After we arrived from a long bus ride into Kula Lumpur, we began our next mission of trying to find our hostel, which is somewhere within walking distance of the main bus depot. Armed with a map and directions would sound like it was easy enough. But street signs are.. Rare. What was supposed to take a short 15 minute walk, turned into close to an hour. Back tracking, and being pointed in different directions when asking locals who were surprisingly eggar to help, but sadly were not much help. We finally get to our new hostel.

Our Hostel, BackHome Inn. Was renovated from an old heritage building, to give it a modern feel. As you walk in the big glass door lined with wooden strips you are greeted with a friendly staff behind a black wooden counter. To the left is the lounge, 2 big comfy black couches. A few computers and a tv with lots of movies to choose from. A small fridge where guests can store their food. Toaster, clean hot and cold water to drink and a small selection of tea and instant coffee. The walls a cool, polished concrete with a type of wood and metal for contrast for the railings, stairs and cabinets. As you walk through the floor to ceiling glass doors separating the lounge from the courtyard your greeted with a few palm trees, tables and opaque roof protecting the courtyard from the rain. A small coffee shop is tied into the courtyard so guests can have access to it. Adjacent to the courtyard is a set of washrooms and showers. With a cement wash basin and a big mirror.

Straight past the reception, there are three dorm rooms and the way to upstairs, where our dorm is located. Upstairs is fairly straight forward. 6 dorm rooms, each with 2-4 Bunk beds ( sleeps 4-6 people ) a sink, and electrical outlets on each bed, reading lamp, and a big cabinet to lock your bag up. A walkway spans across the courtyard to the shared washrooms on the other side. A similar layout to the ones downstairs.

We get settled into our new room. ( i claimed bottom bunk this time ) As Alyssa is hanging up her pink "hello kitty" towel, across my bed of course. I introduce ourselves to our new bunk mates. One is from Quebec and the other one. Didn't really want to speak with us or just didn't speak English. After getting acquainted, Alyssa and i decided to get some late dinner, since it is around 8pm and walk through china town market.

Traffic in KL ( Kula Lumpur ) is, well not something I have experienced yet, and an only imagine it to get worse as we progress along our trip. Traffic lights seem to be more of a suggestion. Scooters, zoom in and out cars, side walks and shoulders on the road. Turn signals are rarely used, cars just seem to nudge in. We're told, as pedestrians crossing the road, they will stop for you.. You just have to put up your hand. They do eventually stop for you a little close for comfort. We quickly learn you just have to go for it.

A few blocks later we enter the busy china town market stalls. The main corridor, which spans about 2 city blocks. On either side of the street you have every knock off imaginable. Rolex watches, sun glasses, wallets, bags, purses, electronics, high powered lazer pointers, rail mounted scopes for rifles and lots and lots of " Angry Birds" nostalgia. Surprisingly only one booth out of the whole market is "Hello Kitty" which Alyssa got a little, too excited for. The other road which bisects the main one, is filled with the same knock offs woman and men drool over. Except instead of having a row on either side of the street, they have two, with narrow pathways just big enough for one person to walk through running parallel to each other. Buried behind the stalls are shops of Restaurants and typical street shops, usually selling legit stuff such as, sarongs, phone cards, vacation packages and more "Angry Birds."

With the usual pick up lines of every china town market we have been to. We decide just to window shop and grab something to eat at a restaurant instead of street vendor. Food was great. But as a new trend we are starting to see, service was crap, well almost non-existent compared to our north American standards.

Our second day, our bunk mate, Isabella, or Aunty Isabella as we called her. ( the woman from Quebec ) had a later start, but went to go see The Batu Caves. Or attempt to at least. Our plan was to take a bus, but between the three of us a cab would be faster, more comfortable and about the same price. Apparently we picked the worse time, and day to go as we were bumper to bumper getting out of the city. But to top it all off there was a major accident off the freeway exit for Batu Caves. For a journey that should have only taken 30mins, an hour and a half later, of our taxi drivers choice of western music, ( Cher, Golden Age, and my personal favorite, Johnny cash, but the CD was so badly scratched that we could only listen to one or two songs. ) we still are not even on the off ramp. Gas almost empty. And the meter racking up. We decide to head back to Little India to get lunch and I can get a shave then head to the Butterfly park.

