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Published: November 15th 2011
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Georgetown
United are everywhere! Good morning from Malaysia!
We certainly didn't stay in Bangkok long, within a few hours of Emma's last entry we had booked our flights and first thing the following day we flew from Bangkok to Georgetown in North Malaysia. Georgetown was apparently the first British settlement in the far East and walking around was fairly bizarre because there are so many different influences, one street is 100% colonial British, the next is Indian, the next felt like a middle eastern Bazaar and every second street is Chinese. Although it was quite confusing, it meant there was a great range of food, (not that we spread our wings too far, the genuine Tandoori chicken meal with mysterious dips and amazing Naan bread was too good, so we had it both days!)
For the first time, we were not particularly happy with our accommodation, we had no idea that Georgetown would be so popular and when we arrived just about everywhere was sold out... We refused to break budget though and after walking around for an hour checking every hostel/hotel we could find, we ended up in a bit of a prison cell with no air conditioning in 30 degree heat,
Monkey!
Botanical gardens Georgetown you can't win them all but at least it was cheap! On our second day in Georgetown we went to the Botanical Gardens, which a pack of monkeys use as a guaranteed place to steal ice creams and fruit from unsavvy travelers (me!) They were great to watch though!
From Georgetown we made our way by coach to Kuala Lumpur which is where I write from now. Worried that we would struggle with accommodation we booked ahead and are staying in a nice hostel in a great location with the all important air conditioning!
After settling in to civilization, the following day we treated ourselves to lunch on the top of the Kuala Lumpur tower. Apparently it's the 6th tallest building on the planet and given that the Restaurant is right at the top I wouldn't have thought there are many places anywhere you could eat with a better view. We had a great meal and made sure we got our money's worth by having 6 courses each and stayed on literally until the restaurant manager asked us to leave! Because the restaurant rotated the view was always slightly different and watching the Patronus towers slowly come into
Dinner view
The top of KL tower view was a great way to spend the afternoon, they are spectacular. (but don't have as good a viewing area)
From the KL tower we went to Berjaya Times Square it is the main mall in Kuala Lumpur but calling it a mall seems to belittle how fantastic it is. It must have 5 times as many shops as the Trafford Centre (spread over 10 enormous floors), but that wasn't what we were there for... We went to gawk at the huge food court, go and see the indoor theme park, play in the arcade and think about what else we would like to do on the inevitable second visit. We ended up doing indoor archery, getting addicted to a virtual reality pirates arcade game, and watching the locals 1. crowd around the latest Tekken game (there was a crown of about 100 people watching each fight) and 2. Dance like maniacs on virtual dance games (this made brilliant watching but I didn't have a go!)
All of the activities were based around the theme park which surpassed our expectations massively. We imagined a couple of small children's rides, but as well as hideous looking, vomit inducing thrill
Creature!
Wildlife at the KL tower rides, there was a full scale roller coaster weaving between the shops and cumulating in a huge space 10 stories high in one corner of the building, there were corkscrews, a loop and it went so fast the building shook when the car came past. It was not a very traditional afternoon, but it felt like we were embracing the real Kuala Lumpur and we finished it off with a McDonalds, brilliant.
Which brings us to yesterday... There are so many different routes to follow from here that we though it would be best if we tried to make a rough itinerary of what we wanted to do between now and flying from Bali to Sydney on the 19th December. This was however much easier said than done. We started basing our plan around climbing a mountain in Malaysian Borneo, but then we discovered that it was as high as Mont Blanc and required pretty serious training, so that went out of the window... With it went the rest of Borneo as, if you aren't doing the mountain it is a long way to go for jungle and beaches when you are on a continent filled with jungles and
Patronus tower
I think it's the second highest in the world but might be wrong... beaches. After pretty much spending the entire day trying to come up with a plan we eventually settled on a rough plan starting with a visit to Singapore, then last night we realised that Singapore is EXPENSIVE, really expensive! so we have booked in an extra night here while we decide what to do. That isn't much of a problem since we really like it here.
The only fairly certain thing is that on the 20th November we will be jetting over the Andaman sea to the middle of nowhere Indonesian Jungle on Sumatra. As well as hopefully seeing some good jungle wildlife, it is one of the only places in the world where if we are lucky we can see wild Orangutangs... watch this space!
I'm not sure where we'll write from next, as I honestly don't know, but I will let you know if we crack the pirate game!
Missing everyone
Adam and Emma
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Pat
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Travel.
Goodness what an adventure you are having. Rainy old Manchester will have a lot to live up to .