We checked out of the Hotel Shangri La, sad to leave the friendly staff behind us but happy to be moving on to Beijing, but first had a couple days' stopover in Kuala Lumpur to recharge.

We arrived at the Royal Chulan hotel in the early afternoon then spent ages discussing the room options with reception. Maria had already checked that our reservation was confirmed, which is just as well as their system had no record of our stay, so we were at least now comfortable in the knowledge that we had a bed for the night.

But the confusion really started at the front desk where we asked for an upgrade but were told we couldn't unless we opted into their Executive Package which included free internet, free access to the business lounge, including free cocktails and food and some free laundry. It also meant that we could have breakfast there instead of in the massive ground floor dining-room. The only snag was that it would cost 200 MYR each for the upgrade. We said we'd think about it.

Anyway, we went upstairs to check out the standard room and 'business lounge' and after a little pondering decided to go for the upgrade. Well it was only about £80 for the duration of the stay and we'd pay nearly that just with laundry and internet access alone, so a bargain was to be had!

We checked into our first room, unloaded the bags and were about to unpack them when we noticed that the room was interconnecting. When I went downstairs to discuss the room with reception I was told that the adjoining room was unoccupied so we would not be disturbed by noise; we hate interconnecting rooms! I got upstairs for Maria to tell me that someone was next door and that they were as noisy as hell; Reception had checked the wrong room reservation.

Upon requesting a move to a non-interconnecting room we were then moved next to a room next to the lift which was again not ideal as they too tend to be noisy, especially with party goers returning from a night on the town, so we requested another change!

We were somewhat surprised to then be shown to a massive suite which was far bigger than we needed and we insisted that all we wanted was somewhere quiet for us to relax and that we didn't want a free upgrade. We took the 9th floor room, suspecting that the hotel staff were glad to shut us up!!!

We freshened up and went out to find Bukit Bintang (Star Hill) the shopping and entertainment district in Kuala Lumpur. The area has long been Kuala Lumpur's most prominent retail belt that is home to many designer stores, landmark shopping centres, cafés, clubs, shops, malls and specialty shops. It's the most popular area among tourists and locals, especially the young adults, so we thought we'd join the crowds but first we had to navigate Jalan Bukit Bintang, the rather wide road that runs through the heart of the district.

I decided that KL was a little like Moscow in that you can see exactly where you want to go but can't for the love of God get there as the road is too wide, the traffic too dense and the pedestrian crossings non-existent. Instead, we had to walk for ages in the stifling heat doing a big loop around the malls, cross the street, then head back on ourselves; town planners eat your hearts out!!

And what did we find when we reached our destination, that's right, shops. Okay, so the malls are pretty impressive for their size and inventory of European retail outlets but that's only because they're in Malaysia. If this was Europe nobody would bat an eyelid! We strolled around looking for a pair of combat pants for Maria and finally lucked in with Billabong where we came across a fabulous pair of black/ grey camouflage pants; Maria now looks like an integral member of an Israeli Special Forces unit!!!

I hit the hotel gym on our return and afterwards went to the lounge to find that they had stopped serving food so Maria grabbed what little was left and we vowed to get their earlier the next evening.