KK is 'kay

After an even worse night sleep feeling freezing cold then sweating profusely, wanting to be sick and generally just feeling like death, I had a lie in and didn't get out of the hostel until about midday. I avoided breakfast but accepted some melon and pineapple that Matt bought just outside our hostel. Of course, it then followed that I dropped my piece of melon on the floor which Matt found hilarious. I was quite upset. There was no going back for that piece of melon. We had done some planning though (whilst I was suffering) and had booked another flight from KK to Singapore meaning no going back to Brunei (yay) and no stopping off at KL again. Yes, it cost us an extra £50 and we wasted a flight but it would save us two days travelling and give me time to recover. Also, extra days in nice places like KK and Singapore! Because of this extra time we have another whole day tomorrow so we wanted to book a tour to see some monkeys. We found a travel agent and booked a river cruise to find the proboscis monkeys which can only be found in this part of the world (apparently). There was also something about seeing fireflies at night that sounded exciting so it was a look forward to for tomorrow. 

By this point it was lunch time and Matt was needing food. We sat down at a nice looking cafe and I ordered a boily egg and toast. It's a staple ill food. However, when it came I thought it wasn't cooked properly until a girl came over and sorted me out. She cracked the eggs (there were two) and poured them into a bowl before mixing them up and adding some pepper and soy sauce. They were a little cooked but in my opinion the white could have been done a little more. However, I followed her instructions and dipped my toast in. It was good. But eggs are always good. I love eggs. 

After lunch we walked to the central market to see what that had to offer. It was mainly food which was okay but the smell of the Durian fruit was disgusting. Durian fruit is the worst and stinks out everywhere (in some places it's banned). I also needed to sit down so we went into a mall next to the market and found a bench. Matt went off to the supermarket and brought me back some yoghurt drinks which were quite nice. We were sat right next to a hair dressers which looked quite nice and since I wasn't keen on standing up for a few hours I decided to get a hair cut. Matt got one too as his hair grows at a stupidly fast speed. For a fiver I got my hair washed (actually scraped which wasn't the nicest but I powered through it), blowdried and cut. Not bad. 

Following the haircut (and rest) we walked to see the clock tower and up some steps to a view point where we could see the whole city. Unfortunately, it then started to rain. Heavily. We sat under cover for half an hour or so before braving it and heading out to find somewhere for tea. The guide book had told us about a place so we stopped in there. It was busy and dry and looked good. Turns out it was Chinese (we hadn't actually read what it was) but I ordered a prawn curry that was delicious. It was lemony and coconutty with big meaty prawns that had loads of flavour. It was like they'd been fried before being added to the curry. The big onions that were in it were the same. And I always think tomatoes in a curry are a genius idea. They seem to absorb loads of the flavour as well as add flavour to the sauce. Unfortunately, I couldn't eat it all but this just made Matt happier. It's very handy having someone to finish food for you. Makes me feel less guilty for leaving it. 

As we were walking back to the hostel we passed a nice looking lively bar. It may have not been the wisest of ideas seen as I was still not very well but we stopped for a drink. Our choices of two different tea cocktails were good, one being called exotic zing and the other summer fling. Exotic zing was some kind of tea with passion fruit and rum that is a great combination and the other was gin with lemongrass, ginger and green tea. We're both gin fans but actually preferred the rum drink (probably because of the passion fruit). Maybe one glass of alcohol will help me go straight to sleep...

Escaping Brunei

We managed to wake up early enough but I had had a very bad night sleep due to having a temperature and Matt is just slow anyway so we didn't have time for breakfast before leaving for the bus. However, we chose to get a water taxi again to save us time and save me energy. The journey was hideous. It was bad enough yesterday but today I had my big bag on my back and I was ready to vom at any second so I'm still not sure how I survived it. Nevertheless, I made it without throwing up and we were actually very early for the bus. This meant we could go and sit down for a leisurely breakfast instead. I managed a couple of pieces of French toast before I couldn't stomach anymore. Being ill whilst travelling isn't the best. 

