Kuala Lumpur

Asia
January 23rd 2013

Published: January 25th 2013

PART 1
The car needed to be returned by 12 so we left the highlands just before 9, thinking we had plenty of time. Oh how silly we were! The road descending down the highlands was about 30 years older than the 'dangerous' one on our ascent. In one hour we travelled 40km due to trucks, hairpin bends and buses. A couple of drivers had no patience and overtook on double lines before corners - quite thrilling to see really. Anyway, we made it to the outskirts of KL by 12 and then proceeded to do a few laps around where we thought we had to deliver the car. It was madness; a labyrinth made up of freeways, tollways, a train station and a megamall was completely confusing. One wrong turn could have sent us to Singapore. Half an hour later we conceded defeat and called the rental company to send in a search and rescue party.

Dean had organised an apartment in one of the Berjaya Times Square buildings. When we were shown a small, smoky one we both said 'no'. This is not what we were expecting nor what Dean had booked. We went into the mall for

Another view from the lounge window

The 37th floor apartment had magnificent views from the lounge and bedrooms.

lunch while a non smoking room was cleaned. I didn't have high hopes but was pleasantly surprised when we were shown a two bedroom suite on the 37th floor.

For the next four nights we enjoyed a magnificent view of KL (including the Petronas Towers and the KL Tower). The apartment is located on top of KL's largest mall and an indoor amusement park and you could basically never leave the building, if you were so inclined. As we had visited Malaysia a couple of years ago, KL was not really a novelty for us this time round. Eleanor was super excited to eat roti canai, I was keen on a spot of shopping and Dean wanted to visit some galleries. So, we managed to tear ourselves away from the 99 squares of living to visit our favourite roti canai stall behind the Concorde, a few nearby malls, Lot 10 food court and checked out the Chinese New Year activities. Dean did manage to check out a few places with some art work but he is still obsessing about 'the one that got away' in Luang Prabang.

The weather hindered our outdoor activities a little but KL caters

Watching a bit of tv in the lounge

for the rain quite well, so we were able to entertain ourselves. A quick walk through Chinatown, Petaling Street market and Central Market on our last night was a fitting way to end our tour of South East Asia.

PART 2

The morning began with Dean and Eleanor jumping on the monorail for a last breakfast of roti canai. I stayed behind to pack our things and laze around for another hour reflecting on the previous four months. We caught a taxi to the airport with a man whose only English words were something along the lines of 80 Ringit LCCT. The meter said differently but I couldn't care by the time he stopped in the front of International Departures.

Unloading our things we pooled our money together and decided to spend our Malaysian money on lunch and a watch for Eleanor. A Marrybrown chicken fiesta followed the purchase of an orange Swatch and then we moved through the security check. Not a lot to do in the departure lounge but luckily we didn't have to spend a long time there. An announcement called for passengers on our flight to start boarding. I heard it but Dean

Times Square mall - or part of it

didn't so he doubted the authenticity of the statement. He reluctantly followed me to gate 18 and realised I wasn't making things up. We had to go through another security check and then walk about 500 metres on the tarmac to the plane. I guess a low cost carrier like Air Asia wouldn't want to expend any money on providing a bus to transport passengers to their aircraft.

Anyhoo, a few sweaty minutes walking in the midday sun wasn't too bad. The plane took off on time and we spent the next seven hours playing on our pre-ordered inflight entertainment pack (a Samsung tablet loaded with a few movies, tv shows, music and games). The time passed fairly quickly although I was sandwiched between Dean and Eleanor so my movements were somewhat limited (read - no armrests for me and the earplugs kept falling out of my ears).

Landing a few minutes early (and very smooth it was too), we cleared the first stage of immigration, waited for about 15 minutes at the baggage carousel while the same suitcases passed by us at least seven times and then (despite my doubts) walked straight through customs. What exactly is

Woke in the morning to this vista

'Y' on the Arrival Card? "Yes" to pass through unimpeded??? I thought it meant, "Yes - go through every single centimetre of their bags and make sure it's filmed for reality tv". Walking through the Arrival hall, Eleanor was very excited when she spotted Yolanta first, holding up her home-made Welcome Home sign.

Despite having mixed feelings - we're excited to be back, but sad that our holiday was over. It's going to be hard getting back into the swing of things but I'm sure after a few days it'll be like we were never away.

Additional photos below

Photos: 11, Displayed: 11