Ok so yet again weve some catching up to do with the blogs! Although we are now in oz, in terms of this thing we are still in malaysia!

One of the last stops in Malaysia was the capital of Kuala Lumpur. We were kind of looking forward to getting back into a more lively and bustling atmosphere as so far malaysia had been lovely but fairly quiet. After the bumpy 3 and a half hour bus ride from the Cameron Highlands we arrived in the centre of the city. It was immediately the complete opposite to what we had imagined. we envisaged it to be bangkok like with organised choas everywhere but it was completely different. There were proper traffic light that the cars actually stopped at, massive LCD screens on the sides of buldings, a huge bustling china town market street and a Maccys D's on the corner of every street- now this really is not an exaggeration, we really did not go down one street that dint have a Mcdonalds on it!!! CRAZY!

We arrived at our booked hostel (yes booked for once!) Le Village. We had been recommended to stay there by the cuople we met in the Cameron Highlands Charlotte and Dave. We arrived and instanly loved the place. There was a kitchen so we could prepare our own food (and milo), free tea and coffe all day (yes malaysia slowly helped to wean us off the alcohol due to its expence and now free tea and cofee and milo excited us!!). The place also had a tv room. Now this doesnt sound like anything too special when you have all of the wonders of another country at your feet but it was so good to just mong in front of the tv for a while. In fact we spent the whole first night in front of the tv watching the simpsons and malcom in the middle (stange how you miss the home comforts without even realising). The room we had was cosy but there was one particular problem with it. It was like a little black cave. There were no windows and whenever the door was shut (day or night) it was pitch black! This meant that whenever we woke up in the morning it felt like it was still the middle of the night! Although Reece loved it, it was still shocking when every morning we were waking up thinking it was really early, then realising it was lunch time!!!!

Our first full day was taken up by walking and more walking round the market streets and to the otherside of town. Whilst walking we saw just how different the city was to the other places we had seen in Asia. There were scy scrapers bigger than either of us had ever seen, mono rails running constantly obove your head and over cars and shopping malls with actual genuine goods!!! Walking into the mall for the first time was strange they actually had official prada and gucci shops- somewhere in asia that is actually more posh than plymouth! In the middle of the mall was a massive christmas tree! At last our first sign that it was actually only a few days away from xmas even though it was 40 degrees outside! Walking down the streets of china town was the strangest, in shorts and t-shirts the sun beating down on your back, its unbelievably hot and sweaty and there is "rudolf the red nosed raindeer" playing in the background so strange!!!!! On that first day we also saw the petronus towers for the first time (picture). Until recently they were the tallest buildings in the world apparently, it is so hard to capture their size on camera but they really were huge!!!!

As soon as we got back to the hostel we were walking up the stairs and we came face to face with Charlotte and Dave. They had decided to head to KL early to start celebrating xmas! That night we all headed to the roof of the hostle with two other couples charlotte and dave had met in india, a couple of bottles of cheap cheap whiskey and enjoyed a really nice night drinking and laughing (especially when dave and andy sat on a bench and it came crashing to the ground). Good times!

The next day the trouble started with our credit card (bloody thing have had nothing but issues with it)! The problems went on four days straight so we occupied ourselves by wondering round KL and taking in all the great sights (well when we wernt in the internet place trying to sort out the card!) KL really is a gorgeous city. The architecture is fantastic. there are impressive huge skyscapers on one side of the road and old very pretty buildings on the other with palm trees scattered in between. although we had no money and therefore no option but to wonder round the city we really enjoyed the many walks. We also discovered Lake gardens on one walk which lasted about 8 hours!!! Seriously!! although knackered and very hot when we got there the lake gardens were really nice. They are full of flower gardens, bird gardens (we missed this one, not sure why?!), waterfalls, wild monkeys and lakes. We slept like babys that night!

On the 23rd of december our money problems were finally sorted out!!!!WHOOOOO! to celebrate we decided to share a large beer (and only one beer as its so expensive) at a restaurant on the side of the street in the gorgeous afternoon sun. Once we finished this one beer we just happened to notice that there was a promotion going on in which if you bought a bucket of beer (5 bottles) you got a bottle free. Now being people that feel rude if we dont accept these offers decided to partake! So this sitting down to share one beer ended up in one beer and three buckets!!!! Opps, what can we say were suckers for a great deal!!!! It turned in to such a great afternoon and both feeling a little tipsy noticed a sign for the fish spa!!! As you can probably guess this also sounded like a great idea to us. It was such a hilarious experience. Reece absolutely loved it and couldnt get enough of the fish eating the dead skin off his feet, Kay on the other hand spent the whole time wailing with laughter and wriggling round like a crazy drunk worm! It was such a wierd and horrible yet tickilish and funny feeling- bizzare but so funny, we ended up paying for extra time (reeces idea) before staggering home!!!

