Kuala Lumpur

Country number 7!! Ok so we didn't stick to the travellers code of roughing it on a local bus, but time is our key concern at the moment, so we flew from Krabi airport to Kuala Lumpur. The landing was super smooth. Starving we headed for maccy ds before getting the express train into town. Not the easiest thing to find especially as the first 10 minutes of the journey is by bus!!

A 1 stop metro ride later and we were in Chinatown. We went to a hostel recommended in lonely planet. As we walked up the 2 flights of stairs, which reminded us of NCP stairs in UK (not good), we wondered how it got the recommendation!! Reception area looked good though and the rooms were clean and basic.

We had a walk around and quickly found an outdoor Market around the streets. I think it was 1 too many markets for us though, they sold the same stuff as Thailand, and all the countries before it, but without the knock offs. What good is a Market without some knockoff clothes. We did however see a Chelsea shirt where the sponsor Samsung had been printed upside down! Funny.

Again, for a china town it seemed pretty quiet so we headed to a bar near us. There wasn't much choice of bars as Malaysia is a predominately Muslim country, but there was a reggae bar, a Beatles bar and our hostel had a roof bar (it was raining). We tried out the Beatles bar.

It was pretty strange. It played Beatles music on repeat REALLY loud. It was freezing and it was dark. We stayed for a few and used their free wifi! They asked if we wanted to do karaoke. It was tempting just to change the music being played! It the wasn't Beatles hit songs, it was other songs and were weren't convinced it was the Beatles anyway!!!!

An early start for our full day of sightseeing. We headed straight for the petronas twin towers (in the movie entrapment). We knew we had to get there before 11 as they only allow a thousand or so a day to visit. We were there at 9.50am and there was a sign that said 'sorry no more tickets'! Bad times, as it was our only full day in Kuala Lumpur! We mulled around taking pictures and decide to go back to the visitor centre to ask about the next day. We turn up and there's a tiny queue and tickets available! Dubious at first but pleased when we got a ticket when we (and other people) thought there were no more...good times! Hence the photo of me by the sign, wagging my figure!

Our time slot wasn't until 3.15 so we got breakfast, looked round the mall and public park and then headed to central Market.

When our time slot arrived we swapped our ticket for a visitor pass and a pair of 3D glasses. Expecting an exciting film about the towers we were actually subjected to a 10 minute presentation on how great the company Petronas is. I think everyone walked out of there chanting "I love Petronas, Petronas is great"!! We got the lift up, I then blinked, and we were in the lift on our way down!
We must have been on the skybridge walkway (connecting the 2 towers) about 5 minutes before being ushered down! It was just long enough to get a few pictures. It was a good view and free I suppose!!

Next was the KL (telecommunications) tower which is like the 4th highest in the world. The plan was to get there in the light and watch it go dark. After over an hour(!) of waiting for it to go dark, it wasn't! We found something fun to do though. The binoculars they had must have been CIA strength as we could literally see people picking their nose on the street! It was then a game to see who could see the best thing. The best was watching people in their roof top swimming pools! Eventually we decided to leave!! The ticket included a free 'zoo' pass. As expected in Asia, it was amazing animals in tiny cages! RSPCA would have a field day!! 1 thing really annoyed us was 2 guys whacking a monkey on it's head while it was asleep, twice, which they thought was hilarious. The monkey was so cute and so human in it's characteristics. We can't save the animal world so left to take snaps of the Pentronas towers in the dark. We got some really good pictures of us, thanks to a nicely placed flood light!!

We looked on the Internet and people were recommending 'Bangsar' for food and drink at night, so we hopped on the tube. On exiting the station we had no idea where this 'night life' was meant to be!! On asking a security guard (everyone is so nice here!! Strange for a city) we found a few places. We chose to eat at a very popular looking curry place. Malaysia has a large Indian population so curry houses are everywhere. This was a curry with a difference though, it was served on a banana leaf, and most people were eating with their fingers! We opted for at least a fork in the end!! It was a really good curry, with loads of free added extras, but it did get a little bit hot for Emma in the end!

We went back to the Beatles bar mainly for the free wifi before trying out our hostel roof. We got some good pictures of the skyline before the owner came over with his pet, a pet monkey! We asked where he got him from and he said the pet shop. He said he saved him from a Chinese man who was buying monkeys to eat! "they'll eat anything". The monkey wouldn't leave the guys side and it wore a nappy and he bought tshirts for it!, he was wearing a Spiderman tshirt that day! It was on Emma's lap a little while before it ran back to the owner!! All very strange. He thought he was an animal although he had fish which were in tiny tanks! One fish was 75cm long and it's nose touched 1 end and it's tail the other. It was funny watching it try to turn around in the tank though. Joke!

We got up early enough to go to the Merdeka Square and a nearby Mosque. Emma had to wear Muslim dress to enter, there's no way to describe how great she looked, you'll just have to see the photos!! I was hoping to take the robes home with us, but you apparently have to return them!!

Anyway don't forget to buy Petronas products because we all love Petronas!!