Kuala Lumpur

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From the lazy idylic beach life to full-on hectic city via a 24 hour journey consisting of a boat, two buses, a taxi, an overnight train and a monorail.
We arrived in Kuala Lumpur strangley refreshed after not doing anything but sit down for a whole day and started looking for a place to stay. Turns out KL is relatively expensive but we found a good deal quite central. We didn't have much time in the city so we have packed quite a lot in to a day and a half.
We started by wandering around little India and down to Merdeka square where the Malaysia flag was raised on a huge flagpole in place of the union jack when Malaysia gained independence. It is now where people gather for new years and that sort of thing and is quite picturesque with a very english feel to it. There is even a cricket pitch in the middle of the square. Steve was tired so went to get some sleep whilst I wandered for a bit and took pictures so you might be able to tell the difference.
That evening after sampling some more of Malaysia's amazing food, we headed to the Petronas towers to take some pictures. This turned out to be more fun than it sounds. The towers used to be the tallest building in the world but have since been ousted, so getting a picture of them with you in shot is quite hard and involved lots of lying on the f;oor and running for the timer. The towers are really impressive especially at night when they seem to glow.
The next day we got up early as you have to queue up to get tickets to the skybridge. The tickets are free but go really quickly. We were lucky as the weather was gorgeous with clear blue skies so the view was great. Our tickets were for 11am so to kill time we wandered round the park. The park is not that exciting but as there are not many open spaces in the city it was welcome. The entertaining part was watching the fun police with their whistles who told off everyone in the park for everything. Cuddling on the bench, "Prrrpt", sitting on a swing, "prrrpt". I would hate to have that job, they must have not made it as traffic police.
We then headed indoors to the Galleri Petronas which is a really nice contemporary art gallery, also free, we were doing really well today.
Then up the towers to the skybridge, which is as far as you're allowed to go. I've been told that the view from the KL tower is better but you have to pay for that and we're too tight. Security is understandably quite tight so it takes a while to get in and then you are subjected to an "information video" which is basically a seven minute advert for Petronas oil. Once you get to the skybridge its quite cool and as I said we had lovely weather for it. There is more information when you get back to the bottom with some cool little interactive bits, well when I say cool just remember what a geek I am.
After an overpriced lunch in the shopping centre we walked down to the Culture Centre and decided to join in on a Batik class. There were some tour groups and families there so it was lots of fun.
Batik is an old Malaysain artform where you paint with wax on to cotton or silk and use ink to dye the fabric. The wax stops the ink so its really easy and doesn't run. Then you boil it so the wax comes off leaving white lines. The people in charge usually do the wax bit for you but we wanted to have a go ourselves. This proved a lot harder than it looks so we made quite a mess but the finished product is still quite impressive. And it only cost 15MR (about 2 pound fifty) and felt good to do something creative.
Now I feel sufficiently cultured its off to the jungles of Borneo (Sabah to be precise). Now I dont want to alarm anyone but they have real live tarantulas in the jungle so it might be a short trip......

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Photos

Petronas towers
We were trying to get a shot of me jumping but it didn't really work...

Batic painting
How smug do I look!