Crazy K.L has a bit of everything!

Well Malaysia has come and gone, and although it was only a whirlwind 3 day tour we had heaps of fun and excitement! We arrived in the capital, Kuala Lumpur (known as KL), on Thursday morn about 6am local time after sleeping very little. We were able to check straight into our hotel and after putting our bags in the room decided to head straight out and hit the streets. We walked out the front door of the hotel and were mobbed by waiting taxi drivers asking where we wanted to go. They didn't have any meters and told us upfront how much it would cost to get to our destination (we later discovered you could bargain them down in price). First stop was huge gardens near the city with a butterfly enclosure and orchids. The weather was warm and humid and as we walked down from the gardens we came across a pack of wild monkeys on the move. There were at east 30 of them and lots of baby ones too. They weren't shy and were used to posing for photos.

We hit up a local Chinese restaurant and both had a beautiful duck meal for lunch with was super-cheap compared to Oz. Later that night we headed out and hit the local shopping malls and had another super-cheap meal. We found some markets on the way home and got some cheap sunglasses and DVDs.

On day 2 we found a local taxi driver who remembered us from the day before and he offered to be our driver for the whole day, waiting for us in between stops. We were out from from 9am to 5pm and he waited up to 3 hours in the car park. And only cost us AUS$40. First stop was the KL zoo which has a great range of animals including all the big cats and bears, hippos, elephants, and of course heaps of monkeys. The really special thing was the Savannah Walk where you could see giraffes and zebras roaming in a huge open area.

From there we headed to the Batu Caves which are huge limestone caves up in the hills. To get up there they have built a huge 272 steep staircase. Before embarking on the climb we grabbed a bite to eat from a vegetarian Indian place where the food is served on a banana leaf and the food is made to taste like meat. We had vege chicken which actually tasted like chicken (they use some sort of soy product).

The climb was made more entertaining by the hordes of monkey on the way and the great view back towards the city. Inside there was a Hindu temple.

Next we headed to the Royal Selangor pewter factory for a tour and some shopping. We saw the world’s biggest beer mug which is made from pewter and is a few metres tall!

Exhausted, we asked our faithful taxi driver to take us home. That night we felt like some western style food and found a great South American restaurant and had some quality steak and lamb shank.

The next day we decided to head to the Petronas twin towers, the largest in the world at 452 metres high! We were told to go really early as its free to go up to the viewing platform and the tickets are limited. So we arrived at 8:30am and waited in line with hundreds of others and finally were giving a ticket after about 2 hours. The ticket was for 3:30pm that afternoon so we hit the huge shopping mall under the towers and the beautiful park and fountains outside. We headed home for lunch and tried some traditional Malay food with fried rice and chicken satay and drank some more local Tiger beer which has become a favourite! We then headed back to the towers and got to go up about halfway to a skybridge that links the two towers and provides support. The view was great but not that clear, so we headed down to the park to get some pics of the towers from a distance. At night we headed out to Chinatown to hit the night markets and grabbed some street food and more Tiger. We bartered for some $5 t-shirts and were mobbed by street vendors eager for our business. We soon had enough of the crowds and headed home.

Next morning we were up early to get to the airport as we flew out for London at 12 noon.
The flight to London was smooth and comfortable. Look for an update on our first days in London soon.

Leaving on a jet plane

Well, the time has come...

Our bags have been packed and re-packed, currency exchanged, and many goodbyes said. Tomorrow we leave a Brisbane winter for tropical Malaysia (average 30 degrees, 80% humidity), and after a few days of sight-seeing, spicy cuisine and monkeys, we'll head to England for a "balmy" summer (18 degrees, or so).

First stop: Kuala Lumpur.
Visit soon for updates and photos (riding elephants, chasing monkeys, kissing cheetahs...)