The bus took 8 hours in total with various border crossings (out of Brunei and into Malaysia then into Brunei again and finally out and into Malaysia once more) and an hour stop for lunch. We sat down at a little place near the bus for food and chose the home cooked grub they had on offer. The rice and onions and green veg was good but I couldn't finish it (luckily Matt finished it for me). 

We arrived in Kota Kinabalu at around 4pm and took a while to find our hostel as we needed to find wifi to get its address. I pretty much went straight to sleep when we dumped our bags and slept for a good two hours (Matt also napped) before deciding that getting food would be a good idea. We headed for the night market by the harbour and sat down at a pop up restaurant. They were all serving seafood which wasn't top of my list to eat when feeling under the weather but I ordered a plate of fried squid (calamares) along with an orange juice which I finished easily. On the way back we passed a crispy pancake stand so Matt ordered two and I had a chocolate one that also had peanuts in it. It was warm and comforting and small so I could stomach it. Chocolate is the best cure (maybe tomorrow I'll be cured). 

Brunei doesn't like me

After some toast in the empty kitchen (I swear there were no other guests) we started the walk to town to see if we could go the the Temborong national park, Brunei's only national park. After walking five minutes, we discovered you could get a speed boat into the city for a couple of dollars (a pound) so happily accepted an offer of a ride. The ride was very uncomfortable. The boat slapped up and down on the water and so we jumped up and down on the wooden benches, my bum being bruised over and over again. Luckily, it was only a five minute boat ride so we jumped off and then looked into getting another speed boat (this one was bigger and more comfy) to a place nearer the national park. We asked the ticket guy about the national park and he seemed very negative, saying we couldn't go there as it was too late (it was before 8am) but then he said we could get on the boat to Bangar (the place near the park). This should have been our first clue as to how accessible the park is but we ignored his advise and got the boat anyway (it was only £3 each). 

This speed boat had padded seats and a cover and smoothly sailed through the water making it very luxurious compared to the last. This boat ride ended up being my favourite part of the day. We streamed along the river as it got narrower, trees hanging over the edges of the water, the boat tipping in a satisfying way as we meandered around the bends. It was calming and made me very sleepy. When we arrived in Bangar 40 minutes later we quickly realised there was no transport onto the next place and when we asked a lady about the national park she informed us that trips were only possible when booked with a tour operator. We thought about booking on a tour but they cost £50 just for one day which we decided was just too expensive. This meant we'd had a wasted journey and so got on another boat back to Bandar Seri Begawan. 

In the city, we walked through the food market but were quickly out of there as Matt wasn't feeling one hundred percent and the smell of fish wasn't the nicest. Instead, we sat down in a cafe and had an iced coffee before planning our lives all over again. The only draw to Brunei was the national park and as we'd ruled out the pricey tour there wasn't anything else to do. This meant the best thing for us would be to get out of Brunei and into Malaysian Borneo until our return flight to KL. We researched a few places, discovering that all other national parks in Borneo weren't accessible without a guide making them just as pricey. This ruled out all national parks. Matt read up about Kota Kinabalu, a city north east along the coast that sounded quite nice so that was our choice of destination. 

To make the most of the rest of the day we set out to explore BSB and see what it had to offer. Without a map (we'd left ours at the hotel thinking we'd be in a national park all day) we managed to find a big mosque that looked like something out of Aladdin. It was more impressive on the outside than the inside (inside it looked a bit 70s) but I did get to wear a big robe and a scarf when I entered the mosque. 

From the mosque we started to walk towards where I thought were some hawker stalls. We just ended up walking aimlessly for an hour before stopping for some mediocre food (a weird chicken curry that was cold) and then managing the get a bus back into the centre. When I say bus I don't really mean bus. It was a minibus that runs as a private bus but picks people up if they wait at bus stops. It cost us a dollar each (50p each) so we accepted the lift and instead decided to find out more about buses to Borneo. 

We found a travel agent place and were able to ask the lady inside about the best mode of transport. She advised us to get the 8am bus the next morning that would take us straight to KK. Perfect! With that planned we sat down for a glass of ice tea in a food court round the corner before walking along the harbour, trying to pass the time before tea. This proved to be rather boring so instead Matt came up with the idea that we buy food and cook it in the kitchen at the hotel. So we did just that. 

