We love exploring new places, finding our way around and seeing new things. Seeing how long it will take before you can find your way back to the hotel without a map, is always a good game for the first few days in a new place, and we are often sad to leave places we have come to feel comfortable in. That said, there is a comforting feeling when you return to somewhere which holds good memories. Kuala Lumpur is one such place, being the place where my daughter Hayley and I met up with Lindsay during her solo trip to SE Asia. Having been before, and despite some changes to the infrastructure we have been able to wander around the city with a sense of assurance, which it normally takes a couple of days to acquire.

Malaysia feels totally different to Vietnam where we have just left. Although both countries are humid Malaysia has a definite subtropical rainforest air about it. Many of the trees have large shiny leaves and at this time of year, there are thunderstorms most evenings. There are more cars and fewer bikes, either powered or otherwise, and traffic stops to let people cross at crossings. There seems to have been an increase in the numbers of dark skinned Indians working here, as well as many more women in Islamic dress.

The city is a vibrant mix of different cultures, and people from different countries, who seem to happily co-exist together. People here seem so much more polite. Gone are the demands to look at goods, back are requests. Subtle differences but they have a huge effect on your tolerance level when you're browsing. Even in the famous Petaling street Chinese market (although there isn't much Chinese about it anymore), which is famous for fake goods and eager salesmen, seems polite by contrast to previous places. Here you are more likely to hear "excuse me miss, would you like to buy a watch? ", rather than the command to "buy something from my stall, just look". The city is undergoing big changes to its infrastructure with expansions planned to the transport system to link the monorail, transit train and others more effectively together. This has resulted in construction dominating the main artery leading to the heart of the shopping area, but it'll all be worth it in the end if they get it right. It's also given us an excuse not to spend too much time in the malls along Bukit Butang.

Instead, we've headed in the other direction towards the greener areas of the city. Kuala Lumpur is home to the famous bird park with its enormous walk-through aviary, where birds fly free. Although it's a bit pricey Its a great place to view the birds at close quarters. When I've visited before it was the hornbills which I found the most interesting. They are huge birds, and to see them in natural surroundings rather than a cage is truly amazing. When we visited this time we were disappointed to only see one in the trees, but the rest of the birdlife made up for it, and we even had a close encounter with some cattle egrets who seemed happy to pose for pictures, especially on John's head. We stood there dripping from every pore in a response to the rainforest humidity, whilst the egrets just poised serenely. Today we explored more around the green side of town including the butterfly centre and botanical gardens. If you ever come to Kuala Lumpur this is definitely an area that should be on your itinerary.

I'm personally not a great fan of Malaysian food, it's ok but nothing to rave about. There appears to be a lack of distinct flavours for me, and the beer isn't particularly cheap compared with Cambodia, Lao and Vietnam, so for the sake of the budget we decided to detox and go "on the wagon" for the week. Despite that, we both love Malaysia and were only sorry that on this visit we didn't get the chance to explore much further afield.

On our last day in the City, we decided to head out a few miles to Malaysia's Milton Keynes. A new city built from scratch on a site previously used for palm oil and now used for the administrative functions of the city. The new city, Putrajaya, is a short train ride outside the city so we thought we'd go and have a look. When we arrived we headed for the Seri Wawasan bridge. A fantastic structure, the design of which was based on the billowing sail of a ship. It's very impressive and proved a great gateway to what lay beyond.

The architecture in the new town is a beautiful mix of Islamic and western influence, adorning the sidewalks of the wide boulevard style roadways. We stopped off for a cold drink in a small Hero supermarket - the only place we could find and then walked some more. The sky was a bright blue and made the buildings look even more impressive. John walked along the "red carpet" which ran along the pavement. Made from the red pellets used as safety substrate in children's playgrounds it turned out to be the cycle route. Following the red pellet track, we were soon at the Putra Mosque and the prime minister's building. We explored the former and met up with a Malaysian man, who had spent time in Leeds during the seventies. He was able to tell us a lot of information about the city and the mosque which were both built towards the end of the 1990s. The town was immaculately clean and had a maturity that often takes years to achieve as Milton Keynes planners would probably attest. The area was a balanced combination of building and vegetation. A great achievement.

As we came out of the mosque we noticed the sky had changed from a cheerful blue to a rather oppressive black, and within seconds large drops of rain fell from the sky. We had decided to take the bus back to the station, but when it didn't turn up we made the decision to walk to a different stop. At least the rain in Malaysia is warm, and a welcome relief from the humidity. The only problem is there's often a lot of it, and by the time we reached the new bus stop we were both soaked. I was just grateful I hadn't worn a white shirt today!