15/5/09: The journey through Malaysia was interesting- just miles and miles of palm trees and banana trees. Plus lots of shacks made of wood and corrugated iron where they live- loads of rubbish everywhere. Weather was very hot and sunny but train had aircon which made it chilly. We arrived in Kuala Lumpur about 2.30. We booked our train to Thailand for Sunday evening- we had an overnight sleeper!! We have to get two trains and dont arrive til monday evening. Only about 25 pounds each though. We got a taxi to hostel. Everything here even more different to Singapore!! Its great though! Our hostel is in the centre of chinatown- above some shops- it is very very basic- you even have to buy your own toilet roll but it is clean and cheap and well located. We dumped our bags and headed out. There is a huge market just outside and you have never seen so many fake rolexes, fake designer handbags, trainers, clothes, perfumes, dvds, etc. All you hear is 'sir look at lovely watches', 'madam this bag will look beautiful', etc. Plus more massage places and 100s of food stalls- wouldnt trust them tho after I saw some bloke drop some cakes and then put them back in his basket!! We wandered around and found a big mall- they had a hairdressers offering cuts for 15 Ringitts (about 3 quid) so lil alex went in- they laughed at first (I think it was a womans salon) but they had no customers so they did it and it looks good! We looked around and found the cleanest looking place to eat- I had stir-fried veg, spring rolls and orange juice and lil alex had a beer and chicken rice and it was less than 10 pound for it all!!! We walked around a bit and then went back to hostel for showers- the bathrooms r not the nicest! We fell asleep quite early having been up so early.

16/5/09: Aww poor Ian- hope his op goes ok!! It really is all going on at home. Anyway a more peaceful day in Kuala Lumpur. We got up about 9 and got ready- then the bloke on the desk said we could change rooms cos we were booked in for an air-conditioned room but only had a normal one- we couldnt do that until lunchtime tho. So we spent the morning wondering around the local area- nowhere gets busy til nearly lunchtime tho. It smells quite bad a lot of places- the are open sewers and drains. We went back and checked in new room- not really any different. then we walked to the big KL Tower- one of the biggest communication towers in the world. It was sooooo hot walking there lil alex nearly fainted!! I have never sweated so much in my life!! We paid 38 Ringitts- about 7 pounds to go up to the observation deck- it was cool- we could see the mountains in the background and all the mixture of buildings. The price included a bottle of water, entrance to a wildlife place and an F1 experience. The wildlife place was cool- loads of snakes, spiders, lizards, birds, monkeys, foxes, raccoons, etc. We even held a snake and lizard! Lil alex a go on the F1 experience but I wasnt bothered so just watched him. Then we walked to the Petronas Twin Towers. They are well cool and inside is the biggest shopping mall I have ever seen!!!! We had a quick look but my feet hurt and we didnt wanna buy anything- we havent got space in our rucksacks!! We did get a fruit and ice cream crepe tho. We got the train from there back to near our hostel and walked along the market bit until I found somewhere to get some more reflexology- I decided to get in done in Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand so I can compare! It only cost 6 pound and was better than the last one but of course neither have compared to vics!! It suddenly got stormy and chucked it down! We had a drink in a bar on the market. We have loads more pics but the computers here are not great and not modern enough to download them. We will download some when we get a chance though!! We went to a restruarant/bar place nearby for tea- I had fish and chips and lil alex had some rice thing. Plus I had a cocktail and lil alex had a beer- we were served by a man dressed as a lady- interesting. Our drama for the day- we were waiting for our food when we realised that we didnt have enough money and most places dont accept cards here so we realised one of us would have to go find a cash point after dinner. I went to find the cashpoint just down the road that we used earlier cos lil alex didnt think he would have enough money in his account to make a withdrawal. But it told me that I had exceeded my total number of withdrawals for the day- which is worrying cos I only made one withdrawal this morning of 20pound! So I went back- thinking we were gonna have to do a runner. I thought about using dads card but couldnt remember the pin and the phone battery was dead!! So lil alex had a go at withdrawing money but it said he didnt have enough. So he had to go and do internet transfer while I sat in the bar- trying to look busy. I had to order another cocktail. luckily the money he transferred went straight in and he could withdraw it! Meanwhile the arsenal v man utd game had come on so he had a couple more beers and watched it. I was pissed after my two cocktails!! We come back to hostel and I just crashed!! Oh and the funniest thing is that while lil alex was doing his internet transfer I noticed on the door that it said they accepted visa cards afterall!! Haha!

17/5/09: Getting train at 8 tonight. Having quite a chilled day til then. We didnt have to check out until 12 so we went out for a last look around and some breakfast. Then we got our bags and got the train to the main station where there was a baggage storage place- we put our bags in there- only 7 hours to kill until the train. We went to the park nearby- it was a gorgeous sunny day! We walked around the lake and chilled in cafe- i had two ice lollies and a cold drink to try and cool me and refresh me! we sat around on a bench for ages chilling. Then decided to get train back to where we had been staying so we could go on internet and book koh samui hostel for tuesday night. then we sat in a bar on the market and had a drink before getting the train back to station. we had dinner in a restrurant in station and then got a few supplies for the train. sat around until 8 and got on- the sleepers were so cool- there was just hundreds of bunks- we had two top bunks next to each other. they had sheets and pillows and little curtains and individual lights!! i read for a while and then went to sleep about 11- i was squashed though cos i had my backpack at the bottom of the bed.

18/05/09; woke up about 4.30 and got off at about 5am at butterworth/penang station where we had to wait around until 2.20pm to get train. the station was tiny and only had one little shop! we headed out to ferry port next door and got ferry to Georgetown (didnt know what was there but it was something to do)- it was a dive and nothing there so watched sun come up and then got ferry back. we sat around and read and chilled. i went over the road to some cafe place and had a self-service buffet of vegetable dishes for about 40p. finally it was 2! we got on train- we had paid for sleepers but they were still seats cos it was early- we had a whole double seat each tho. i dozed for a while and read. scenery was really cool- lots of mountains and farms, etc. we had to get off at thailand border and go through immigration.