AM In KL

There had not been any screaming kids or car alarms going off all night, so we woke nice and refreshed after the long journey to get to KL. It was still very hot and humid and the large gap at the top of the window made sure we knew that inside the room. We stuck the TV on for a bit of morning World News and found that both the volume and the channel buttons changed them in the opposite way – up was down and down was up. Weird, but probably normal as they read from right to left over here. Oh well, it’s another little foible that we would need to get used to.

We didn’t want to have to go through the pain of booking the train that we had in Singapore so the first task of the day was look at booking our tickets up to Bangkok. It seemed like quite a long way, and if we did that trip we would be missing out on some lovely areas of Thailand. Liam had advised that Krabi would be a good place to stop off at, and it seemed halfway between KL and Bangkok so we looked at how to get there. We loaded up the KTM website, translated it into English and set about booking the tickets. No joy. The day we needed (the 4^th) was fully booked. But then I realised that we had re-arranged the days and it was the 3^rd that we needed. We re-booked and got ourselves a top and bottom bunk in the sleeper carriage. We were by the end and the doors, but it will all be a good experience I am sure.

After that we headed out into KL and to the British Consulate to enquire as to the best way to get our visas for the next few countries coming up – Cambodia, Vietnam, China, Nepal and India. The Metro was great and easy to use, and CHEAP. We found our stop no problem and found the consulate straight away. After a few questions from the suspicious guards on duty they advised us to come back the next day as it was essentially closed on a Sunday. So that would be a job for tomorrow. Next up was to be the Petronas Towers, the iconic image of KL.

The view from the Metro

It was only a couple of stops on the Metro again, and probably only cost us about 30p, an added bonus. We were there in no time and took the short walk down to the towers. They were truly a great sight, stretching up into the sky with their jagged edges jutting out into the air. It was about £20 to get up onto the Skywalk and apparently it was pretty hit and miss whether it was worth it as it was frequently foggy or smoggy, so we just looked at it from below. There was a guy who kept trying to sell me an iPhone and a guard with a loud whistle trying to stop people from going into the fountain, and that was about all that was around there. Sure, there were other big buildings, but nothing worth sticking around for.

The Petronas Towers

Once we had left the towers and had some lunch we headed out west to find some shopping plazas to get some supplies in. There were a few to choose from and after wandering round some abandoned places we finally hit some good places that looked just like Debenhams. At the bottom was a food court so we grabbed a few things and then decided to get out of the heat and get back to the hotel. After a slight chill out we got ready for heading out to grab some food. The idea was to find a place that was clean and respectable, not any “street” food just yet. We had walked past a place earlier that day that seemed to fit the bill, when we had got some further supplies from the local shop.

All this for £4......bargain!

 It was a cracking little place and we thoroughly enjoyed dining there. I went for the Oyster Chicken and James went for the Beef in Black Bean Sauce, with a rather pricey half of Tiger beer. It was great to just relax in a nice place with no fuss or bother from anyone else. Magic. The rest of the evening was spent with the laptop (checking visas, etc), a quarter bottle of brandy, Pepsi Max and the well-thumbed playing cards.