Malaysia - Kuala Lumpur

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After stepping off the plane in KL we took the airport coach to KL central, which was about an hours journey, getting us there for 2am. From here we then took a taxi to the china town district to find somewhere to rest our heads for the night. Waking the next morning we were anxious to explore the city, so we headed out armed with our map and compass to visit the various sights. First stop was KL's famous petronas twin towers.... they are even better in real life... dominating the skyline!!!! The city was so different from all of the others that we have visited in south-east asia... the streets were so clean and the skyline was like something from the jetsons... very modern and futuristic. On our second day we woke at 6am and headed back to the petronas towers to be first in line and claim our tickets for the petronas towers and skybridge tour. After the tour we hopped on the number 11 bus and travelled for 1hour to the amazing batu caves. Upon arrival the first thing we noticed was the huge statue of Lord Murugan (said to be the worlds largest), the hindu god who is believed to guard the cave and its holy shrines. After a strenuous climb up the steps we quickly realised that the Lord Murugan statue was not the only thing guarding the cave as the place was overrun with monkeys who wasted no time in stealing everything in sight from other tourists, including food, cameras and anything else they could get their paws on!! The rest of our time here was spent wandering the streets and huge mega malls, and taking the sky train (monorail) to various other sights including the KL sky tower, merdeka square, national museum and many others. We also ventured back to the petronas towers for some night-time photography. KL's food was another matter altogether... authentic indian dishes served at KL's little India district, amazing chinese grub served in china town, and malayan food served everywhere. Another highlight was the bustling market places where everyone was fighting for our custom (money)... these markets sold everything from 'authentic' designer bags and watches to dvd's and fruit. Once we felt we had covered the city and its sights we thought it was time to retreat to the highlands for cooler climates and lots of jungle trekking. This proved to be harder than we thought.... searching for the correct bus station to get us to the cameron highlands was an adventure in itself. Due to taking incorrect advice from several clueless information desks we searched the city for hours, riding the full length of several train lines before we found the correct spot just in time for the last bus... relief!! During the 6 hour journey we befriended a dutch couple and also 2 belgian couples, whom we swapped travel stories and information with, which proved to be very useful for the rest of our journey across malaysia.

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