8th to 9th March 2008

Early on Saturday 8th we began our train journey to Kuala Lumpur. This was an interesting experience, travelling with the local people, passing through mile upon mile of oil palm trees with the occasional town/village in between. The journey was erraticand laborious at times, but we were comfortable and had lots of time to read during the seven hour journey. The "fun" started when we arrived in KL - we booked our onward train tickets and then had to find somewhere to stay. Eventually we were sent on the monorail to Bukit Bintang (the Golden Triangle) which is the busy entertainment/eating area in KL. It was VERY busy! It was election day and everyone was out enjoying themselves, but we managed to find a reasonable hotel and soon recovered from the ordeal of arriving in a foreign city with nowhere to stay!!! On Sunday 9th we followed some heritage trails : Mereka Square to see the oldest surviving mosque opened in 1909 and other well preserved buildings built before WW1. The moorish architecture is attractive against the modern high rise offices and hotels. We then went to the Central Market and followed a trail around Chinatown and the Art Deco buildings of the 1930s. We were soon back to the 21st Century when we reached the futuristic Petrona twin towers - amazing from outside and just like Bluewater inside!! We took the night train from KL to Butterworth - nine hours. We were unable to get berths for this journey but managed to sleep in the reclining seats despite the constant stopping to drop and pick up passengers throughout the night!