Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur)

KL on arrival seemed a lot like Shanghai or any other masisve, hustling, bustling and busy city. We chose to stay in Chinatown mainly as its cheap and centrally located, we fittingly chose a hotel named 'Hotel Chinatown (2)'. The hotel was nice, a/c, good WiFi, centrally located and once I'd killed the cockroaches we were fine :-)

I was definitely in full illness mode by the time we reached KL, a daily diet of several paracetamol and ibuprofen washed down with litres of water seemed to only take the edge off my head and flu. It was nearly time to break out the emergency course of antibiotics we brought.

Chinatown was bustling and chaotic as most Chinatowns are. From early on the main streets begin filling with market stalls selling most things and various knock off qualities. By the time the sun sets the main street has been transformed into two small ally ways which on both sides backed by small stalls. 'Rodney' like characters saying 'new walet sir', 'handbag Madame', 'just look cheap price cheap price' as they wave you in and try various other tricks to get you to look and the genuine fakes on offer. A few evenings we went shopping purchasing some converse trainers and other clothing items, obviously izzi was shopping!

Around Chinatown were several local eateries which we used and ending up eating some delicious Chinese and Indian food. One of the hardest meals to source is breakfast when travelling in our opinion but luckily next to the hotel a lovely buffet style breakfast was on offer for only 12RM (£2.40) for people staying at our hotel, by comparison its expensive as we have eaten full meals for the same but still good.

In KL there is the usual things to visit but we wanted to see some different stuff so highlight a big park we could go to with the hopes of being able to rent a boat, trying to go up the famous twin towers, Chinatown and the national museum to give us some history on Malaysia.

The twin towers were first on the list but upon arrival they were fully booked until after we left the city. We changed plan and walked about 20mins to KL communication tower which had a viewing platform at 250m high. The tower was similar to towers we had seen and even had a big picture of the other ones we had seen in Shanghai and Berlin last year. The views were spectacular and we couldn't have picked a better day. The views looked almost fake, like you were looking down on little models and not the city below. The walk down also proved fruitful when we stumbled across a troop of monkeys relaxing and eating the new shoots of a tree. We got many pictures but the big male soon came over looking aggressive and showing us his teath so we moved on promptly to avoid a monkey beating.

We headed for a large park which had an orchid garden, a deer farm and a lake which lonely planet said you can rent boats on but we soon realized that the book must be out of date as no boats were to be seen. The gardens and park were nice, the deers just looked hot and didn't do much as they tried to keep cool.

KL has a good and cheap metro system and has main things a tourist can see and do, all in all it has been a pleasant stay even if I had been ill, we probably would have done more if I wasn't but you can't win them all.

One thing we have done is spend a few nights planning and booking things and we have booked tickets home. We will be flying back from Bali on the 20th September, mainly this is due to the fact you need onward travel to enter Indonesia. Booking flights home has been like a smack to the face by reality, talk of work, where we will live and what we will do have been on the agenda for the first time in several months. We obviously don't need to make all the decisions now but at some point we will need to. Travelling around means you make decisions about things much later and have a much more relaxed attitude. One day I will write a blog about what I think I have gained from doing a bit of travelling but not now, that seems too final for just yet!

On to Cherating next to see the turtles.