After the long walk back I set to work with a kettle and a microwave, creating a masterpiece. It wasn't quite a masterpiece but noodles with a sauce and veg (even sugar snap peas) wasn't a bad meal. I found the sauce too spicy though but managed to eat nearly a full plate. Matt ate at least two plates. We were pretty boring and washed our clothes before going to bed early so we were ready for our bus in the morning. Hopefully Borneo will be better than Brunei. 

I don't like Brunei

Our nice shiny new hostel put on a superb breakfast of pears, toast with lovely raspberry jam and butter, Greek yoghurt with passion fruit, cheese slices (yes, a little odd) and a delicious latte (Matt had tea). It was a little rushed as we needed to catch a bus to the airport from round the corner as soon as we could (as usual I was a bit stressy and Matt was annoyingly calm). Luckily, as soon as we got to the bus station there was a bus about to leave that we got straight on to and made it to the airport in perfect time. 

After checking in, we got an earlyish lunch as we knew we wouldn't land until late afternoon. For an airport, it wasn't actually too expensive so we chose a chicken curry with a pancake thing (might have been called a dosai) each (a little too spicy for me but still very nice). It was time to board our flight by the time we'd finished eating so strolled onto the plane and landed in Brunei just before 4pm. 

We quickly discovered the airport wasn't large which didn't matter too much but meant that there weren't very frequent buses into the centre of Bandar Seri Begawan, the capital of Brunei. Nevertheless, we found the bus stop and waited for a good half an hour whilst the taxi guys laughed at us. In the end, we gave up and got a taxi straight to our hotel (which was a little out of town anyway) that probably would have cost nearly the same as two buses. Still, I felt like we were giving up and so begrudgingly got into the taxi. This made me start to dislike Brunei. Anywhere with unreliable transport for a backpacker isn't considered nice. 

At our hotel, which we'd booked online (there was very little to choose between), we realised how far out of town it actually was. It was walkable but it was along a busy road so not the nicest. However, the hotel was clean (although very empty making it seem a little creepy) so at least that was a positive. It was tea time when we'd sorted ourselves out so we attempted the walk which took us about 40 minutes. We were hungry when we made it into the city so stopped at the first place we could find which was by the harbour. It was a pop up restaurant that had a few customers so didn't seem too bad. We ordered a good amount of food, choosing mee goreng and a noodle soup and a strange chicken curry that I wasn't a huge fan of. It wasn't bad food but it wasn't as good as some of the Malaysian food we've been eating. The mee goreng (noodles) was quite tasty with a subtle flavour of hazelnuts. It was more expensive than we're used to though which made Brunei even more less attractive. 

When we'd finished eating we walked a little further along the harbour towards the centre but the place was pretty dead so we didn't hang about long before cheating and getting a taxi back to the hotel to have an early night. My first experience of Brunei hasn't been a happy one. 

Travelversary

This morning we got a slight lie in until 9 because our bus back to Kuala Lumpur wasn't until 11. This meant I had a leisurely breakfast of toast (just butter as I learnt to avoid the jam yesterday) whilst talking to a few other travellers about Bali and how amazing it is. This just got me giddy for Bali!

The bus journey took a good five hours so we didn't arrive in KL until about 4. We dropped off our bags at our nice new hostel in the centre of Chinatown and walked to Central market to see what we could find (Matt was also sorting out a present for a family member). After a visit to the cool post office again (to send the present) we headed back to Chinatown to explore the markets there. Matt purchased a KL t-shirt with the Petronas towers on the front which we dropped off at the hostel (best location ever) before going for tea. 

We decided to go back to the food court we had visited on our first night in KL as we had enjoyed it so much and thankfully were not disappointed. I chose a dry chicken noodle hot plate that was amazing. It had so much flavour and wasn't dry at all but wasn't in a soup or anything. Even the chicken was melt in your mouth. I had no idea how the sauce for the noodles was made though which frustrated me slightly. I want to be able to make it myself! We finished the evening with a celebratory beer at a bar on a street in Chinatown to celebrate our three month travelversary. It's been an amazing three months. 

