Sorry for the delay...

Part three - Kuala Lumpur and home

Sorry for the delay, I got distracted by work and painting the bedroom I'll soon be moving into at my parents' house. Such an exciting life I lead, sure you're wondering why I only update this occasionally.

Anyway, after the amazing sing song on the plane we collected our bags and caught the bus into central KL to find our hostel. Once we dumped our bags, we headed off to the Batu Caves. The Batu Caves is home to a large Hindu temple and a massive staircase to get to the temple. Once we got to the top, it was pretty spectacular. There were statues of the various gods all over the caves in two large cavern type spaces.

Outside the Batu Caves with the massive staircase behind

Once we got back from the Batu Caves, we explored Little India and I tried a pretty hot (by my slightly wussy standards) jalfrezi curry. Megan managed to find the milder option and didn't spend her dinner frantically searching for water and tissues. I think the waiters found it hilarious and clearly thought I couldn't handle curry. They were probably right but it was nice despite how hot and spicy it was. 

After that, we made our way over to the Petronas Towers. By then it was dark and we found ourselves in a square behind the towers at the right time for a water fountain show. It was pretty impressive, Megan even took a video (link available on request). We then went to a hotel bar on the 45th (ish) floor where we were opposite the Petronas Towers. Sadly, the waiter sussed we were only really there for the view and was keen to get rid of us as soon as we'd finished our drinks. It was cheaper than going up the Petronas Towers themselves though.

Water fountain show

The Petronas Towers from the square

On our final day in KL, we joined a tour which took us out of the city. The first stop was an area well known for it's large wild monkey population. The area was quite popular and there were monkey snacks available for all the tourists which attracted more monkeys. We chose not to buy any monkey snacks but still got very close to the monkeys.

Monkeys

 After seeing the monkeys, we went to a riverside seafood restaurant (if that makes sense) for dinner. The fish we were about to eat were all in tanks at the entrance to the restaurant, bit different to anything I'm used to. We got a selection of seafood to try including crab still in the shell, a first for both me and Megan. 

When we'd finished dinner, we joined a boat trip to see the fireflies which hang out along the river. It took a lot of squinting but I actually managed to see the fireflies, it was really cool although I think I was expecting them to be much brighter.

The following morning, Megan left really early in the morning. Leaving me with most of a day to fill before I needed to head to the airport. 

I started off by trying to find the botanical gardens. Megan had recommended them to me and the man in the hostel had given me what seemed like relatively straight forward directions. After about an hour of walking around in circles, I came to the conclusion I had taken several wrong turns and decided to take a different approach. I headed to the main square with the giant flag and joined a tour bus. The idea was that I would get off when it reached the botanical gardens and in the meantime, enjoy the commentary. Unfortunately, there was quite a bit of traffic and after a while it started raining, monsoon style. I hadn't reached the botanical gardens stop by this point and the rain didn't ease off. In the end, I gave up on the botanical gardens altogether and stayed on the bus until the point nearest to the hostel so I could get changed, collect my bag and head to the airport.

I got to the airport about four hours too early. I filled the time by helping a Malaysian student with his dissertation (I filled in his questionnaire about food and wine). I also spotted a man wandering around the terminal clutching a giant cheque and saw about 10 groups of travellers get their bags wrapped in cling film.

That's it for the Malaysian trip updates. It was awesome, particularly because I got to see Megan. After 7 months, it was great to have a catch up and also a holiday. I don't have any travel plans that are quite so exciting coming up but I'm going to try and write some more regular updates here anyway. Hopefully it will help me improve my writing skills and be interesting to read.

Time for a reunion in KL

I'm writing this up about a week after I got back so it may not be in exact order and things could well get missed out.

Part 1 - The journey & Kuala Lumpur

My journey to KL via Frankfurt took a grand total of about 15 hours. It was pretty fun in the end. I made friends with lots of German people (it was a Lufthansa flight) and actually managed to get some sleep on the plane. This meant I was feeling surprisingly awake and alert when I got to KL and had to deal with immigration and finding my suitcase.

