Kuala Lumpur (or KL to us, darling) is a busy city. Compared to sweet little biscuit-tin-top Melacca, stepping into KL was a bit like stepping into a metal music gig after a gentle afternoon of Pimms and string quartets: loud, hot, overwhelming and exciting.

Our first night we hunted down some new culture in the form of a free display of traditional dancing. It was fun - the dancers' enthusiasm and happy mood was infectious, especially when they laughed at each other's mistakes. It was probably the happiest super-happy dancing I've seen.

The next day we went to the Petronas Towers to see about going up them. They were the only thing I knew about KL before we planned the trip and they used to be the tallest buildings in the world until 2004 - two excellent reasons for a visit. When we heard the price was 80 ringgits per person, however, there may have been a small team heart-attack as the LP had told us it was free, and we manage breakfast for both of us for around 10 ringgits! In the end we decided that we'd regret it if we didn't go up the iconic towers and - once the shock had passed - we realised that it was actually only about £16 each.

Having booked our "tower hour" in for 6 pmish we whiled away the afternoon with a trip to a huge crafts centre. After speaking to a man who carved big noses out of wood, I did a bit of batik painting. It was awesome. I fell in love with the process of making batik on our weaving-shop trip back on Lombok; first you draw your design in wax then paint the silk with paints that can't pass through the wax, so giving a pretty and distinctive look. In the end it took me about three hours to do. Given that I was pretty hopeless at art in school the fact that it turned out quite well (even if I do say so myself) meant that I was well chuffed with my picture by the end.

So chuffed, in fact, that I left it in the ladies loos about an hour later on our way to the towers. Once I realised, I raced back to the loos at top speed only to find that the cubicle was now occupied. So I was forced to stand there - hot, out of breath and trying to act normal - and wait for the occupant to leave before I could find out if my painting was ok or not. A full 15 minutes later, however, I decided that drastic action must be taken as whoever was still in there was clearly in some sort of silent distress and I was in real danger of missing my 80 ringgit trip up the Peteonas Towers. I eventually coaxed the girl out with a stunningly awkward "um hello? Is there a painting in there?" conversation. Oddly, she seemed fine enough when she came out, but - thank goodness - her extended stay in there wasn't because she was doing anything weird or illegal with my painting. I got it back safe and sound. Hurrah! Flat-out, I made it back for our tower-hour just in the nick of time.

And so we went up the towers. Once up the maze of lifts and onto the top floor we were rewarded with lovely views of the city and beyond. The value-for-money was somewhat heightened for me by virtue of the fact I spotted an evil lair in the distance. My first sighting of one. I realise it's unlikely that it's actually a real evil lair but as I don't know many other uses for colossal white buildings on the tops of mountains then I'm sticking with it.

On the way back to our hostel that evening we took the monorail. It was like being in the future in the eighties.

The next day we decided to visit the Batu caves in northern KL. These are natural caves carved out of huge limestone cliffs. One of them is called the "cathedral cave" and it deserves it's name as it's absolutely massive. Years ago a Hindu temple was built in one and since then more temples have sprung up there. The site is a place to worship the hindu god Lord Murugan and there's a colossal golden statue of him at the side of the steep staircase which leads up to the cathedral cave entrance. Even after the full 200-odd steps, you're still only at his shoulder.

Though they are beautiful and serene, the Batu caves are also the endpoint for a famously gruesome Hindu festival in which people carry some sort of burden in order to receive good luck or a blessing. This burden can come in the form of a box on wheels pulled behind you and attached to you by thin cables and some hooks into the skin of your back; or as weights carried on a wooden frame which end in sharp spikes that you pierce through your chest and shoulders; or as a simple needle through the cheek. Lucky for us the festival's in February, otherwise tourist law states that we would have to go and take photos of it no matter how grim it is.

And that was mostly it for KL. All that remained was for us to visit the national mosque and a museum which not only shows archive footage of the genuinely moving 1957 ceremony where Malaya was officially granted independence but also has the world's biggest laminated wood cityscape of KL (how's that for a superlative?). Next day, we set off for the Cameron Highlands.