Future Music Festival Asia, dancing Gangnam Style, Kuala Lumpur's towers and the quaint Melaka !!!

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Day 190 (Sat 16^thMarch)



My first full day was to be spent at a music festival, namely the Future Music Festival Asia. When I booked to come to KL I had no idea it was on, a couple girls told me about it in Vietnam so I looked it up and decided to go. I popped out for breakfast in the morning to come across a familiar face passing me by. I wasn’t sure at first but I thought about it as I carried on. I headed into the hostel after a brief walk to see exactly who I thought it was, being Olive (I met Olive in Bangkok in December). Turns out she was here with her friends from University in Singapore. This was handy as I now had someone to go to the gig with. I had also got chatting to a girl in my room, Jacqueline (Melbourne) who was also going so at least had a few people to hang out with.

We got to Sepang race track where the gig was around 3:30pm to be told gates weren’t open until 5pm. Good start, then an hour or so later it lashed it down for 30 minutes or so, rain, thunder, lightning, the whole shebang. I had decided who I wanted to watch beforehand so knew what I was doing. I took in De La Soul, Temper Trap, Rita Ora, Psy, FUN, Kill the Noise, Bloc Party and the headliners, Prodigy.

My favourite bits had to be Psy’s gangnam style which was awesome and incredibly entertaining, Rita Ora was very energetic and I was front row leaning on the barrier so had a great view. Temper Trap were also pretty good, far better than I thought they were. Bloc Party were solid and The Prodigy were simply awesome although I missed a bit of it which was a shame.

Managed to get a taxi back into town with a lad from my hostel (John, England) and 2 other girls we met at the rank, no idea of names although one was dutch I recall.

For my first proper music festival I think I did well and I had a cracking day out so was totally worth going too and I also got very lucky as I had no idea it was on. Think I made it back around 4am but really not sure.



Day 191 (Sun 17^th March)



Woke around 10 just in time for breakfast, met Olive and her friends downstairs. The food area looked like an extra’s parade from a zombie film, it was not pretty at all, everyone there was suffering. After brekkie I headed back to lie in bed for a bit. Most people in my dorm were doing similar things, no energy in the room whatsoever.

My mate Lee was due to arrive in the afternoon, giving me some time to relax and try to sober up by drinking vast amounts of water. This however didn’t work. I headed out to the airport mid afternoon, ended up waiting an hour or so at arrivals as immigration on a Sunday afternoon is obviously busy and then he arrived.

We headed back to the hostel. I was still feeling sketchy and Lee knackered from 2 days of travelling to get here. We did head out for some food and also a quick wander around town. We saw the KL tower and the petronas towers both beautifully lit up. Took a few snaps as you do and we headed back for an early relaxing night, it had been a long couple of days for the both of us



Days 192 – 193 (Mon 18^th – Tues 19^th March)



We had decided on an early start but at 12pm when I woke up this wasn’t happening, Lee was also still fast asleep, maybe a little jetlagged. We headed after a quick McDonald’s to the Batu Caves, the last stop on the KTM commuter line. We were met with 272 stairs in 35 degree heat and massive humidity. This looked a little daunting but we went for it anyways.

We took a breather half way up to ‘take pictures’ as we called it. After a minute or so we continued and headed inside the cave. It’s not really what I was expecting. I’ve been in some nice caves and this wasn’t the best. While really big it’s also open so bright and airy. I like my caves dark and dangerous with a bit of mystery, here we didn’t have that. There is also not a lot to look at, the highlight being a monkey eating a coconut, it felt a bit of a letdown for 272 stairs. On the way down we saw the dark cave tour but we’d turned up the only day it was shut so had to give that a miss.

In the evening we went up the Menara KL Tower, one of the biggest communications towers in the world. We went late afternoon so to see KL in the day and night and that’s exactly what we got. The trip up takes a mere minute and the views are brilliant if not a little smoggy in certain directions. After dark it improves with all the lights and it’s a good spot to chill out and view the city.

We then headed to china town for some food before heading back to the hostel to demolish a large bottle of duty free southern comfort, this was before going to the rooftop bar for a couple beers.

We woke up in a world of trouble, both struggling with bad hangovers. Southern comfort is not comfortable at all. We did very little in the morning then in the afternoon took in the KL bird park. I’d been recommended this by Tammy and Jo a while back and when it was clear we needed something easy to do this was spot on.

The best bit of this having to be the bird show we saw. It was very well done and hilarious in parts. From talking birds, to ones doing tricks, sums, races against each other and a pelican that thought he was an eagle. It was very enjoyable, I think I possibly enjoyed it more than the children in the audience, big kid at heart. The worst part being the amount of free roaming peacocks that worry me. Always think they’re after me and they blocked every pathway also. It was a good activity for a couple hours and sobered us up.

We checked out Central mall on the way back which is quite famous. It’s a nice old school mall, where the shop owners actually let you look without doing your head in chatting at you. It also had a very cheap food court which was much appreciated. The night was spent relaxing doing very little and avoiding alcohol.



Days 194 – 195 (Wed 20^th – Thurs 21^st March)



We have spent the last 2 days in the Unesco town of Melaka (Melacca). We decided that staying in KL for an entire week until the formula 1 was too much and there is way too little to do considering it’s a huge city. We got the bus for around 90 minutes to Melaka from the huge bus terminal on the outskirts of KL.

We made it to Melaka just after midday and found our guesthouse. It was a nice little place with a very friendly owner who told us about the city, the Malaysian people and showed us the best places to go and nicest places to eat, which is always handy in an unfamiliar surroundings. We had some food and then a lie down as we were well over fed.

In the evening we headed out to wander the town. We took a walk down the river/canal. It’s a lovely spot at night with all sorts of lights lighting up the place. There is also one side of the river where all the properties are covered in graffiti. This was planned and not done by kids and it looks pretty cool.

One wandering the streets we met a Chinese girl who sort of followed us around the town, asking Lee to take pictures off her at every sight we passed by. For the next hour or so Lee was basically taking pictures of this Chinese girl who was posing like a model for them all which was very amusing. I got a free ride and just looked about, lee had to do all the work. We didn’t manage any tea that night as we were still full from lunch.

Our full day incorporated a lie in, then a wander up St Paul’s hill, which is the only hill in the city, giving views unfortunately only 2 directions due to trees, it is very nice up there although hot. We got some food and decided on spending a bit of time bowling. The middle of the afternoon is so hot we wanted to be indoors. So I gave Lee a whooping at that and then we did more roaming of the streets. By now we’d seen pretty much all there was to see of Melaka. We went in the evening to an Indian restaurant Lee had found online which served some very good food at a very good price. It seems in Malaysia food is very good value and budget options are vast, the only problem being beer prices are expensive, not so much to UK or European prices but to the rest of SEA. A large beer is more expensive than a meal, sometimes 3 times as expensive, which is meaning we’re staying far drier than we normally would be.

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