Rafflesia #2

Rafflesia #3

Rafflesia #1

Scary forest

Mossy face

Strawberries

Or misty forest?

Mossy forest

More views

Views of the plantation

Lots of tea!

Tea machine

An Alexander Green kind of day

As it has been for the last week, breakfast consisted of toast and jam this morning. However, I could tell these jams were cheap as they were far too sweet, nothing on Bonne Mamman jam. Nevertheless, we filled ourselves up nicely ready for our tour that we'd booked yesterday. This tour would involve jungle trekking, looking at a large flower and a mossy forest and checking out another tea plantation. 

We were picked up by a lovely old defender (the first indication to the name of this blog) and taken a good forty minutes drive north to the edge of the highlands. From there, we joined another group of people and started our walk to find the Rafflesia flower, the largest flower in the world. I'd say if you weren't the fittest this tour wouldn't be for you as the walk was done at a rather fast pace. I swear my heart rate was raised the whole time. It was nice walking through bamboo trees (as well as other trees), over streams, up and down hills and under and over fallen branches. Something I think Alexander Green would have enjoyed. 

It took us nearly two hours to reach the flower, longer than I thought it would take, but eventually we got to see its beauty. It was huge as well. They only flower for five days at a time so the guides have to keep searching for a new one. It kind of felt slightly underwhelming though as we'd walked all this way to see it and then had to walk the same way back. I'm not saying the flower wasn't impressive just more that the walk became tiresome and ruined the excitement of the flower because it was the same route back. However, we all got our Tinchy (stride, Tinchy Strider) on and returned (it was mostly downhill) in just over an hour. 

When we made it back to the cars we were shown what the locals use to hunt animals. They make a blow pipe out of bamboo so they can shoot an arrow through it by breathing into it. A few people had a go at shooting it at a target before we got back on the road, heading for a well deserved lunch. 

Lunch consisted of an array of things you could pile your plate up with. I had some chicken curry and rice and green beans and a samosa which were all really nice except the samosa was a little bit greasy. My legs were a little tired at this point (apparently I'm very unfit) so I welcomed the idea to go and look round a tea plantation rather than walk some more. First, the drive up to the plantation was pretty spectacular with the tea bushes spreading for miles over rolling hills, even more beautiful than yesterday. Next we had a tour round the factory, the smell of tea filling the air (something I know Mr Green would love). It was very interesting seeing the different processes of the tea and how different environments and weather affect the taste of tea. We then had the opportunity to buy some BOH tea (the tea they make at this plantation) which I regret I didn't do. Still, there's loads of tea at home and nothing quite beats a nice cup of Yorkshire. 

Back in the defender, we drove a little way from the tea plantation so as to look down on it from afar and check out the stunning view. Climbing further up a hill away from the tea, it became very misty meaning it was impossible to see more than twenty metres ahead. We pulled over on the side of the road and climbed up some rocks into the mossy forest. The mist just added to the look of the forest, making it seem even more spooky (very much like the forbidden forest). It was also very spongy underfoot so we kept jumping up and down just too feel the softness. There were two Irish girls that amused me greatly here as their sarcasm was not quite understood by our guide. The moss covered the area and the trees which was just incredible; something worth seeing. 

The last stop of the day was a strawberry farm which we weren't too bothered about as we can visit the Balloon Tree each summer and pick strawberries. However, I welcomed a strawberry float that consisted of fresh strawberry juice and vanilla ice cream. I don't think I need to say any more about it. 

We were dropped off back at the hostel at around 6pm so changed and headed out for tea to a curry house we'd passed a few times already. We saw the Irish girls in there who looked clean having just showered. Stupidly, I decided to admit that we had only changed and therefore were still disgusting. Does that make us real travellers? Nevertheless, we sat down and were advised by an elderly Malaysian couple, who had already eaten, on what we should order. We took their advice and had a chicken curry (with a name I can't remember) and a tarka dhal. This place was a little pricier than we were used to so we were expecting big things. We were disappointed. The dhal was too salty and the curry was nice but we've had better. Maybe we should stop comparing everything to the curries in Thailand. 

