Currency:
Malaysian ringgit

Highlights:
Christmas, reunion with friends, being spoiled by Al's dad

Our Adventure:

We hope you all had a wonderful Christmas!

We were sad to be without our families this Christmas but still had a lovely time in Kuala Lumpur with friends. We met up with Al and V again and also Greg and Shandy who are other Saffa friends from London that have been travelling for a few months now. The 6 of us now become a new travelling family as we'll be mostly together for the next 2 months.

Lonely Planet describes KL well:
'Kuala Lumpur, or simply KL, is the capital of Malaysia. Literally meaning "muddy estuary" in Malay, KL has grown from a small sleepy Chinese tin-mining village to a bustling metropolis of around 6.5 million (city-proper population of 1.6 million) in just 150 years. With the world's cheapest 5-star hotels, great shopping and even better food, increasing numbers of travellers are discovering this little gem of a city.'

Malaysia is endowed with a diversity of cultures, and offers a 'truly Asian experience'. Malaysia also allows you to discover a delightful fusion of three of Asia's oldest civilisations - Malay, Chinese and Indian.

Al's dad, Tommy, has been living in KL with his girlfriend Jen for a few years so we'd always planned to spend Christmas here so we could at least have some parentals around and Tommy and Jen completely spoiled us all. Tommy has near rock star status here and it seemed like everywhere we went, he knew someone and nobody would let us pay for dinner or drinks. Tommy had also kindly sorted out an apartment for us to stay in in his complex, the Ascott (which is also a fancy hotel) - so it was wonderful for our budget to have a little holiday too!

I think after a week of some solid sightseeing. Shaun and I were very keen to just chill out rather than pounding the pavements all day so we were very relieved when the guidebook informed us that there weren't really any compulsory 'top 10' things to do or see in Kuala Lumpur - as much as just walking around and enjoying the restaurants etc. - that we could do!

Day 1 - Arriving in KL:

We arrived late afternoon and were very exited to see our friends again as well as our gorgeous apartment stocked to the brim with all sorts of goodies - compliments of Tommy again. We had time for a quick swim in the fab pool on the 22nd floor with a great view over the city. The Ascott is right in the center of the city - located directly across from the Petronas twin towers and the KLCC (Kuala Lumpur City Centre) which is the main shopping centre in Kuala Lumpur.

After that, we headed out to Tommy's work Christmas party which was an informal affair - free drinks and food with a braai-type atmosphere. We met some interesting characters and tasted some delicious local food. Then it was on to dinner at a Thai restaurant where we had our first Thai curry of tour - many more to come I'm sure!

You can see our photos here:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=367826&id=713415257&l=afd76f9a71

Day 2 - Christmas Eve:

We did the usual Christmas Eve routine - some last minute shopping! Although instead of a big mall (although a few people did go to the massive KLCC center later), we went to Chinatown which is, as always, famous for great deals. There was the usual stock of fake clothing and jewellery etc and I would have loved to have bought more stuff but then thinking about the lack of space in my backpack managed to constrain me. My husband on the other hand got the 2nd-most-shopping award (after his mate Al) and walked away with lots of Quicksilver t-shirts - for a whopping GBP 4 each! I did however indulge in a foot massage (another firm routine favourite for Southeast Asia!). It was divine - although my feet do still feel a little bruised as they are not scared of deep massaging here! We also managed to sneak in a quick lunch at Nando's (which we have deemed necessary every time we come across one!).

And then it was time for our Christmas Eve celebration. Tommy had arranged dinner at the Euro Deli restaurant which was festively decorated and put on a good spread of turkey and all the trimmings (although I did miss having no roast potatoes!). Of course the owner Gary came over to chat and insisted after dinner that he take us to another of his bars, the Brussels Beer Cafe, to continue the festivities. And this is when the evening started to go downhill - or uphill depending on which way you look at it... The beers started flowing for the boys and us girls continued our consumption of wine and champagne. But these beers were no ordinary beers - you can tell the size from the photos - and of course the Scotsman in Tommy couldn't resist putting his boys up in a race against the guys at the next table. The Saffas naturally dominated and Gary had to hand over MYR 100 to Tommy - but we're not sure if the cost was worth the benefit!

We were then ready to 'squeak some takkie' and decided to do a pub crawl at the bars lining the street on the way back to the hotel. However, when place #1 charged a cover, we decided to just stay there for the rest of the evening. What a party!!

You can see our photos here:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=367829&id=713415257&l=cdb833b55f

Day 3 - Christmas Day:

I would love to say we all woke up fresh and sparkly and full of the joys of Christmas - but it was more like all very hungover (jointly voted biggest hangover of tour) so the plans for the day of chilling by the pool were instead shelved and we didn't so much make it out of our apartment. We did have a great day though starting with opening our pressies in the morning - Secret Santa had really spoilt us all!

We then enjoyed another round of turkey - this time in the form of turkey sandwiches. And it became a day of Skype as the 6 of us called as many family and friends as possible given the time difference. We snuck in a few massages in the hotel spa between the phone calls too which were absolutely divine!

Pizza, attempted fake movies and card games topped off our lovely relaxing day.

You can see our photos here:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=367834&id=713415257&l=3fdc43f345

Next stop - the island of Langkawi...

Love,
Lara + Leise