We decided to use Kuala Lumpur as more of a chill out time rather then another busy sightseeing city. We have been to 4 big cities recently, all offering different things so by now, were pretty exhausted. The 6 hour bus journey from Singapore was a bit of luxury bus in the end, each had our own TV's, fully reclining seats, masses of leg room - it was honestly better then most flights I've been on. We sussed out the KL MRT system and made our way to our hostel called Reggae Mansion, which had been recommended to us by a few people, we instantly loved it, a huge building, funny security men on the door, a bar/restaurant, cinema and a rooftop bar. We checked in and had a lazy evening, Liv got an early night and Kate and I went to the rooftop bar, watched the Arsenal game, met some really nice lads from Southend, smoked some shisha and a couple of drinks - couldn't believe how cheap it was compared to Oz and Singapore. We even managed to buy Swedish House Mafia tickets for their 'One Last Tour' on Friday.
The next day it was actually sunny for the first time since we left Oz. We sacked off any possible plans and grabbed our bikinis and sun cream, kindly asked reception to open the rooftop and didn't move for a good few hours, we were feeling so pale and had definitely lost any tan lines we had so we needed to put in the time. We held out for food as long as we could, giving in, we got a map of KL from the reception desk and went out in search of food, the closest was China Town which also had a good market, I wasn't sure I would be eating at all by the looks of the food on offer. Luckily we found a vegetarian stall so my eyes lite up and we all tucked in. Another lazy couple of hours in the room, I just ended up watching you tube clips for ages, closest thing to tv, Pingu/Friends and Alan Partridge clips seem to be my favourite at the moment - any other suggestions are welcome. Dinner time had came around quick, we went back to the market, we each bought a little something then went to the veggie stall from earlier, after a couple of mouthfuls Kate pointed out that it had been sitting there all day, (put off number one) then she squealed because she could see a rat, (put off number two) then she could see 3 rats, lifting our feet off the ground wasn't enough anymore, we was trying to be brave as the local guys serving food on the stalls was laughing at us but that was it, we gave up on food and headed back home, back to the clean hostel. We know we're going to get a lot lot worse in other places but we just haven't had a rat experience yet so now that's done, something to tick off the list, we'll be better with it next time we see them. Another night at the rooftop bar, cheesy bar entertainment and drinking games but its all a bit of fun.
The next day, Kate and I were lazy bums, didn't get up until midday, poor Liv had been waiting for us to wake up all morning only to find out we didn't fancy mooching round the city we just wanted to chill and go to the cinema, she headed off into town but we met at the cinema later on. It's only £2 to see a film here so it's rude not to, especially after Life of Pi is playing, we've heard really good reviews from people back home. We wanted to see it on New Year's Day in Sydney but it was $22, ridiculous rip off. Loved the film so completely worth it. I remember coming out of the cinema and feeling a little bit different, felt like I was looking at things in different ways, thinking about how people appreciate what they have, what we take for granted and how our priorities back home really aren't priorities at all. I'm not sure what it was but I do know, it made me look forward to going to Laos/Vietnam/Cambodia and India so much more. Okay I know what you're all thinking; Alex is 'changing', no I'm not, I'm just being shown stuff I've not seen before and it's changing my perception on things (Mum, thought you'd be pleased to know haha). After my 5 minutes of deep thinking, we went in search of the twin towers or the Petronas as they're officially known, took some snaps from outside and headed to one of the various shopping centres in search of a better dinner then yesterday, I had a rice wrap, partly due to money or lacking of money and that I wasn't to hungry, appetite isn't so big over here, think I'll need to get used to plain food of no food. Dam meat is in everything!! No, taking the meat out of the dish doesn't make it vegetarian, it's still cooked in meat. The other day there was a photo of chicken, rice and veg in a restaurant, the sign underneath said vegetarian, Liv asked what it was and the lady said 'oh it's chicken with vegetables so its vegetarian' - oh jees, back to square one, when they say its vegetarian sometimes it's not, grrr. We headed out of the shopping centre to make our way to the MRT and got to see all the big lights and lanterns that were up for Chinese New Year, there was huge billboard signs on the corner of roads too, it reminded me of the Sanyo sign in London. Another lazy night in the hostel, couldn't afford to go out and we needed to research how to get to the Thai islands as were heading there on Saturday.
