THE BIG TRIP BEGINS..

---

After a long 13 hour flight we stepped off the plane into the 32 degree heat of Kuala Lumpur. It was 5pm but our bodies and minds were still on UK time so to us it was 10am. The curry with dried anchovies we were served for lunch at 2pm (or about 7am to us) did nothing to help our confusion.

We collected our bags and found our taxi. Our driver told us it would take an hour to reach the city as we had arrived during the madness of rush hour. As we approached the city we got our first glimpse of the Petronas Towers. We knew our hotel was close to the towers so we were expecting to arrive sooner than expected. Unfortunately once we were in the centre it took us 30 minutes to travel 100 meters surrounded by constantly beeping horns and crazy dare devil moped drivers.

Checking into our hotel could have gone smoother. We were given our key and made our way to our room on the 11th floor. I put the key card in and opened the door and was very surprised that the first thing we saw was men’s clothes hanging up. This was closely followed by a man shouting from the shower! This was also much to the surprise of the hotel receptionist who had no idea why there should be a man taking a shower in our room. Finally we were given a new room on the top floor. We dumped our bags and went to explore our new surroundings.

We headed straight for China Town, which was only about a 10 minute walk from our hotel. We wandered through stalls selling everything from watches to chicken feet as thousands of beautiful brightly coloured lanterns dangled above our heads. We were highly amused by some of the many adverts, bill boards and shop names.

We were exhausted and the heat was stifling so we took a seat at one of the open air food stalls and ordered a tiger beer and some of the most tasty Chinese food we have ever eaten. We were determined not to give into the tiredness and stay awake till a reasonable time, so we sat back and watched the hustle and bustle carry on around us while we had a few more beers. At around midnight we strolled back to our hotel and literally passed out.

---