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Published: January 20th 2011
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We landed in the capital of Malaysia and boarded a busy coach to the centre, taking in the sights as we drew closer to the city. The Petronas and KL tower immediately drew our attention standing tall above the skyline. We arrived at the stylish looking Maytower Hotel which was a bit of a skyscraper in its own right with over 30 storeys. It was a little out of place within the Little India district, which felt very different to the rest of the centre – almost like being in India (funnily enough).
Once settled we went on a mission to find wrapping paper and selotape for us to wrap our Christmas presents with. We had to settle on brown tape and a newspaper in the end as our budget wouldn't stretch to the fancy sheets they were selling in the malls. We also took a detour to an Indian hawker stall which was selling spicy pastry covered delights – we bought a selection and enjoyed them so much we went back for more, then headed back to base to prepare for an out of the ordinary Christmas Eve celebration.
We put our glad rags on and headed to
the centre of the city in search of a Christmas feast but in the end passed off the chance of turkey and vegetables without the trimmings and settled for some amazing tapas instead. There were thousands of people out celebrating, as police had closed some of the central roads to give the city a carnival style ambiance. There were also loads of Christmas trees and decorations throughout the centre which got us in the festive spirit. Shrewd local business men where flogging cans of fake snow spray in their thousands, Santa hats and other Crimbo related merchandise. There was a real buzz around the square and as midnight approached we anticipated that come 12am the celebrations would intensify. Sure enough as the clock struck midnight, everyone began shouting and cheering, cries of Merry Christmas filled the streets and white power began floating from the sky – was it a festive miracle? No just shed loads of snow spray! Even so it made us feel like we were experiencing a white Christmas but with the added benefit of it being pretty warm! The atmosphere was electric as we walked through the streets and strangers wished us happy Christmas and sprayed us
with snow. As we headed home we couldn't help but notice that the roads were now paved with thousands of empty cans of snow spray. You literally couldn't see the tarmac any more. Once the celebrations had calmed down we haggled with taxi drivers until we got the right price then headed for bed.
We woke up on Christmas morning full of excitement however the first present we unwrapped from under the sheets was a blood filled bedbug. Not exactly what we had asked Santa for. We spent the next hour arguing with staff and demanding that we were moved rooms and they washed and steamed all our clothes to eradicate any infestation of the pests. We knew we hadn't brought it with us because after researching it on the internet after our first experience, we knew what signs to look for and found them nesting in the mattress. After explaining it all to the friendly head of housekeeping all our requests were granted and Christmas could begin in a new room. We opened our presents wrapped in newspaper then ordered room service for lunch - spaghetti bolognese and fish and chips – not quite a turkey roast but
at least it was pretty familiar grub and tasted great too.
We spent the afternoon and evening watching films and skyping friends and family before heading out for a night on the town, it was a bit of a novelty being able to go to a restaurant or clubbing on Christmas Day. However, the usually lively Jalan P Ramlee street was fairly quiet – we had another excellent meal, the first time we had found aromatic crispy duck on the menu, then discovered an amazing nightspot with a swimming pool, snow machine and cool interior, shame it was completely dead! After some wine and cocktails we moved on and enjoyed the sounds of a fusion street band playing a mix of Asian and contemporary western songs. After listening to a few tunes we decided the drinks and entry fees were too expensive to sustain a big night out and walked back to the hotel to save some pennies.
On Boxing Day we made the most of the beautiful sunshine and headed to the KL tower for the day. The walk to the tower took us through some pleasant gardens, then once we arrived, we went in search of
some lunch. We were delighted to find a beautiful Indian restaurant inside the tower and went straight in. Chicken Tikka Masala, Chicken Korma, and a garlic nan, just as we like it!
Once we were full to bursting we went around the wildlife centre attached to the tower where we saw two headed turtles, loads of spiders, parrots an albino macaque, and much more. We arrived during the snake's feeding time and saw a huge python devour a whole live chicken, although it looked like it was still digesting several others as well! Jo even had the briefest of all ponyrides too.
After that we headed up the tower to the observation deck 276 metres high. The KL tower is the second tallest freestanding tower in the world and it gave us an amazing 360 degree view of the city and beyond. We listened to our mp3 audio tour and watched the sunset over the horizon and then enjoyed the moonlit evening view before grabbing some souvenirs and headed home.
On our last day in KL we booked our coach to Singapore grabbed some lunch at a rustic Chinese food hall and grabbed a cab to Batu
Caves. Outside the caves stands an enormous 42.7 meter golden statue of Lord Muruga (The Hindu God of War), which was really impressive and the tallest of its kind in the world. Once we'd taken some snaps with the help of our new gorilla pod we climbed the hundeds of steps into the immense cave. Despite the name we couldn't see many bats at that time, but there were loads of macaques running around, climbing the rocks and being fed by other tourists . We watched a traditional Hindu ceremony in one of several shine type areas and explored the huge cave before heading back to catch the coach to our next country and final stop in Asia.
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