The next day we decided to check out the mall at the end of our road as we needed to buy a memory stick for all our pics. This is when we dscovered the dvd store!!! Again we got suckered in by a great deal (dont think we will ever learn!) Although we shouldnt have we ended up buying 4 seasons of lost, three seasons of prison break and 6 seasons of 24, however we can be forgiven as it is around 500 pounds of dvds that we payed only 47 quid for!!!! Bargin of the century. That night we also decided to splash out on the cinema (Yep went a little crazy once the bank told us we had money!) watched the day the world ended- quite good film and then headed of to the patronus towers to see them lit up at night. The sight was fantastic. The towers looked incredible at night as the are lit up by massive flood lights. We spent the next hour trying to take stupid pictures (will upoad them asap so you can see what we are talking about) and then headed back for a bit of late night slobbing in front of the box!

So we wake up on xmas day feeling a little misplaced. There were no stockings at the end of the bed or the smell of turkey in the air, just the sun and plans to go to the water park!!! Slightly different from the usual! The water park was an experince not to be forgotten, one because we will probably never again do the same on xmas day but also because of the ways in which they attempted to make it a little christmassy. There attempt consisted of santa baby on repeat at the front desk, a fat asia santa and women running round in kinky elf costumes (not very child friendly!) We also felt so out of place. What do you expect when you go a water park.....swim wear! This is how we preparedbut apparently it was wrong. Everyone (due to religion we are guessing) was walking round in full length wet suits our tshirts and leggings. We were stared at so much and have never felt so uncomfortable in our bikinis and shorts before! Luckily Charlotte and Dave were with us so we wernt alone! We spent the day in the water on the slides and then in the dry theme park on the roller coasters, log flumes (whichsoak you just as you have dryed from the water park) and on the massive (worlds longest) suspended walking bridge! Charlotte and dave left at around 4 as we had been there from opening but as we are stiill child like we decided to have ago on more rides and have one last go on the huge vikings ship. We only left when kay felt so sick form the upside down rides that we couldnt stay any longer! That night our xmas dinner consisted of half a duck, pinapple rice, noodles and sweet and sour balls, not exactly traditional xmas dinner! The evening plans were to join in the parties in the city but drinking card games in the hostl kept us entertained till the early hours!

Boxing day was spent at the KL tower a communications mast whihc has a lift all the way to the top which leads to a viewing deck. From there we saw across the whole of KL. The views were fantastic! Unfortunatley the camera battery died early on but we still have a few great pics! Walikng back from the tower we saw some of the many monkeys which live in the surrounding forest. There were loads of them all coming out thinking we were going to feed them. So strange that there are monkeys roaming around in the middle of the city!!! That night we also treated ourselves to an indian in a small resturant we had found upon one of our many walks. The resturant in the middle of little indian served us the best curry we have ever had. Not as cheap as in Penang but gorgeous!!!

Our last day in KL was spent at the nearby Batu Caves. We had been told it was a worthwhile visit and seeing as how it only cost 25p each to go we decided to visit. The caves were huge only accessable buy climbing up hundreds of steps! 276 to be precise, doest sound like too many but in the heat it is! All around the cave are yet more monkey running up and down the caves and steps. The thing is these monkeys are not cute. If they want something you have got, they will take it! On the way down one woman who was carrying a baby was corned by on of the monkey who proceeded to grab her bag, empty the contents and run off with a banana, can of drink and biscuits- mind you who takes a bucjh of bananas to a place which is full of scavanger monkeys!!!!! funny to watch the man try and wrestle it tho! Inside the caves was a cool sight as they were really high and had the sun shining in. In the middle of the caves though we saw a really runny sight, we have no idea where it came from but there was a random chicked pecking away at a coconut!!! wierd! Outside there was also a fairly large pond occupied but more fish than i have ever seen. After geeting some fish food reece excitedly watched the fish fight over the clumps of food!

Other than there being a massive spider in the shower we had to use and the credit card issue we really liked KL. It is the best city either of us has ever been to and would consider going back!