There is so much to see and do in Kuala Lumpur and I only had a day and a half so I barely scratched the surface. We had a luxury bus ride from Cameron Highlands - the fanciest bus I've ever been on, more like business class on an airplane but without the flight attendants. When we arrived Nigel took us for a quick walk around and we saw many different aspects of the city - a Hindu temple, a Chinese temple, a church, a mosque, modern skyscrapers, a park with fountains and old colonial buildings (some interesting official buildings that mixed European and Islamic architectural styles plus some regular European-style buildings that have now been converted to shops and painted in bright colours).

Merdeka, the anniversary of Malaysian Independence, is coming up shortly and there are Malaysian flags absolutely everywhere - the skyscrapers seem to be competing to have the largest flag.

There are lots of huge fancy shopping malls here and we went to one for dinner - I went for Nandos, (not really embracing Malaysian culture, ooops), and was intrigued to see them promoting a special Ramadan Platter. After dinner we went outside to look at KL's most famous landmark - the Petronas Twin Towers, formerly the tallest building in the world and still the tallest twin towers. The towers were all lit up in the dark; I didn't think skyscrapers could be described as 'pretty' but in this case it's appropriate. Then we went for a night out and got stung by Malaysia's 200% tax on alcohol (in spite of which it was still cheaper than in London!).

The next morning I had a tour of some of the sights starting at KL Tower, from the top of which there is an amazing 360 degree view over Kuala Lumpur (we were lucky that it was clear and sunny at the time) and an audio guide explaining some of the sights.

Our driver told us lots of random information about Malaysia as we drove around - ranging from the privatisation of the roads, rail and airlines to the peculiarities of the pension system due to the fact that Malaysian men can legally have up to four wives. He took us to a batik factory, a leather factory, a chocolate factory and a pewter factory; I think the first three were just (unsuccessful) attempts to get us to buy things from his buddies, though we did get brief explanations/demonstrations of the processes and products. However, the pewter factory was much more interesting than it sounds - we had a pretty extensive guided tour, saw different stages in the process, different products, had a go at hammering a pewter tumbler and saw the world's largest beer mug! Kuala Lumpur as a city was founded due to the discovery of tin reserves in the area so it plays a crucial role in the history of the region.

Then we went to Batu Caves Hindu temple - there is an enormous gold statue in front and, tucked away in a huge limestone cave up some 272 steps, a small temple and some shrines. In the temple a man invited us to have a red dot rubbed on our heads and a flower (I think it was a blessing?). Everywhere I turned there were beautiful, colourful Hindu statues. The gangs of monkeys that lived around there would often grab and eat the offering and blessing flowers from pilgrims and tourists!

On the way back into town we stopped at a war memorial which had two parts - a simple block-shaped monument erected by the British, which was eclipsed by a very striking sculpture surrounded by water chosen by the Malaysians. Next to the war memorial is the small, pretty ASEAN sculpture park (similar to one I saw in Brunei ten years earlier).

In the afternoon I visited the National Mosque, where I had to don a lilac robe to cover my head before looking around. A volunteer there, Noh, spent some time talking to me about the mosque and Islam generally, she was very keen to answer any questions I had. The mosque has an unusual and distinctive turquoise umbrella-shaped roof instead the usual dome. There's also a school there and it's used for various activities - it is more of a social meeting place than solely a place for prayer.

Afterwards I wandered around the Islamic Arts Museum, which has exhibits of Islamic architecture, calligraphy, clothing, jewellery, ceramics and weapons. There was a special exhibition that looked at ways in which Islamic art influenced Western art, mostly in the 19th century and mostly through household objects (lamps, vases, tea sets...), textiles and jewellery.

We had crazy weather in KL - blazing hot sun one minute and thunder, lightning and flash floods the next!