody gains. All Narai's fault.

The music was rather lovely. A mix of opera and mak yong, gamelan and Western instruments, choir and electronics. Very atmospheric in parts. It was performed rather than staged, but the costumes were gorgeous.

We walked back through the quiet, froggy park, and caught the bus home, delayed only by our first police ID check.

This morning, after a quick roti across the road, we monorailed into town. We'd been to (and eaten in) Brickfields before, but today -- armed with a map and a set of instructions -- we set about a much more detailed exploration.



This is a wonderful little area. Full of history. And full of the most eclectic mix of religious practice. No more than a kilometre from KL Sentral are the St Mary's Orthodox Syrian Cathedral, a string of churches (Our Lady of Fatima, the Evangelical Lutheran, the Tamil Methodist, and the Holy Rosary), the Maha Vihara Buddhist complex, the Madrasatul Gouthiyyah, the Vivekananda Ashram, the Sri Sakthi Karpaga Vinayagar and Sri Kandaswamy temples, and the Sam Kow Tong temple.







It's also a place that's chock full of those KL contrasts that I love. All around -- even in amongst -- these low, gracious buildings are the thrusting, modern high-rise blocks. In the heart of the still-being-built city centre is the serene tranquillity of the area round the Maha Vihara and the Temple of Fine Arts.









From here we went to the Aku Cafe, off Petaling Street, for restorative coffee and cake. An hour or so just disappeared in this pleasant place, as we sipped Mandheling and listened to old-fashioned Chinese songs.



We walked next to Masjid Jamek, and took the LRT to PWTC, where only the other day I took some morning photos:



We rounded off this epic DAY OFF with a Persian lunch at Kakh.

Date milk... I'd not had date milk since I was in Iran... Fabulous dates they have in Iran...

Where was I? Oh, yes -- very fluffy rice, a flat beef kebab that was really tender and marinated in something delicious, a dish of lentils and eggplant, and a pot of tea. I swear the picture on the teapot was Reza Shah. The little teapot stand/candle burner had one to match. The whole tea contraption came on a round pink glass tray, and we drank our tea out of matching pink glasses. We were just finishing up when some lads arrived to eat and play backgammon.

Then we sauntered home.

Tomorrow I'll have to work again.

But days like this keep me going. I love living here.