Day 26 - KL

I woke up pretty confused. Where was I?! We had just pulled into the station in Kuala Lumpur (KL) and everyone was already getting off the train! I followed suit and headed up the escalator. At the top, I found that I was at the station entrance. No passoprt control in sight! I asked several people where to get my passport stamped, believing not having a stamp could only cause problems trying to get out of Malaysia again, but was repeatedly told I didn't need one! There was also no security so at least I wasn't arrested for drug trfficking! I walked straight out the airport and into the street without any checks what so ever!! Insane! If you want to move anything illegal between countries, just get the train!!! Lol!

I found my hostel pretty quickly and dropped by bags off ready to explore the city. I only had one day in KL and fortunately it was still only 08.00 so I had plenty of time!!

My first stop was to the Petronas Towers to get my ticket to the Sky Bridge. It is free and first come first served, so I waited for nearly two hours to get my slot at 17.00. In the queue, I got chatting so some Chinese students from Singapore University who were in KL for the weekend. We decided to spend the day together and covered a lot of the city in one day!

From Petronas, we went to the old KL railway station and on to the National Mosque. Outside the mosque were a bus load of Chinese tourist and one particular couple wanted their photo taken with me!!! How funny!! This being blonde thing really is quite odd out here!! After my 5 minutes of 'fame' I went inside the mosque. Again, a summer dress is not really acceptable so I ended up in a big (purple!) robe. i looked like a cross between Hermione Granger and the leader of a religious cult! On the way out, I started to take my robe off and the strap broke on my now rather loose dress!! Mild panic ensued as several officials ran around trying to find something to pin it back on with before the girls were set loose. Apparently the mosque is not the place for topless sunbathing!!! One official eventually donated her scarf pin to the cause and I was on my way with my dignity intact!

The next stop was independence square and the central market where I bought lots of gifts that I have no room for!!

Lunch was calling and we wanted to find some authentic Malaysian food. After walking around for about an hour and being directed to thai, chinese and western food, we finally found a market with local food. We walked through a fish and meat market, where I saw things I never want to see again and the smell was so everpowering I thought I was going to pass out! We abandoned this thought pretty quickly and went back to the first place we looked at with a full international menu!

We split up that afternoon and I headed to the KL tower. This is in the top 5 tallest telecommunicatiosn tower in the world don't you know! There is an observation deck at 276m with 360 degree views around the city. Beautiful!

On to the iconic Petronas Towers! We arrived at 17.00 and were ushered into a mini cinema where we had to watch a 10 minute advert for Petronas, the Malaysian oil and gas company who built the towers in 1996. The towers were actually the world's tallest buildings from 1998 - 2004 if measured from the level of the main entrance to the structural top! The taipei 101 finally surpassed them!

After the ad, we had a mere 15 minutes on the bridge itself. Not long to apprectiate the views so I was glad I had been up the KL Tower earlier where there was no time restriction.

We got a taxi back to Chinatown and were rushed out by the taxi driver as the traffic was insane!! As we calmbered out the cab, I felt something fall from my bag, but the door was shut and the driver was off before I cuold stop him. I quickly realised that something was my phone and that it was rapidly disappearing from sight! There was nothing I could do. The taxi had gone too far to get the reg number and there are about a hundred taxi companies in KL that all havet he same pattern on the car. No chance. :-(

By the end of the day, I was exhausted and glad to head back the hostel. I cancelled my Sim card and accepted my fate. I would have to buy another phone in Thailand when I got there. Please can you all facebook/ email me your phone numbers!!!!

---

---