We arrived in KL after managing to negotiate the slightly confusing bus station in Melaka. The journey was only really 2 hours, but we spent a frustrating 40 minutes waiting to get into the bus station in KL, and the minute we got out were hassled into getting a taxi from this guy who ripped us off and then lead us through backstreets to get to his car. The boot wouldn't even close with our bags in it. Luckily he did manage to find where we were staying though, so our journey to Reggae Guest House was, if a little expensive, relatively trouble free!

I'm not sure what I thought about Kuala Lumpur...it's hard to have a true opinion on it when our time there was clouded by the grey skies and the money stealers. We had 3 days to explore, which for us is a lot in one place, meaning everything felt quite spread out and as though we didn't do as much as perhaps we have elsewhere.

Our first point of interest was Chinatown, which in KL seems to take up just one road - Petaling Street. After the Chinatown of Singapore and even Melaka this was a major disappointment. Far less pretty and far less on sale that was worth buying! It was an endless strip of fake designer everythings, and this coupled with the calls of 'hey lady' and 'beauty' alongside the odd 'I love you' meant that this was not a place I enjoyed.

Lucky for KL that there was more on offer! We began at Dataran Merdeka - Merdeka meaning Independence and Dataran meaning Square. This is home to supposedly the world's tallest flagpole, but having seen it we were a little dubious about the truthfullness of this 'fact'. There is a cute little mock-Tudor building to one side of a carefully mown lawn, which was built in 1884 and to be honest looks a little out of place. To the other side of the street is the Sultan Abdul Samad building. A very pretty design with a clock tower in the centre which had merdeka spelled out across it. Would have looked very pretty by night, all lit up.

After seeing a few mosques and the stall lined street of Masjid India we spent the afternoon attempting to see some sights in the KL Lake Garden. We had to get a taxi there, and had our usual issue with the driver not really knowing where he was going. We got out in the wrong place for the National Monument, which was what we'd really wanted to see, and proceeded to walk around in the hope that we might find it. These gardens are seriously huge, big enough to have main roads running through them. We briefly went into a memorial for Malaysia's second Prime Minister (which was boring as) and then had a wander around the pretty Hibiscus Garden. We were almost at the sculpture and ornament gardens, which would lead us to the monument when the rain started. Finding shelter, we watched and waited a little while. The skies seemed clearer and the roads drier, so we made a decision and crossed. We had seen approximately 1.5 sculptures when the rain started for the second time. In the minute or two it took us to dash from where we were back to our shelter we got well and truly drenched. I mean so wet that we looked as though we had showered fully clothed. My white top was not only looking decidely less white than it did a couple of months ago, but had also gone slightly see-through, and my green skirt was a very much darker shade of green on the front (where the rain had hit it) than the back! For some reason the whole experience seemed hilarious and we really weren't too bothered! Eventually we gave up the wait and got a taxi back to the hostel...we never did make it back to see the monument sadly.

In the way of city sight seeing, the KL Tower was quite a fun experience. It's yet another observation deck, but this time we were provided with a free audio visual unit which explained to us what we were seeing from the 12 sections of the circuar viewing area. The visual aspect was quite entertaining, although difficult to give it much attention when you're supposed to be looking at the actual sights, not seeing them on a screen! We had the opportunity to watch a cultural performance before heading to the top of the tower, but to be honest it was a little disappointing. There were men and women in amazing costumes doing various dances, but I felt far more could have been made of it. They didn't really have a proper performance area, and the sun streaming in from behind meant the colours of the costumes weren't visible enough. People were welcome to come and go as they pleased which gave it an odd feel; I think Sooz and I were the only people who watched the entire thing, and the claps of two tired girls isn't really enough to show appreciation to 12 or so dancers! We also went on this F1 simulator thing, as it was included in the ticket price. Predictably I was absolutely dreadful. My steering was even worse than it is when playing Mario Kart - those of you who have experienced this will understand that this is quite a statement!

The Petronas Towers were also worth visting. We had intended to arrive at the towers early to queue for tickets to the free skybridge on the 41st floor, from which there are good views of the city, but we didn't get there quite early enough. To our surprise a group of 4 friends from the Philippines came up to us, just as we were about to leave, and explained that they had 6 tickets but only 4 people and they'd like to give the other tickets to us! We were completley amazed. We still don't know if they heard our discussion with the security man and got extras with us in mind, or if they just got the wrong amount by accident! But they were so so sweet. We met them later that afternoon for our allotted time, and they were keen to chat to us and make it a shared experience, they even wanted to have group photos taken with us! We both decided that the Petronas experience was far more enjoyable because of them, and that otherwise it would just have been a nice view from the skybridge!

A lot of the remainder of our time was spent in shopping malls :-). We spent a lot of time wandering around the 11 (?) floors of the Times Square mall, which includes its very own indoor rollercoaster! We didn't waste the money on it, but it was funny to see. This was home to some very pretty skirts which neither of us could resist, and also to KRISPY KREMES!!! The first donuts of the trip! Yum! Our other favoured shopping spot was Suria KLCC which is attached to the Petronas Towers. Lots of lovely, but expensive shops and some very cute little eateries. The towers are set in parkland to one side, and we noted that this would have been a lovely place to spend a couple of hours soaking up the sun. Had there been any that is; our attempt was thwarted by rain (as usual), so rather than soak up the droplets we were forced back inside to the shops!

We spent several enjoyable evenings in the Reggae Bar and Beatles Bar, the latter with fabulous decor and a very entertaining music video system! The videos were decidely dodgy and accompanied by the words on the screen a la karaoke. The woman working behind the bar clearly viewed this as a vocal training exercise, as she sang along loudly to every track she chose! Reggae Bar was also a fun spot, with walls covered in the scrawls of past drinkers. Sadly these 2 were a little far away to visit when we moved to our second hostel, the HORRIBLE Hotel Cosmopolitan.

Generally we had a good few days, but we were both definitely happy to be stepping on the plane to Koh Samui on the Sunday. Perhaps I'll give KL a try in future years when there are less clouds on the horizon!