10 May - Kuala Lumpur. Elephants, deer and yum cha.

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Early start this morning having booked an elephant tur for the day. It was supposed to pick us up between 8am and 830am but didn't show up until closer to 9am.

A quick stop in Chinatown to register before beginning an almost two hour drive out towards Taman Negara Reinforest. First stop was a place called Deerland where we got to feed and pet deer, an ostrich, rabbits and see some other animals like birds and snakes. It was actually a lot better than anticipated. The deer were cute, my favorites being the younger and smaller ones rather than the big ugly old ones. I was slightly scared of the ostrich though, and certainly not a fan of the snakes. We spent a good hour or so there, Soma held one of the carpet pythons as did one of the other ladies in our group, but the other three of us avoided it.

From there it was a short hop across to a place where we got lunch, basically a chicken friend rice. Was ok, definitely think we were all hungry which is why there was pretty much silence at that table while we ate. After lunch it was another fairly short drive to the Elephant Sanctuary. We wandered through a static display for about 15 minutes or so before being called in to watch a documentary in the elephant sanctuary and the work that is done to relocate the animals when they begin to destroy farmland and crops.

Funnily enough, the first elephant that they moved to Taman Negara National Park was called Amanda. Was a little sad watching them sedate the animals to move them, who they would be chained up and get incredibly stressed. Of the three that they moved, they only put a tracking device on one due to funding and that one elephant had left the park within six months, so all that effort ended up being wasted.

From the documentary it was down to see the elephants being bathed and looked after, and a chance to feed them some bananas before they were taken out to be introduced and demonstrate what they were capable of. Three of the adults were also taken down to the river to be bathed by the handlers, before everyone lined up for elephant rides, which lasted about five minutes a d we t around in a circle once.

Soma was super excited about it, although I opted not to go for a ride given the distance. After that it was into the river to bath one of the baby elephants which helped us cool down enormously and was quite fun. A quick shower and change before hopping into our mini van for the almost two hour drive back to KL. After showering and changing, we headed off for dinner, this time Indian.

Found a cafe style place not too far from the bar alley and had some of the tastiest Indian food I have had for a while. Delicious pander, plus a chicken and fish dish and plenty of rice. All with a moderate spice and washed down with soft drink.

After dinner we headed off to do a mini pub crawl, starting at the top bar and working our way down to a few selected ones. After two bars and two beers, we ended up finding ourselves at a few bars that were doing buy one get one free cocktails and some even offering free drinks as part of an informal 'ladies night'.

At one such place we ended up chatting with a Sydney couple who were on their honeymoon, and then eventually a German couple backpacking around Asia, and had a few drinks with them.

In the early hours of the morning when we called it a night, we stopped by the restauarant street and grabbed some yum cha before heading home for a little sleep.

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