Room with a Petronas view

From Sheraton Kuala Lumpur: The Sheraton Imperial Kuala Lumpur Hotel is located at the heart of the city’s commercial and business district. Many of the deluxe suites of the Hotel provide a great view of the famous Petronas Twin Towers.

From my bedroom in the 37th floor I can clearly see the 1483-feet high towers looming into the sky. Prior to towers in Shanghai and Dubai, Petronas was among the tallest buildings in the world made all the more famous by the Hollywood blockbuster Entrapment that featured Sean Connery and Catherine Zeta Jones.

Below the Petronas Towers is the City Centre - a renowned shopping mall that houses renowned global brands. Next to the Towers is the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre that is locally popular as KLCC.

Sheraton Imperial Kuala Lumpur is a 5 star luxury property mainly designed for holding business conventions and conferences. Going by the Sheraton standards, I think the Hotel needs some improvement in the F&B section and maintenance.

There is a lot of communication gap between the various departments of the Hotel. The day I checked in at around midnight, I wanted to have some vegetarian food. But the Hotel’s dining service, contrary to the Sheraton standards, could not provide me with a basic tomato soup. When I discussed this problem with Ms Cindy Young the Hotel’s director of marketing & communications, she was surprised since the Hotel has an Indian chef and even the executive chef also a person of Indian origin with wide knowledge and skills to rustle up all types of Indian dishes.

Chef Rajesh Khanna, who claimed to have seen all Rajesh Khanna films, was named after the Bollywood hero of yester years by his father who too was a ardent RK fan.

Chef Rajesh, who has never been to India, cooked for me excellent Indian vegetarian dishes and I thanked my stars that at least now a great load was off my head. I was worried by the thought of what would I do in a 5 Star hotel that could not provide tomato soup.

From the Italian restaurant of Hotel Villa Danieli, the 415-metre high Kuala Lumpur Tower and the revolving restaurant atop can be seen. In the afternoon I had lunch at that restaurant with Mr Kiyotaka Akasaka, Under Secretary General of UN, Ambassador Park, Mr Eric Falt from department of public information UN, Ambassador Cho Chang-beom, Mr Alexi from United Nations Association, Russia, Prof Lee from Singapore, UNA, Frozina from the WFUNA office and Mr Bonian Gulmohammadi, Secretary General of WFUNA (picture).

We all discussed about the possibility of United Nations and United Nation Associations (UNAs) working more closely. During lunch I asked Kiyo informally about the appointment of director of UNIC in Delhi, as the post has been lying vacant since Shalini Deewan (file picture) last served. Kiyo informed me that a lady candidate of Indian origin has been selected for that post and is currently awaiting approval from the Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India.

The food at Angkasa revolving restaurant wasn’t that great but the view of the city was breath taking and made the visit a memorable one.

ess bee