Megan had got to the airport before me so was there to meet me when I got out of arrivals. After seven months, it was great to see her again. 

We caught a bus into central Kuala Lumpur which got caught up with the rush hour traffic and seemed to take ages to get there. We eventually reached China Town where we were staying and found our hostel. After dumping our bags and getting changed, we headed back out again to explore and find some dinner. 

China Town in KL is pretty busy and full of loads of stalls trying to sell you handbags, sunglasses etc. 

After wandering around for a while, we found somewhere to have some dinner. Before leaving the UK my Mum had given me a Christmas cracker to take for Megan as she'd missed out on the traditional family Christmas back in December. Turns out it looks a bit strange breaking out a Christmas cracker on Good Friday but the plastic bowling set inside the cracker made it all worthwhile.

The next day we arranged coach tickets to take us to the Cameron Highlands for the afternoon so had the morning to explore KL further. We started off by going to the old square which featured a very tall flag pole and some old buildings.

After that, we went to the KL Menara, a tower you can go up and see all across the city. Great view although maybe a little smoggy.

Wandering around a hot and humid place really makes you appreciate air conditioning. Luckily, pretty much everywhere indoors had air conditioning. However, walking from the train station to the various attractions was much more hard going than a wander around somewhere like London.

Once we were finished looking around the tower, we headed back to the hostel to hang out for a bit before our coach to the Cameron Highlands. Once we got the coach, it took about five hours in pouring rain (think we were in Malaysia's rainy season) and on quite narrow, twisty roads before we reached our destination.

I'll tell you about the Cameron Highlands in my next entry.
 

The blog is back!

Adventures in an airport & more fun

I've decided to try and make a few semi regular updates. This is partly in exchange for my sister Megan making updates to her blog while she is travelling to more exciting places. If you've stumbled across my blog by accident, you should check hers out too http://megs-meanders.blogspot.co.uk/

As I am not travelling very far at the moment, I'm not sure how far I will get or how interesting it will be.

Yesterday I took the day off work in order to see Megan off at the airport with my Mum. She's off to teach in Indonesia for a year. We met at the bus stop in Teddington and got the fast bus over to Heathrow. Once in Heathrow, we checked Meg's bags in and decided our next priority was to get coffee. By this point, I was struggling not to feel very jealous of the people who were actually catching a plane to somewhere exciting so welcomed a distraction.

Megan & Mum at the airport

 



After making our coffees last an impressive amount of time, we wandered over to the security gates. It was time to say goodbye. We're not an overly emotional family so I think Megan found it a bit awkward but we had a hug and waited until Megan had disappeared behind the security gates.

As we'd booked the whole day off, Mum and I decided to go over to Greenwich for the afternoon. We headed off onto the Piccadilly and Jubilee lines in order to reach North Greenwich, home of the O2 (formally the Millennium Dome. Our plan was to have some lunch and then go on the Emirates Cable Car that has been open for just over a year.

Unfortunately, shortly after our lunch it started raining. Big style. We waited it out to see if it would eventually ease off or even stop. Luckily, we only had to wait about 15 minutes until the clouds cleared and the sun came back out.

The cable car itself was not very busy so Mum and I got a gondola to ourselves. As you can see from the photo, you could almost pretend it hadn't just been raining.

 

 

The only disappointing element for me was the view. The O2 and Canary Wharf are interesting enough but those were the only real landmarks I knew well enough to recognise. I'm sure people living in the Greenwich area would disagree but to me, the tower blocks all start merging into one. Despite that, it was a fun trip and definitely worth it.

 

After that, we got onto the DLR at Royal Docks and headed back to Bank. By that point it was nearly 4pm and we were keen to avoid rush hour. As a result, we decided to get the Waterloo & City line back to Waterloo then get a train back to Teddington.

 

Not quite as exciting as a trip abroad or a year in a foreign country but stick with it, I may write something good soon.