Kuala Lumpur - 8th-13th December 2014

Our last day in Krabi was spent killing time in a cafe and catching up on the blog! Of which we still need to upload lots of pictures which are coming :).

We arrived to Krabi airport, feeling a bit apprehensive flying with Malaysia Airlines for obvious reasons. We ended up browsing the book store and stumbled upon a book titled "MH370 The Mystery". Seriously?! Is it really considered appropriate to sell a book regarding an aviation disaster in an airport from which the airline in question departs from?Anyway, the flight to KL was rather pleasant and not too long, arriving in KL in the evening.

We caught a train into the city and then grabbed at taxi to our hostel - Reggae Mansion. We were meeting Rosie and Susie (whom we met in Vietnam and bumped into again in Thailand) here for a few drinks, celebrating the end of their travels before they fly home the following day. A few too many drinks we consumed on the Rooftop Bar in Reggae Mansion with views of the KL Tower and Petronas Towers, good music and a good dance (well the girls anyway!). Rosie and Susie have given us a few pointers of what to do and where to go, giving us their map with everything already marked on, this came in a lot of use and by the end of the trip had rather a few tears and dampness from some rain we got caught in - although it did survive!

Our second day here was pretty chilled due to our late night! We spent it walking around China Town and Central Market - enjoying looking at the variety of stalls they had to offer. Deciding to stay put at Reggae Mansion for another night rather than moving hostels.

We heard about the Cameron Highlands - 200km from KL and one of Malaysia's extensive hill stations, surrounded by Tea Plantations. Although Curtis wasn't too fussed at making the long journey to look at Tea Plants we thought we would venture out, spending a night there. This was definitely worth the journey, although arriving late afternoon we enjoyed walking around the small town and having an authentic Indian cuisine :) - chicken korma, chapati's and peshwari naan!

We booked a tour with our hostel - Mossy Forest Tour, a half day tour exploring the tea plantations, enjoying the sights at the highest point in Malaysia accessible by car (just over 2000m above sea level), overlooking the vast amount of fields and mountains on the horizon, taking a trek though the mossy forest - feeling you were walking on chocolate cake because the ground is so spongy from the peat soil over the network of roots from the surrounding trees. After our trek we made our way to the Boh tea factory (what a British way to rehydrate after all). Here we learnt about the process of making tea as well as trying the different types of tea, even purchasing some despite the lack of room in our backpacks! The tea plantations themselves were absolutely beautiful, luscious green plants covering a huge area and rolling hills.

Once the tour had ended we headed back to our hostel and grabbed the next bus back to KL. Staying at a cheap hotel close to Reggae Mansion so we could enjoy a drink on the rooftop once again!

For our last night in Malaysia we had booked ourselves into the Traders Hotel, with unobstructed views of the Petronas Twin Towers! Pure luxury, with a HUGE bed and a bath, treating ourselves after roughing it up for the past 2 months around SE Asia. Once we had checked in and chilled in our room - which we could of easily stayed in all day, we decided we still had a lot of KL to see. We went to the Petronas Twin Towers, booking our tickets to go onto the Sky Bridge and then overlook the city on the 82nd floor. As we eagerly awaited in the lobby for the lift up to the Sky Bridge we were informed we were not allowed to take our gopro pole up with us - this was due to a safety reason which was not stated, after trying to put up a fight a lady got the Petronas Twin Towers security involved (whom also couldn't give us a real reason or show us their policy), making us feel as if we were committing a crime! This was definitely unjustified as some people cameras and lens were 10x bigger let alone 100x heavier than this small pole and I am sure would do more damage if it was used as a weapon (which we believe was why we couldn't take the pole - incase we accidentally hit someone with it...hmmmm?!). Oh well. The afternoon was spent wandering around the shopping centres browsing through the shops before heading back to our hotel to venture up to the Sky Bar. After a much needed bubble bath of course :). The bar overlooked the Petronas Towers and skyline of KL which looked stunning lit up at night, only enjoying one drink before heading out to another bar for another drink, with an atmosphere that was more enjoyable rather that chilling with Malaysia's stiff executives.

On our last day in Kuala Lumpur we caught the train to the Batu Caves. There were 272 steps to drag ourselves up which was made much more enjoyable when surrounded by many cheeky monkeys often steeling people's food and drinks. The cave is also home to the tallest Hindu statue of Murugan (second son of Siva). Marvellously golden and impressively tall at around 42m!

Again the afternoon was spent fairly chilled walking around the shopping centre before grabbing the train to the airport for our flight to Melbourne. Can not believe how quickly time has flown by, soon to arrive in Australia!

C & E x