Tea plantation

Turtle beach

Beach

Posing with motorbike

Motorbike

Cartoon dinosaur

Boy on chair

Basketball

Swings

Kids on bike

Anti gravity

Astronaut

Dinosaur

Glow in the dark

Ear cleaning

Poor bus crash

Mr Bean

Bicycle

The hostel

The hills are alive with the sound of tea

We had a quick breakfast of toast and jam in the lovely hostel before going to wait for a minibus that would take us to our big bus. This was at half 7 in the morning so quite an early start. When on our big bus it was a four and a half hour journey to Tanah Rata in the Cameron Highlands. The drive through the highlands was lovely with beautiful green hills and lots of strawberry farms on the road sides. Getting off the bus we both got a shock as it was cold! The temperature was probably about 20 degrees Celsius but to us that is pretty cold. We hadn't booked anywhere to stay but decided to stop for lunch before searching for accommodation. We chose a street stall just across the road from where the bus dropped us off but were a little unsure as to what we were getting. It turned out to be really good homemade food on a big silver dish with compartments, like a school dinner plate. There was rice with a dhal sauce (this one tasted really good) and fried chicken and green veg! All of this came to a pound each so it just made it taste even better. 

Just round the corner and out of the rain (it had started to rain again) we found a hostel that had beds available for a very reasonable price so we left our bags and went off to explore a tea plantation that the guy at the hostel had told us about. The hostel guy had said it was easy to hitch hike there (we were a little sceptical) but started walking (it was over 3 kilometres away) and about 10 minutes in a minibus offered us a lift. We had to pay about 50p each but it was still raining so we happily paid. 

At the tea plantation, even with the rain, the views over the tea bushes were beautiful and could be admired from the cafe. Therefore, we bought a tea each and a slice of mango cheesecake to share (it wasn't the cheapest). The cheesecake wasn't the most flavoursome and our teas (I had honey peach and Matt had passion fruit) were far too sweet. We wished we'd tried the normal standard tea instead. The weather stopped us from walking through the plantation and so we headed back into town. This meant walking in the rain. We attempted to get a lift but all cars seemed to be full so we tried running it. It was up hill which wasn't bad but Matt's legs are at least double the length of mine so he ended up being ahead by a long way, making the whole thing less enjoyable. It did however mean that we were back in Tanah Rata in no time and were able to walk about the town (it was quite small), checking out some of the shops. This didn't take us long so we decided to have an early tea, choosing a nice curry place. We ordered an onion roti with a couple of different curry sauces, tandoori chicken, rice and some little mini chicken curries that accompanied the rice. It was all rather tasty but Malaysian food still hasn't reached the standard of the curries we had in Thailand. 

We ended up back at the hostel quite early and so decided to sit in the lounge and plan some more of our travels. We feel rather organised for once. 

Penang

This lovely hostel put on a similar breakfast to the last but with the added addition of fruit and a delicious blackcurrant jam, something I'm going to make when I'm home. We wanted to explore the island but hadn't a clue where to start so the guy at the front desk directed us to the bus stop and advised us to visit the national park. The bus took about 40 minutes in total but when we got off we realised we weren't at the right place. We were at an adventure park called Escape which looked cool but was meant for kids. This meant waiting for another bus and going a few more stops up the road until we reached the national park. 

After registering (just in case you get lost they have your names written down) we set off on our hike to Turtle beach, hoping to see some turtles. Stupidly, we had both worn out sandles again and although they are very comfy, we would have been safer in trainers as the terrain wasn't the best. However, after just over an hour, we made it to the sweet little beach and had a sit down before realising there wasn't really anything on the beach. As it was now lunch time we were pretty hungry and were extremely disappointed that there wasn't a shop or restaurant. There was a turtle sanctuary but that consisted of two large tubs of water, one with mini turtles in it and one with larger turtles in it. Not what we thought it would be like. There were a few boats that came in and out of the beach but they had been booked by other people and were rather expensive. This meant that our only way back and to food was to walk the way we came from. 

