Kuala Lumpur

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On the 3rd, Soph and I moved to the Federal Hotel for a little luxury (Sophie's birthday gift to me). It was a nice hotel, but very dated, and they only allowed free wifi for one device per room; a second was charged at 25RM. I'm glad we didn't pay cos the connection was awful. We constantly lost reception, and every time we went online, we had to go through the log-in rigmarole. Our password also had to be changed three times. Ridiculous.

As became a daily pattern over the next few days, we just relaxed by the pool, shopped and ate. Tony and John joined us when they surfaced in the afternoon, and we sat laughing at their water-based stunts. One afternoon, we even had afternoon tea by the pool, too. Very British.

Anyway, in the evening on the 3rd, I met Emma and her pal Leah at Reggae Club, and it turned out they were also there the night before. Not sure how we missed each other! It was ace catching up and as Emma said, it felt as though we only saw each other last week, when in reality, it'd been about six weeks. We had a good laugh, and I felt a little disappointed that I only got to spend that evening with them.

Kuala Lumpur is a shopper's paradise, but since my bank account and I are not really into shopping, it didn't really interest me. Having lost my nose stud, I was forced to head to Times Square to find a new one. I also picked up a few gifts after our trip to the Petronas Towers on the 4th. This was both because I wanted to escape the heat by strolling around the air-conditioned shopping centre, and also because I wanted Sophie to take the pressies home for me (save me carrying them for the next two months).

The Petronas Towers were impressive, but looking up at them was dizzying. The towers were built in 1996, officially opened in 1998, and were the tallest buildings in the world until 2003, when they were surpassed by Taipei 101.

On the 5th, Sophie and I took the monorail to Hard Rock Cafe in Bukit Nenas for lunch. Afterwards, we just relaxed, picked up a few more gifts, and packed. I also walked to Pudu bus station to buy my Melaka bus ticket, as advised by the hotel staff. Surprise surprise, Melaka buses don't run from that station, so it was a wasted journey.

In the evening, we went for an amazing Iranian meal close to the hotel. It's the best meal I've had in Malaysia thus far. Afterwards, we turned in for an early night.

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