Day 6

This morning's destination was Little India, where we came across lots of market stalls, shops and restaurants. We picked up lots of little bargains and had a terrific lunch of tandoori chicken, naan bread, daal & rice.
The people here were really welcoming and friendly, and the markets were the cheapest we'd come across so far. We were also able to walk through without hearing cries of 'miss, miss, a new handbag for you!' or 'lovely watch here for you sir, come look, come look!'

From here, we caught a taxi to the Menara KL. This is the second tallest building in KL, and boasts better views than that of the more famous Petronas Towers. As part of our ticket we also received entry into the Malaysian Cultural Village. This was a kind of Malaysian 'sovereign hill' for all you Ballarat locals, but much smaller.
Here we got to see various examples of traditional style homes across different parts of Malaysia. We were also shown how to play different Malaysian games, and were lucky enough to here traditional music being played. The highlight however was the traditional Malaysian dancing performance. Not only were we able to sit back and enjoy the show, at the end
the dancers invited us up for an impromtu dance lesson! While we felt very unco-ordinated and 'aussie', we had a blast!

Feeling tired from all our dancing, we had a quiet night exploring nearby markets, and sampling lots of yummy food from street stalls.

Day 7

After another satisfying Malay style breakfast we were excited to be venturing to the Batu Caves. The caves are situated at the top of 272 very steep, uneven steps (Mark had to walk sideways because his feet were too big for them!).
Inside the caves, several Hindu temples have been built. It was especially exciting to visit the caves in the lead up to the Thaipusam festival. This is a Hindu celebration whereby Hindu people from all over Malaysia make an eight hour pilgrimage
to the caves as a sign of penance. The followers of all ages carry offerings of flowers and coconut milk, and often carry out acts of devotion such
piercings and shaving their heads. While exploring these amazing caves, We were beckoned by a man giving blessings outside of one of the temples. He proceeded to give us a blessing for luck, marking out foreheads with red and white powder.

After all those stairs we had worked up quite an appetite, so we travelled back in to Little India for some lunch. This lunch turned out to be the best food experience we had in KL. We dined in a relatively small, but beautifully decorated Indian restaurant.
We both ordered the banana leaf meals, as this was what everyone around us was eating. Our waiter laid out fresh green banana leaf on our tables. A series of waiters then began a procession of serving us many different dishes onto our leaves, including rice, daal, papadams,
vegetarian curries, chutney, dried chilli and yoghurt, amongst other things that we couldn't identify. We were also served a traditional Indian sweet for dessert which tasted a bit like shortbread. This amazing meal cost us RM 8.50 each (about $2.20 AU).

After our afternoon siesta (which is quickly becoming a habit!) we caught the monorail to Bukit Bintang. Bukit Bintang is one of KL's most popular shopping and restaurant districts. It definitely has the feel of a busy city centre with lots of people and bright lights.
It is certainly an example of a more western Kuala Lumpur. Here we explored the 3 major shopping malls, all of which were huge, and expensive even in Malaysian ringgits! We enjoyed strolling past restaurants and bars full of people, but we both felt that in this part
of town it wasn't terribly different to Melbourne or Sydney.

Keen to get back to the KL we were growing to love, we walked away from the city until we stumbled across a street of chinese open air restaurants.
Again we find ourselves talking about food, however anyone who has visited here will know what a big part of the experience it is. We ordered some delicious
lemon chicken (nothing like what you find in Australian food courts and chinese takeaways!). A relaxing way to end a busy day, particularly because the weather in the evenings
is still high 20's (perfect for sitting in the streets taking it all in and watching the world go by).

Day 8

Aware that our time in KL was drawing to a close, we dragged ourselves out of bed early today, keen to make the most of the time we had left.
While we had ticked off lots of things on our to-do list, we still had not managed to visit the famous Petronas Towers, as the viewing deck had been closed for construction.
Even though we arrived as tickets were just being passed out, to our dismay there were hundreds of people queued ahead of us. After a quick discussion, we decided we didn't want to waste our
morning in a queue, especially considering we had already seen some great views from the Menara Tower.
After stopping for a few pictures of the towers from outside, we jumped back on the train and did some serious souvenir shopping at our favourite markets. Deciding it would be nice to post
gifts to our family from Malaysia, rather than waiting until we got to London, we bravely (and somewhat naively) headed off to the local post office.
Expecting a similar set up to Australia Post, we soon discovered that we were in fact supposed to provide our own boxes etc as these are not for sale in the tiny Malaysian post office. Luckily,
a kind staff member went and found some boxes, tape and permanent markers out the back of the office, and walked us through the process. Fingers crossed that all the gifts arrive safely!

After doing some packing and having a quick nap, we left the hotel to spend our last night in KL. Our first destination was the Reggae bar we discovered early on in our trip. We almost felt
like locals relaxing in the bar, and both decided that we could definitely make KL our home (don't worry mums & dads, we wouldn't do that to you!)
After food and drinks we went back to Chinatown night markets for some last minute bargains (Jess realised she had only brought one jumper to take to London along with lots of summer dresses..don't panic,
she was able to find a whole winter wardrobe :-) While we were shopping, we noticed people stopping in the streets to watch a Chinese dragon procession taking place. Watching with interest,
we soon realised that this was much more than just a Chinese New Year celebration, as there were swarms of journalists and security. After chatting with one of the boys in the dragon procession,
we discovered that in fact we were in the presence of the Malaysian President of the Chinese Association Chua Soi Lek.
While most of the speech was delivered in Bahasa (the Malaysian language) we were keen to stick around and be part of the atmosphere of this surprise visit to Chinatown. Towards the end of the speech, however,
Chua Soi Lek looked right at us and explained what he had just said in English, as we were the only Westerners there listening! A lovely gesture. After the speech and a press conference, he left with as much fanfare as he arrived with.
In his wake, people were handing out show bags to honour the occasion. We scrambled for a show bag, keen to see what goodies were inside. Of course, it contained two lucky mandarins!

What a terrific surprise for our last night in KL. Unfortunately, we had left the camera back at the hotel! Luckily we have saved some clippings from the local paper.

Day 9

We packed up our bags and headed to the airport this morning, but not before indulging in one last Malaysian breakfast making sure we went back for seconds. While we are excited to be heading to our 'real' destination of London,
we were a bit sad to be leaving this exciting city. As we write, we are currently sitting on the plane, 3 1/2 hours into a 14 hour flight. While we are expecting a bit of jet lag due to the massive time difference we are
really looking forward to starting the house/job hunt.

Cheerio!
Mark and Jessie
(from somewhere in the world between Malaysian and the UK, cruising at 32000 feet!)