After another hour of walking through forest, up and down, dodging tree roots and lacking massively in energy we made it back to the entrance. Luckily, the whole walk was under the cover of trees so although we were nicely sweaty, it wasn't unbearable. At the entrance we signed out again and went to find lunch. There was a little pop up restaurant barely 20 metres away so we sat down and ordered a roti with a standard curry sauce and some mee goreng (noodles which are similar to pad Thai). They both tasted delicious (mainly because we were so hungry) and meant that we could function properly once again. 

We caught a bus back to Georgetown and arrived there at about 4pm. As were we planning to leave Penang tomorrow, we booked a bus to the Cameron Highlands which lay between Penang and Kuala Lumpur. We knew at the time (but for some reason didn't care too much) that we were being ripped off as the price was higher than we thought it would be. However, to save time and hassle trying to find somewhere else that sold a cheaper bus, we just booked it. Not one of our wisest moments. 

To cheer ourselves up after the expensive bus, we thought it a good idea to buy a slice of apple crumble each from a very nice looking bakery. It was rather a nice apple crumble but obviously needed some delicious custard to accompany it. We then set out to find all of the cool street art that was dotted around Georgetown. We started off at the Time Tunnel which is like a little mini museum. It was a tad boring but at the end they had all sorts of 3D art that we could take pictures with. The best was an anti gravity piece that enabled us to look like we were walking on the ceiling or floating when the pictures were taken in the correct way. Pretty cool. 

The other art was spread out in another area of town but when we left the Time Tunnel it began to rain. Heavily. And we didn't have our waterproofs with us. However, as this was our last evening in Penang, it was our last chance to see the street art so we braved the rain and explored all that we wanted to (see pictures). By the time we'd seen the last one it was getting dark and food was calling us. We wanted to find the food that everyone raves about so walked for a good half an hour (still in the rain) to a night hawkers area. This had been the place to go as there were loads of different stalls selling different things. It appeared to be mainly locals that were there but that added to the excitement. Maybe we got a little too excited and so ordered a lot of different things but we wanted to try lots. First, there were Chinese dumplings (yes, Chinese not Malaysian but I got forced to try them) that tasted incredible. They had pork and onions and deliciousness inside them. I could easily have eaten about 20 of them. Also, there was a spinach cake style thing that had been fried. This also tasted good. Matt chose some noodles in a soup similar to what I had on the first night in Kuala Lumpur but the soup tasted loads better and there were even little muscles dotted about in there. We tried some chicken satay sticks that were moreish and then some noodles like the mee goreng from earlier today but with huge meaty prawns and muscles and a lovely flavour. To finish our meal, we had some green pancakes wrapped up with brown sugar, coconut and cinnamon inside that I enjoyed (they weren't too sweet) but Matt wasn't a fan. We each had a fresh fruit juice (orange and pineapple) to cleanse our pallets before starting the longish walk back to the hostel. I do like food. 

The food capital of Malaysia

After reading our stolen guide book, we'd decided we had to visit the food capital of Malaysia and so this morning we got up and had lots of jam and toast before heading to the bus station to catch a bus. We'd booked a bus online for half 10 in the morning, thinking we'd have plenty of time and we wouldn't have to rush. I wanted to be there half an hour early so I said we should leave at 10 to (the bus station was only 5 minutes walk away). Of course, Matt was being his usual slow self which stressed me out and so we didn't get to the bus station until 10 past. We then took another 10 minutes to find the correct desk to get our ticket and eventually found the bus at about 25 past. The bus driver then told us we had the wrong ticket. This meant running back up two flights of stairs with our bags and changing the ticket (we may have booked the wrong bus). Finally, when we made it downstairs, we got on a bus (I think they put us on a later one but we were just directed onto a bus) and made our way to Penang, an island in the north of Malaysia. 

