Kuala Lumpur - thank god for air conditioning (Day 150 - 153 by Chris)

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Saturday 13th February 2016

Today we were leaving Melaka to head north only 1.5 hours to the capital city of Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur. We flagged down a taxi, who turned out to be an old man of possibly 207 years of age and in the short 2 mile distance to the bus station managed to drive through 2 red lights and was getting annoyed and honking his horn at someone ahead of him who was doing absolutely nothing wrong. We're just glad to make it to the bus station in one peice.

We grabbed some brekkie and located our bus and after a very smooth journey we arrived in Kuala Lumpur (KL) less than 2 hours later. KL is a bustling capital city and like most is in a constant traffic jam, thankfully they have quite a few modes of public transport. Firstly we had to take a train to the Central station as the bus station was just on the outskirts of the city. We then walked through the Central station passing KFC, Starbucks and many other western brands before locating the Monorail line. We paid a very reasonable 20p to use the Monorail and after 5 minutes we arrived at our stop, Bukit Bingtang. We then left the station and saw that we were smack bang in the centre of the city. The description on the Hostel website states that they are located in the heart of the heart of the city. It certainly felt like that when we arrived and it also felt like we were in a launderette on account of the almost 100% humidity. We are at the end of the wet season in Malaysia apparently and as such the weather doesn't know whether to rain or not and as a result the air is just full of moisture. I think we'll be needing at least 3 showers a day here.

We checked into our Hostel "Sunshine Bedz" which conveniently is sandwiched between a McDonald's and a Starbucks. We are booked into a dorm room again and are only paying £4 each per night which will go some way to repairing the budget. The rooms are cosy with 8 beds pretty much side by side, but we do have a great view of the shop Zara across the road. After locking away our bags we decided to head to Times Square Mall for a look at the theme park they have there. Yes, they have a theme park in a shopping centre. We grabbed some food whilst in there and made our way to the 10th floor where we stood at a viewing platform watching as the roller coaster flew past us. There were twists and loop the loops and the obligatory screams that come with all good roller coasters and was made even more crazy by the fact its indoors. Gemma wasn't keen on riding it so after a mooch around the mall we headed back to the hostel.

We got hungry later in the day so headed out for some food. As we were based in Bukit Bingtang which although Kuala Lumpur is a huge city, is considered as the city centre, we were spoilt for choice. Most of this area is made up of huge shopping centres and having had a browse at a few as a way of avoiding the torrential rain that started as we left the hostel, we found a food street which was situated next to one of the shopping centres. There were lots of bars and restaurants down this small street and we opted to eat at a Japanese restaurant where we had our fill for only £10. We then headed into Starbucks for a coffee before going back to the hostel to sleep. First day in Kuala Lumpur was a hot but fun one.

Sunday 14th February 2016

It seems that Kuala Lumpur is always humid and when we left the hostel to pop over the road to a bakery we were soaked in sweat after only 2 minutes outside. We feasted on some freshly baked bread and cinnamon rolls with a strong cup of coffee before heading out to see one of the main attractions of KL, the Petronas Twin Towers. As a result of the constant heat and humidity KL has quite cleverly built a walkway through the city centre that not only keeps you up and above the traffic so that you're not stopping every minute at a crossing, but the walkway is also air conditioned so that you can walk around comfortably. Luckily for us this walkway wasn't far from where we were based and leads all the way to the twin towers.

We arrived at the twin towers around lunchtime and were sad to leave the walkway and step out into the 35 degree heat. The towers are really something to behold. At once the tallest twin towers in the world and with a very futuristic look to them they are very popular among tourists. Lots of people pay to head to the viewing platform which is a walkway that bridges the 2 towers. We opted against this though as its expensive, but also its surely better to look at at towers than to look out from them. We did a full 360 around the towers trying to catch the right angle for a photo, but realising that we were too close to fit the while thing in the shot. We decided we'd try again another day from further away.

We spent the rest of the afternoon walking in and out of shopping malls, mostly because they were so cold and outside was like an oven. We then made our way back to the hostel mid afternoon to sort out some future transport and book some hotels. Whilst there, Gemma got chatting to a German girl who had arrived from Munich that morning and was forcing herself to stay awake until evening so to adapt to KL time. She told us all about her time in New Zealand a few year previously and almost talked us in to changing our plans, but looking at flights we realised that we cant afford NZ at this time. She introduced us to her friend, a guy she knows from uni and we went out to get dinner together. All of us being on a budget opted for somewhere cheap and regretted it instantly when some nondescript food arrived. We put on a brave face but couldn't finish the meal so headed back to the hostel and me and Gemma popped into McDonald's to satisfy our still hungry bellies.

