(1 December)

The three of us got up early to get the bus to Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia. The bus was pretty nice, lots of space, and after giving in to December and listening to Christmas songs (so bizarre!) I ended up sleeping for most of the journey. We got dropped on like a main road with no real footpath in the city haha, weird that they didn't take us in to the station! We walked for maybe 15 minutes to the hostel which the girl from the last hostel had recommended to us...it was a dive! I think it was called the original backpackers inn. No towel, no common area or anywhere to sit, just crammed full of bunk beds! To be fair, it was clean enough but the atmosphere was not good. Unfortunately, for 10RM a night (around £2) the guys were very happy haha, so I figured I'd stay there one night and leave in the morning!

We checked in and then went for a walk around the city. We went through Chinatown which is where our hostel was, and had a look at Petaling market. It was kinda just a typical market like. The boys had lunch and I had some melon from a stall. Then we went up to Merdeka Square, where they declared the Malaysian independence from Britain. It was pretty nice but essentially just a square of grass with a big flagpole haha. I thought the building opposite it was pretty cool but think it was just a government building. From there we walked to Masjid Jamek, a pretty cool mosque. It was a little bit weird though, kind of felt like we shouldn't be there. Had to wear a massive gown thing and headscarf, and couldn't actually go inside anywhere because it was for prayer only.

From there we walked up towards the Petronas Twin Towers. We passed the Reggae Mansion hostel on the way which was seriously nice, more like a hotel! And they had hairdryers and straighteners! Haha, so i half decided to check in there in the morning, even though it was £8! We carried on and got to the KL tower, which was pretty cool, but mega expensive to go up. We went in to the mall bit and had a look around, watched a seriously cheesy video about how it was made etc, and then were going to just leave because it was too much to go up to the top...but the rain started and we got stuck! We just chilled out for a bit, then went to look at the cultural museum type thing that was just outside it when the rain eased off a bit. It probably would have been pretty cool, although the ground was so slippy that I ended up doing a pretty impressive fall down some steps, and could barely walk haha, definitely wasn't in the mood to look around after that. There was a really big lizard type thing that the boys had a go at holding lol, but I wasn't going near that!

It was still a bit rainy and threatening to pour again, but we figured we could make it to the Golden Triangle where all the big shopping malls and stuff are, but about halfway there the rain was too crazy so we gave up and jumped on a bus back. We ended up having to hide out for a bit in the market until the rain eased off, then made a run for it round the corner!

Our hostel was meant to have a rooftop bar that opened at...god knows what time, some posters said 6.30, others 7.30 or 8.30! We decided to check it out that evening. We hung out at the hostel for a bit then went for dinner at a food court in Chinatown - just had a buffet thing which was really cheap and good enough! On the way back we met a girl called Lisa from England who Stuart knew from Thailand, and we arranged to meet her at our hostel bar later on. Then back to the hostel where we waited...and eventually asked when the bar would open - we were told it wasn't going to because of the rain!

There isn't really much in the way of bars in KL, definitely not if you are on a budget anyway. We went for a wander though, and found the Reggae Bar, which was attached to the Reggae Hostel. It was pretty cool, aircon and really cheap drinks for girls, so I was happy lol! We were there for a bit and then Lisa arrived with some French people from her hostel. It was a good night, just a few drinks and good chat, and had a really nice plate of chips haha, but i think the bar staff got a little annoyed at us buying the guys drinks for most of the night!