We stopped off for lunch at some kind of service station and went to a place where you chose various dishes to go on your plate. I had rice with a beef dish that was quite nice. The beef was a tad chewy but it was in a slightly spicy sauce that was good when mixed in with the rice. I also had some pak choi and a boiled egg. The egg was a mistake as it had some kind of salted vinegar thing on it that tasted rather disgusting. However, it all came to less than a pound so I was happy. 

The bus took four hours in total and dropped us off at a ferry terminal (there are bridges but we'd messed up with the bus). The ferry cost barely anything and only took an extra half an hour, including the wait for it, so we arrived in Penang mid afternoon. Penang isn't a large island but it has a few towns dotted about on it. The capital was Georgetown and that's where we'd chosen to stay. We caught a local bus up the road and found our hostel which was rather amazing. It had a lovely interior with huge posters of Roman Holiday and Singing in the Rain. There was also a nice movie area and rainfall showers in the bathroom. Sometimes luxury is necessary. 

We wandered down the street and stopped for a drink at a very cool looking cafe (there were loads of cool looking cafes). I chose a walnut iced mocha that was quite nice but was far too expensive for what it was. We then wondered through the streets, taking in the lovely old buildings with impressive street art. There was a little India that played Bollywood music and sold curries at stalls. It was past 6 by the time we were there so we sat down at some little tables and had a chicken curry each with a roti and rice. The chicken curry was nice but nothing on Thailand. We also ordered a strange stringy yellow pancake thing that we saw them making. It was good dipped into sauce but I have no idea what it was called. 

It was still earlyish and we didn't want to go back to the hostel yet so we found some more food stalls and ordered a juice each as well as a speciality dish. It was like a spring roll (not a deep fried one) with crispy rice and spices and other things in it. It was good but nothing special; there wasn't a lot of flavour. Our juices were grape and orange with sour plum. Grape was the best as it was subtle and not too sweet. 

It was still only 8 by the time we'd done there so we found a sweet looking bar and ordered a bottle of wine. Maybe slightly extravagant but we hadn't spent much on alcohol in a long time. The wine was good and we played a few card games whilst we drank. A nice introduction to the food capital of Malaysia but so far I wasn't hugely impressed with the food. 

Street art

View from KL tower

Petronas towers

The planetarium

Water feature

The lake garden

Covered seating area

Buildings around the square

Coffee and cake

Model of the city

Cloth in the gallery

View from the post office

The temple

Kuala Lumpur

Our first morning in Kuala Lumpur began with a breakfast of toast and jam at the hostel which we made ourselves. The jam wasn't the best but it was free so I didn't complain. We also booked a few flights while we ate, adding in a trip to Brunei and then our flight from Bali to Cairns. Exciting things to come! 

Out of the hostel and we found a temple less than twenty metres away so had a little look. It was quite nice but the entrance was the most impressive with carvings of horses and things. Take a look at the picture to see for yourself. There were other temples to see but we bypassed them, choosing to see other things in the city instead. However, before we saw anything else, we made a stop at the post office to post our postcards. This was no ordinary post office. It was super modern. We were told to post our cards in the glass box which just sounds really cool. 

We were walking towards the botanical gardens which take up a vast amount of the central city but had a look round the Kuala Lumpur gallery first. It was tiny and there wasn't much to see except some beautiful cloths but upstairs was a model of the whole city. This was Kuala Lumpur though so they'd pimped it up with lights and then created a slide show with the lights to match, explaining where certain buildings were and the amount of development that has occurred in the last five years (300 buildings have been built in the last five years!). We were rather impressed and finished off our gallery tour with an iced coffee and a cake in the cafe. I ate a mini blueberry cheesecake that was delicious. Maybe we should have gone for something Malaysian but the cake looked too good. 

Just outside of the gallery was a lovely big square of grass surrounded by interesting buildings, a flag pole, a lovely fountain and some little covered seated areas with beautiful plants growing over them. Kuala Lumpur has some style. 