The next morning we headed to a new place called Central market, I bought a new scarf for the beach because I don't have a beach towel anymore, mine got ruined on the Fraser Island trip in Oz, the girls have been using scarfs to lay on the beach and it's a good idea, light and easy to carry. We each had stuff to post home so we went to the post office to work out their odd postal system. Kate and I wanted to go to the cinema again to see Les Miserables so we headed to the centre, grabbed some food and was trying to scoff it down as we only had 10 minutes until the film started, turns out the film wasn't for another 2 hours so we got indigestion for no reason. Our best bet was to go to the park and read our books, we found some benches, I had a lay down, only to be told off a few minutes later the security guard - I didn't get why I couldn't do it, all she said was no lay. Les Mis was really good although we naively didn't realise that the whole thing was going to be a musical, 3 hours of Russell Crowe trying to sign was a bit painful but Sacha Baron Cohen (guy who plays Borat) added some well needed humour. We went back to the hostel restaurant and had a discrepancy with the waiter because we was meant to get a discount on food because we were staying at the hostel but he wouldn't for some reason, so, we left and went to a market down the road for another interesting food choice, I had a Naan bread, the sauce they gave was fish curry so I left that to one side. The next day I wanted to do nothing and luckily the sun had come out to play again so we toasted ourselves on the rooftop, I started a new book, called 'thanks for the memories', despite that half the pages had fallen out and I had to hold them in, it was really good. I finished it in under 12 hours, considering that's only the 4th book I've ever finished and it was 500 pages long, I thought that was pretty good going. We got a train down to a shopping mall for dinner because we thought it would be clean and a wide variety as apposed to McDonalds which we'd naughtily had for lunch. After I circled the food court 3 times looking for a veggie meal, I was ready to give up but Liv suggested asking for a Thai green curry without chicken, I lost count how many times I said NO MEAT NO MEAT, I was close to start doing a chicken impersonation whilst shaking my head. I figured I was allowed a desert after just having rice, sauce and a couple of pieces of veg. Hello cinnamon pretzel! Before I even started munching on that, Liv spotted that a sweet shop opposite did free samples so I filled a hole in me belly, then the pretzel = tubster.
The next day was Swedish House Mafia day, what I had been waiting for all week!! I popped out to the market to pick up some bits to send back home to the UK, the girls stayed at the hostel, it was quite nice walking around China town at my own pace doing whatever I fancied. After a quick stop off at the post office I went back to meet the girls and we came back out to grab lunch, I couldn't go through the stress of finding somewhere veggie to eat so Kate and I opted for a Starbucks sandwich which was only a £1 when I converted it, made me feel better about treating myself! We went back to get ready and had a pre drink in our room then met up with the Southend chaps again. The hostel kindly put on a shuttle bus for everyone going to Swedish - at a price, considering there was about 80-100 people from the hostel actually going, I think they were quids in. Helped us out though as it was about a 40 minute drive. After a mini ticket problem stress and a long ass que we went into the Sunway Lagoon, where the concert was being held. There was sand on the floor and it was getting in my sandals, I (not so) brightly thought it was a good idea to take them off and put them on top of the lockers, not in the lockers (?) but on top. Before I knew it Swedish was on and we found ourselves charging to the front. Well not the front but to the barrier that separated the chill out zone from the party zone, we had bought chill out tickets because they were cheaper. About 5 minutes in, a guy jumped the barrier into the party zone and got dragged off by security, this obviously made us think that this was a great idea, so all of us jumped over at once, bearing in mind there was 6 of us, I've got no idea how we didn't get caught but WE WAS IN! Although, I didn't jump over as elegantly as I thought, I'll explain later. No one was allowed to leave until the end because we wouldn't get back in, it meant no toilet breaks and no more drinks. Felt like Milton Keynes all over again but we didn't care, it was worth it. The group split up and I went to the front, pushed my way as much as I could and settled for a spot about 5 people from the front. Suddenly the random spits of rain turned into a full on rain shower, drenched within minutes and it didn't stop there, it rained until the end, my clean hair was now wavey and sopping wet. I figured it was better then being wet from sweat though. I managed to push myself to the front for the final song, I was hanging onto the barrier for dear life while moshing around with everyone. It wasn't until the end that I realised I was still barefoot and had been standing on floor grates instead of sand all night. I was surprised I still had feet left, albeit there was quite a few cuts. I grabbed my sandals on the way out, they were actually still there too! Took us a while to get a cab because there was 5 of us now and the 7 seater cabs were few and far between - amazingly one of the guys persuaded a cab to take us all for a bit of extra cash, poor liv didn't have a comfortable ride home on Kate's lap.
I was woke up the next day but Kate saying we're going to miss our flight if we don't move it. Turns out there's two airports in KL and the one we need is right out of town and involved two trains and one bus. Painfully hungover - this isn't what I wanted to hear. We packed as quickly as possible, in the process of frantically packing, I found a lovely tennis ball size black bruised bump on the side of my leg, this was obviously the result of fence jumping the night before, I suppose some call it Karma? OUCH. I'll add that to the list of injuries I've endured on the trip already. Must add the cuts and bruises on my feet too. We needed food and McDonalds was the only thing in reach, sitting on the train platform, I opened my egg muffin, apparently egg muffin means you get some thin rubbery looking slice of questionable meat in it too. I took a deep breathe and moved onto my hash brown, I didn't have the energy to get angry about it. I've just got to get used to the fact that eating wont be my favourite thing to do anymore. Finally we was airport bound and off we flew to Surat Thani in Thailand, first island stop is Koh Samui.
For those of you who didn't see it on Facebook, we have now booked our return flight to the UK, we arrive at midday on Monday 13th May. Mum, stock up the fridge, I'm going to be gagging for English food by that point.