The capital of Malaysia Kuala Lumpur

Saying goodbye to Lola was hard, we were going to miss everything about her. The journey to the airport was long due to Manila Traffic. Uncle Cesar's car had broken down so we had to use the mini jeepney, my chest felt heavy from all the fumes after the 2 1/2 hour journey to the airport.

Our flight to Kuala Lumpur was good as the plane was only half full. We flew in a clear starry night sky which looked amazing from the plane window. Arriving in KL we only paid 8 ringgit (£1.80) for the 45 minute bus ride into the city. Reggae Mansions is a great hostel, it felt more like a hotel with its restaurant and rooftop bar.

Sunday we walked around Chinatown which was next to the hostel. Had a bustling market selling 'genuine imitations'. We had our lunch in Swiss Hotel in Chinatown and had a feast to share of Malaysian noodles, tom yam soup and chicken satay. We went to the colourful Buddhist temple where people were burning lots of incense and then onto Central Market, which had lots of lovely craft shops.

We met Kiwi Dominic who offered us a room for New Years in Ko Phangnan which worked out brilliantly as we had spent that day stressing about NYE plans, we all went for a drink at our rooftop bar, the cheapest drinks in town for 10 ringgit (£2).

Monday we signed up for a KL tour put on by our hostel, which was a perfect way to see the main sites of the city in our short period of time. We got to see the a larger Buddhist temple, the national mosque where I wore the garms, the museum, the national monument (by a British sculpture who had never been to Malaysia so didn't know what malaysian soldiers looked like hence they look European), went to the palace and the king was home as the yellow flag was flying and the Batu Caves which are 400 million years old a pretty impressive. Loved the huge golden statue. There were also monkeys running up and down the stairs looking for food. It was fast site seeing and enjoyable day. We got dropped in Bukit Bitang and looked around the mall, which had excellent Christmas decorations. We had a fantastic dinner in the Pavillion food court (seafood laksa, fried carrot cake and chicken clay pot), which reminded me of the MBS food court in Singapore.

Tuesday we signed up for the Waterfall Trip which cost 70 ringgit (£14) and included lunch and refreshments. It was a great day, the waterfall had 7 tiers so there was a bit of trekking and you could swim in each tier. Was a lot of fun and the water was the perfect temperature. In the evening we went to see the Twin Towers, which was only two stops by MRT (train). The towers photographed brilliantly, no filters needed there.

All in all we found KL easy to get around and our hostel fantastic. The tours were worthwhile and a good price. A great few days in a good city.