Kuala Lumpur: The city that has everything apart from raincoats

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'Awash' is the word most apt to describe Kuala Lumpur: the city is awash with huge skyscrapers that dominate the skyline, huge hotels and shopping malls so immense you could lose yourself for days in just one. Awash with restaurants and street stalls selling Malay, Indian, Chinese, Thai and Western foods. And quite literally awash: the rainfall here comes in the form of a relentless torrential downpour, usually in the afternoon. I arrived in KL from the Cameron Highlands in the afternoon and was unable to get a tazi in the rush hour traffic. The humidity was intensified by the choas of the city and I grimaced at the thought of trying to find my hostel in such conditions. Still, walking was the only option and I headed in the direction indicated by the Bible. The humidity required a pit stop at an Indian hawker restaurant, tonnes of food for 2.80 rinngit and sitting opposite a Thierry Henri look-alike meant I was ready to walk the final few blocks to the hostel.

That night I sorted out my flights to Sabah in Borneo. A somewhat last minute decision, finalised by Air Asia's ridiculously cheap flights and my growing desire to see Orangutans. Air Asia took a sudden dislike to my Mastercard when booking my second flight, so a huge thank you to the Bank of Papa Smith and his endless supply of credit cards. After sorting that out I wandered through one of the huge shopping malls near my hostel. Even without the crazy obsessive shopping tendencies that Christmas creats throughout the world, it is evident that shopping is the way people spend their time in Kuala Lumpur.

The next day I awoke at 7 to get down to the Petronas Towers for my free ticket to go upto the Skybridge. They release 1000 tickets a day for a short trip upto the skybridge that connects the two towers: the tallest in the world. Walking to the towers I thought it was strange that the roads were so quiet of a weekday in the heart of the business district. When I arrived at the towers I found out why: it was a Muslim Public Holiday. No trip today. Seeing as I'd already sweated half my bodily fluids by 8am whilst power walking there, I was slightly disappointed. Instead I devoted my day to finding a raincoat for Borneo. I was planning on climbing Mt. Kinabalu so needed something more adequate than a h&m hoodie. I searched high and low to no success. I did see a man walking a sheep along the busy streets though. I wondered if the massage parlours offered the sheep a foot massage too. Later I met up with Barry who I met in George Town, after miscommunications and some very helpful hostel staff we finally met up and went for dinner in China Town. China Town is a sprawling mass of stalls and food vendors. At night the body mass multiplies to the point where making any movement is difficult and the vendors have the opportunity to scream 'you want DEEEEEEEVEEEEEDEEEEEEE?! good price!!' in your ear. The food in China Town is fabulous, not only can you sample many main dishes, but you can nibble on Chinese biscuits and other delicacies all day. We carried on drinking in the Golden Triangle, but had to stop when the pints became 8 quid a go.

So after getting in at 2am, I was up at 7 again with sheer determination to get the tickets. I was leaving that night so had to see the sights of KL in 8 hours. After queuing for an hour I got my ticket for 3.45pm. Sleep deprivation slightly deflated my elation. I set about exploring more of Kuala Lumpur, with my eyes always peeled for the elusive raincoat. Kuala Lumpur is a frenetic city, there's no room or time to wander slowly here. My trip up to the Sky Bridge was fun, ears popping in the lift up to the 70th floor we wandered on the bridge for ten minutes, admired the panoramic view and had the obligatory photograph session. The Towers really are an archtitectural feat, they are immense.

I visited the shopping Mall next to the towers, which was amazing. Marks and Spencers, Topshop, Paul Smith. No shops of cheap tat and mobile phones. Just pure shopping pleasure. If you have money, that is. For me it was simply a feast for the eyes. I did buy chocolate fudge from Marks and Spencers though. I was tempted to buy mince pies from M&S, but realised 6 mince pies would rapidly add to my ever expanding waistline and instead longingly traced my fingers over the familiar boxes. Back to my original objective: still no raincoats. I did, however, buy a reusable poncho who uknown to me at that moment would become a very good friend of mine over the next few months. The shopping mall also housed an art gallery and the exhibition currently on was called 'The Independence Project' a collection of paintings, video projects and projections by Malaysian and Australian artists. It's one of the best exhibitions I've been too and as with the rest of the contemporary S.E Asian art I've seen has a prevalent theme of the Westernisation of S.E Asia and the tension this is creating with traditional culture and religion and the increasing consumerism here. It seems many people, including the younger generation, are uncomfortable with these changes and the instability they bring. Looking at the masses of people in the shopping malls it seems many are embracing these changes too. Or perhaps as in the West, you just have no other option than to do so.

I left to get my backpack and head to the bus station for my bus down to Johor Bahru for my flight to Borneo...It was time to leave the glittering lights...

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