The Butterfly park in KL was, not like the butterfly park i remember back at home. For $25rm ( around $8CDN, which is actually fairly expensive in relation ) Stepping through a plastic chain curtain, and seeing dead butterflies laying on the ground, we are off to a great start. Surprisingly it was a nice little park, just slightly bigger than a Tennis court, it was very nicely laid out. There were over 100 different species of butterflies inside the park. ( I only counted about 10, but what do I know? ) what was even more interesting than the butterfly park, was their "education centre" filled with insects, beetles, scorpions and spiders, living and pinned up in a glass box from around Malaysia and other parts of the world. Alyssa was slightly freaking out, little did she know at that time, but the biggest spiders, and beetles were found in the hills of Malaysia, more specifically, Cameron Highlands, our next destination after KL.

With the heat and humidity taking it's toll, we head back to our hostel to shower away the sticky sweat. And have a quick escape before going out for dinner.

That night we decided to take a walk again through the street market and see what other things we can bargain for. After about an hour of fighting the market streets. We both come out empty handed and then tried our fate at the few stalls of street food. One was even selling Pork squares... And strips of bacon.... It was amazing.

Throughout our trip through Malaysia and Singapore we kept hearing about these "doctor fish". The fish that suck on your feet and hands to remove dead skin. Well upon our walk through the market we saw a reputable place that had small and big fish. For a small price you can put your feet in for 10 mins. Naturally we all decided to give it a try. We all were sitting on the edge of the big fish pond daring each other to go first. Me being the ticklish one out of us three, goes first. After about 5 mins of laughing my ass off, I can finally focus on something else other than the 20 fish sucking on the bottom of my feet. (about 50 were on Alyssa's which made me question her hygiene) 10mins goes by pretty quick. And we are handed a towel to dry of our feet. I personally thought it was neat to try it at least once. Is it worth it to do it again? I would say no. I didn't notice any difference to my feet or hands. Our belly's hurting from laughing so hard we called it a night.

The next day we found out there was a train to the Batu Caves, however the frequency and the reliability are not the greatest. Or so we have been told. So the four of us, myself, Alyssa, Isabella, and Tracy, a new member to our hostel dorm who is Malaysian, and staying in KL for an instructor yoga program. We make our trek through the maze of ticket stations, trains and a very slow train, that power kept shutting off at random intervals throughout the trip. We finally made it to Batu Caves.

We stop by the Hindu temple so, Tracy can get blessed. Then make our way through souvenir shops, garbage eating evil monkeys and European tourists to the bottom of the stairs toward the Batu caves. It wasn't as many stairs as we thought, as well as it didn't take as long, even stopping every once in a while because of a monkey was in the way or stupid tourists were feeding monkeys. We arrive at the top to find a surreal sight, of a massive damp cave, lined with prayer statues hidden in corners, more souvenirs, even angrier monkeys, and lots and lots of garbage. I came across an unlocked gate, to the right of the main entrance which after sneaking through came across even more little caves that don't go deeper than 10'. Filled with, what looks to be old Chinese writing for more prayer stations. The little path got narrower and steeper but then ended suddenly with a beautiful view of the city and the stairs, where I witnessed a 5 year old girl being forced to feed a monkey so her parents can get a cute picture. Naturally the girl gets scared and pisses off the monkey and the monkey jumps on her and starts forcefully trying to grab the food from her. Luckly the little girl was fine, and I just hope her parents learned their lesson.. Probably not.

I snuck back through the gate again, to catch up with Alyssa, Tracy and Isabella. To come up to the last few stairs which takes us up to the main temple. It was definitely a beautiful sight despite all the garbage and monkeys. With the light shinning down from the cave opening in the roof.

On our way back we decided to stop by the Patronis towers?? In the heart of KL. These twin towers we're built by two teams, a Korean and I believe a Japanese team? ( I could be wrong ) it was a competition to see who can build them the quickest. With the Korean team loosing in the end. However they did engineer and build the sky bridge connecting the two towers.

Alyssa and I, being tired of the heat and not wanting to do any more shopping. Head back to our hostel to have a nap an plan where we want to go next.