Finally, we reached the gardens and strolled through to the lake garden. I do love parks and this one didn't disappoint. It was beautifully looked after with lovely lawns and trees and paths. Further into the park we found the planetarium which was free to go in. Obviously, we had a look and pressed all the buttons as well as going up to the little view deck to check out the rest of the gardens. From there we could see the aviary which we wanted to visit next (if you remember Matt is a big bird fan and therefore I often call him Birdboy). It was lunch time when we reached the aviary so we went to it's restaurant for some food. It was a little pricey but we could sit out on a balcony over looking lots of birds, some of them even perched very close to us. We both had a curry but different ones. Mine was a piece of chicken on a bone in a lovely sauce that had a nice bit of spice. On the side there was also peanuts (mix them into the rice and it adds a whole new dimension to the dish), some incredibly spicy squid in sauce (I gave that to Matt) and a boiled egg. Those people that don't like boiled eggs are just strange. It was nice but both of us felt we could get something just as good for half the price. 

It turned out that the aviary cost over £8 each so we decided against it and instead walked through the orchid and hibiscus gardens for free (I took some pictures for you mummy). It proved difficult to find our way out of the botanical gardens from there though and so we ended up walking aimlessly for a good half an hour until we found signs leading us to the train station. At the train station we decided to take a monorail up to the Petronas towers. Kuala Lumpur centre is only small so we could have walked it in about 40 minutes but the monorail looked exciting! It turned out to be quite slow but we could see lots of the city out of the windows, making it worth it. 

We walked a short distance to the KLCC (no idea what the CC stands for) park which the Petronas towers sit in. We sat by the large pond in the middle, looking up at the towers and watching the people around us. Who doesn't love to people watch?! After this we walked another fifteen minutes or so to the KL tower. It cost about £7 for us to go to the observation deck, a level down from the open deck, which wasn't too bad. When up there we could see pretty far out and it was interesting to see how small the centre of Kuala Lumpur actually is. We could also see the football stadium so looked out for the Liverpool team as we knew they were in Kuala Lumpur today as well (they followed us as they were in Bangkok when we were). 

It was gone 7 when we left KL tower and so headed to central market for some food. We had a look at the food court there but thought it looked poor so settled on a hawker style restaurant where I ordered dhal and veg and rice. The dhal was disappointing. It had no pulse in it and lacked any real flavour. I was left slightly disheartened and had to cheer myself up with a roti that had a lovely curry sauce that came with it. After that I also ordered a caramel roti as I was intrigued to see what it would be like. It was exactly the same as the first one but with caramel wrapped up in it. There was even the same curry sauce that strangely went really well with the caramel. The meal wasn't a complete disaster. 

Chinatown

Welcome to Malaysia

It was our last morning in the Philippines and so we had breakfast at the hotel and wrote some postcards. Unfortunately, we ended up getting a taxi a little later than planned (I blame Matt's slowness) and so we had a driver that drove rather erratically but got us to the the airport on time for our flight to Kuala Lumpur. We checked in and went through security with no problems before stopping for an early lunch (the flight wouldn't get to Kuala Lumpur until 5pm). We ate some very average pricey rice and dry beef which we paid for with our remaining change. 

I realise now why people complain so much about Air Asia. Our flight ended up being delayed by an hour but we didn't get informed of this and therefore sat at the gate just being confused. However, we only ended up arriving fifteen minutes late so it didn't bother us really. We collected our bags and caught a bus heading into the city. 

It was past 7pm when we reached Chinatown in Kuala Lumpur but luckily it was still light. We got a bit confused trying to find our hostel and ended up walking all the way through a Chinese market. This did mean that, after we'd dropped our bags, we knew where to go for some food. There was a food court in the centre of the market with an array of different exciting things. I had some kind of noodles in a spicy sour broth with pork and greens which was quite lovely. Matt had a curry which was delicious and then had a second meal of garlic naan with tandoori chicken that was equally as good. I bought us a lemon and a kiwi juice drink which we happily gulped down, our bellies practically singing with happiness. 

Back at the hostel we discovered we had six female Londoners in our room. We chatted with them for a bit but realised they were young travellers who seemed to care more about shopping and partying than seeing things. Obviously, we're not old but I think we're both developing more of a maturity about everything. 

Manila cathedral

San Augustin church

More of the park

Memorial

Park