Nigel: We have now finally arrived in the capital of Malaysia , Kuala Lumpur after an early bus journey from Melaka. Before we had come here we had read that the final of the Malaysian tennis Open was taking place. When we were looking through the Open website we noticed someone had 2 spare tickets for sale, so we emailed them to arrange to pick them up when we first arrived. It didn't turn out as easy as hoped and we spent a lot of time and money waiting around when we first got off the bus. We didn't meet them that day and so, no tickets in hand, we went to find out hotel we were staying in. When we (sorry I ) booked our hotel, we made a mistake and asked for a single room for 2 people. You can interpret that to mean 2 single beds for 2 people or 1 single bed for 2 people. As it happened it was the latter one we had and the single bed was small. The people that ran the place were very good about this and we did have a lot of fun trying to sort out the situation. In the end we ended up with a very large room that had 4 beds in. So my error in the first place turned out to be in our favour.  

We did eventually get the tickets to watch the tennis final and it was a great experience. The seats we had were near the court and just left of the net. We have never been to a tennis match but when you watch it live its different to watching it on TV. The most notable thing was when the players were having a rally, your head would go from side to side very fast and it was hard to keep up with play. There were 2 matches being played that day. The mens doubles final and the mens singles final. We had never heard of the players in the doubles but the players in the singles were Nikolay Davydenko v Fernando Verdasco. Both in the top 10 seedings so it turned out a good game and the winner was Nikolay Davydenko. There was one funny but slightly annoying thing during the match. The guy next to me was a big guy who was nearly sitting on my seat. He was supporting Davydenko and every time he called out his name he would shout his name very very loud and in a very squeaky tone. We tolerated it but the girl in front of him had to watch half the match with her fingers in her ears.

The next day in the evening we went to have a look at the Pertronas towers which illuminated the night sky which made it easy to find. You're not able to go up the tower after 6pm but there is a shopping centre within it. Alison will tell you about when we went up to the bridge....

Alison: Kuala Lumpur is a great place with lots of things to do and it's not as expensive as I expected. Air Asia offer flights from London Stanstead for as cheap as 150 pound so I might just 'pop' back for a spot of shopping after I get home! Can anyone be persuaded to join me?! There are lots of shopping malls and markets here. The biggest that we saw was the Times Square Shopping Mall which we found by chance. It has a ridiculous amount of floors and shops as well a cinema, a bowling alley and even an indoor theme park. It was a first for me watching a roller coaster whiz by my head whilst shopping! Another great one to visit is the mall found at the base of the Petronas Towers. It is a posh one with all your designer shops but also has some more high street shops too. I was impressed to see Harrods and Marks and Spencers. The best markets that we saw were the Central Market and the Chinese Market. Central Market is definitely the most famous and it is an indoor market containing many handicrafts and antiques. The Chinese Market on the other hand has all your fake designer gear at 'cheap cheap' prices which were not as low as they should be!

The Petronas Towers are at their most spectacular at night time when they are all lit up and very glittery. During the day, I wouldn't say they were particularly special but we were still excited about ascending the towers to cross the famous Sky Bridge which connects the two towers about half way up. Only a limited number of people can cross the bridge each day so it is necessary to arrive at the towers pretty early in the morning to secure a ticket. We got there around 8 and the waiting room was already full. It looked mayhem because the queue just snaked around the room with no barriers or anything to guide it and keep everyone in line. I was sure that it was doomed for failure but when the gates opened, everyone was patient and it actually worked with minimal pushing and shoving. The tickets didn't go on sale till 9 so we had to wait an hour before they even opened the gates and then a further 40 minutes to get to the front of the queue to get the tickets and then another 30 minutes for our slot to go up. Despite all the waiting, we were just relieved to get tickets because people were turning up not long after us and getting turned away by the tight security team. When our slot arrived we first watched a 3D video which gave a brief history of the towers but was more of an advert for Petronas really. We then piled in to a lift and were given 15 minutes to walk on the Sky Bridge. The bridge provides great views over the city but I wouldn't say they were the most amazing views I have seen since you really aren't all that high up. I would definitely say that walking the Sky Bridge is a must though because of the iconic nature of the towers.