Monday 15th February 2016

Malaysia is a melting pot of religions consisting of Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists and Christians and today we were heading to one of the largest Hindu temples in this area. We were heading to the outskirts of the city where a Hindu temple is situated inside a cave, this area is know as the Batu Caves.

After a late breakfast we set off on the monorail to 'KL Sentral', which is the main train station in KL. We caught a train and after 30 minutes arrived at the caves. We had arrived around 1pm and despite being the hottest part of the day, and believe me it was very hot, there weren't many other tourists around. As we left the train station and walked the 200 metres to the entrance of the cave we passed lots of monkeys all hanging around the bins looking for food and next to small restaurants, no doubt on the lookout for food.

As we approached the entrance, we passed a huge golden statue of a Hindu god (sorry my knowledge of this isn't very good) but despite not knowing too much about this, the statue was very impressive standing about 20 metres high and was shining golden in the sunlight. To enter the cave you have to climb approx 200 steps which given the heat was very difficult, made all the more difficult and scary due to the many monkeys that were either drinking from puddles, fighting with each other or on the lookout for unsuspecting tourists.

As we arrived at the top of the stairs and entered the cave we were a little underwhelmed. The cave itself was massive and very impressive with a thick beam of light shining through the ceiling, but the bottom of the cave had been concreted over to create what resembled a car park. There were a few little shops that were closed and also some more temple areas, but we'd have to say that the entrance to the cave was more impressive than the cave alone. After a 20 minute explore we headed back down the steps towards the train station. As we passed a couple eating an ice cream we too decided to cool down and bought a couple of magnums from an ice cream shop. As it was so hot we headed straight for the train station and into the path of some monkeys. I had thankfully eaten my ice cream, but Gemma, who likes to take her time with ice creams was the unlucky one who drew the attention of the primates. On accidentally dropping her ice cream wrapper a couple of monkeys noticed her and as a big one approached I (in her words) I screamed "Throw it, throw it now!" and ran away whilst Gemma threw the remaining ice cream on the floor. The cheeky monkey then picked up the ice cream by the stick and began to eat it like a human. Cheeky little git.

Having taken the train back to central KL we headed towards the cinema in the mall at the twin towers and watched a terrible film called 'The 5th Wave' - don't bother watching it. When the film had ended it was dark so we viewed the water fountain show that runs with music and lights before observing the towers all lit up in the dark. We did some skyping and then called it a night after chatting to a friendly Korean guy in our dorm called Brad.

Tuesday 16th February 2016

Our final day in KL was a busy one. After breakfast we headed to an area called Merdeka square, which is an area that was first inhabited by the British when the arrive in Kuala Lumpur in the 1800's. Kuala Lumpur, which translates to Muddy Estuary was used as a port by the British whilst building their empire in India and south east Asia. Whilst at the museum in Medeka Square we learnt that KL had a huge tin mine and the British brought over Chinese and Indian workers to Malaysia to work the mines, which now contributes to the mixed ethnicity of the KL region and no doubt Malaysia itself. It was an interesting visit and there was a room which housed a model of KL with all of its buildings that currently stand and future development projects. The model displays, with the use of lighting, new buildings and areas that are to be developed by 2020, and its looks as though the city is going to look even more futuristic that it currently does.

After leaving the museum we walked through the streets of the city looking for the road that leads to the KL Tower. The KL Tower is a restaurant, bar and viewing platform that offers amazing views across the city. When we arrived we balked at the price of £20 per head and instead, jumped into a taxi and headed to the 'Sky Bar' which is a top floor bar in a hotel directly opposite the twin towers. We had heard that people book the window seats in advance so when we arrived at 4:30pm and saw a window seat available we decided to take it and we didn't leave until gone 9pm. During the hours sitting there we drank some very nice wine, had some beers and food and generally got a little tipsy watching as the sun went down and the twin towers lit up. We had an amazing view which cost nothing (except the food and drink we bought) and had a great final evening in KL.

Back at the hostel we got chatting to our room mate Brad (Korean chap) who was telling us that his life ambition is to take his future wife and kids travelling. He was pouring out his heart to us as we packed when a new room mate came in. Poor brad didn't understand a word of this accent and left the room to get some food. Our new room mate was a stark comparison to Brad and told us in his broad Chester accent how most the places he'd traveled to had been great for partying and drugs. When he left to go get some food Gemma and I looked at each other as if to say that we are glad we are leaving tomorrow.

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