The next morning we left our hotel in Singapore and headed for the bus station to catch our "VIP" coach into Malaysia. I wasn't expecting much from our coach as having read all the guides warning us of the loose use of the terms luxury, spacious and VIP however I was made to eat my words on boarding the coach. Where as a normal coach would have 56 seats this one only had 27 massive seats that fully reclined and had not only a foot rest but also a rest for your legs allowing you to essentially turn your seat into a bed if you wanted. It was to take us about 6 hours to travel to our destination so we were happy that it was going to be a very comfortable transfer. We had a stop to have our passports stamped on leaving Singapore and a second stop for our entry into Malaysia and having become accustomed to bag scans, x-ray machines and the usual entry interview it was very strange to have immigration barely lift their eyes from the desk let alone look at your passport. As long as you had ticked all the relevant boxes on your little white card they didn't seem to care! Having driven through miles of jungle we started to drive through more urban areas and it soon became clear that we were in the centre of Kuala Lumpur due to the volume of traffic and the fact that we had maybe moved about 5 metres in the space of 15 minutes and everyone else on the bus was starting to get impatient and asking to get off. Our problem being we had no idea where we were and only a little hand drawn map of where our hotel was so as you might imagine we were a little unsure about getting off the bus! After another 15 minutes of not moving we decided just to get our bags and head off on foot and it was definitely the right decision as it turned out we were right at the bus station and the bus was in a queue to get in! Within a couple of minutes we were being hassled from all angles by tour guides and hostel touts trying to get our money! Fortunately we had anticipated such a reception and as such had already organized our accommodation ahead of arrival. One wave of our booking confirmation and they soon lost interest! Our hotel was right smack bang in the middle of the street that houses Chinatown market, a crazy and colorful strip of absolute chaos where the stalls line the streets 4 deep selling every knock off product you could ever want or need! We managed to battle our way along the street getting in everyone's way with our backpacks trying to find our hotel. As all the stalls were set up the entire length of the street we couldn't see any of the hotels behind them so we had to literally walk along the street with our eyes to the sky looking at all the signs on the roofs of the buildings. After what seemed like an eternity Michael finally spotted the sign for D'Oriental Hotel and we attempted to find a break in the market to squeeze through to the front door. The hotel was pleasant and fortunately we were at the back so the sounds from the market didn't disturb us. After settling in it was time to go and explore this crazy place without the constraints of our bags. The market was amazing and once you recovered from being completely overwhelmed by it you could really get into the swing of things. As you would expect all the stall holders are desperate to get you to look at what they are selling and whilst some are just plain annoying others will let you look without too much hassle. The stalls sell either shoes, bags and purses, t-shirts or watches and each one sells exactly the same as his competitor so there is no point in stopping to look at every stall but there were definitely a few things catching my eye! Everything is fake designer, exact copies of the real thing using exactly the same fabrics and finishes and I would challenge anyone to spot the difference between the fake and the real thing it was unbelievable. We had heard of friends and family getting fakes at the markets in Asia but its never something we have ever done before so I was like a kid in a sweet shop among all these amazing designer bags that I could normally never afford and here they all were for a fraction of the price! Unfortunately we still have quite a bit of traveling to do and the prospect of carrying half a dozen knock off handbags all over Asia is not an appealing one so in this instance I was going to have to look but not touch! One thing I did need to get were some t-shirts to cover my shoulders as many of the areas we would be visiting would be Muslim and women are encouraged to cover their shoulders and knees so out of respect for their culture I had left many of my strappy tops in Australia and needed some alternatives. This was definitely going to be the place to get them so we spent most of the afternoon walking around looking at what everyone had for sale. Whilst many of the styles were very similar they were always one size but each stall had a different size so if I looked at a few and they looked like dolls clothes we would know nothing would fit so we could move on to a different stall. There are obviously no fitting rooms or mirrors so you have to guess the size and with a no refund or return policy this was no easy task. After finding a top I liked that seemed to be my size it was now time for the bartering (the part I wasn't looking forward to at all). Having read the section in the guide book about bartering we were advised to ask for a price, half it and then haggle from there so that's exactly what I did and whilst I didn't much enjoy the whole haggling process the end result was a top for about three quid. I am sure if I had been a tougher negotiator I could have got it for even less but I was acutely aware that 3 quid was nothing to me but to the woman on the stall it was her livelihood and I didn't want to take the piss (too soft I know)!! Happy that I had one nice top we headed back to the hotel to check if it would fit and much to our relief it was a perfect fit so we headed back to the same stall to negotiate on another one confident that it would fit and more comfortable to haggle the price down a little more! Having walked around the market and the surrounding area it was time to set our sights on dinner, for me the biggest chore of the day is trying to find somewhere to eat where you know what you are eating. Things had slightly improved as we had learned a few key words in Malay like chicken, pork, beef, rice and noodles this made our meal selections a little less random but it was still a gamble as to whether I could eat it or not! The hawker stalls in Chinatown were geared more towards the die hard Malay person with no signs or prices for anything so we soon decided we had better find a restaurant somewhere in order to get a glimpse at a menu before we ate! Eventually we passed a large kitchen with a load of patio tables and chairs outside and plenty of people eating from it (always a sign of freshly prepared food). We pulled up a pew and much to my amazement we were handed a menu that listed the dishes in English Hurrah! After carefully studying all the dishes on the menu I opted for a Chinese chicken curry and Michael ordered Satay. Our seats were literally right in the middle of the market so all around us people were coming and going haggling for their bargains it was great fun to watch and thoroughly entertaining! Within ten minutes our dinner had arrived and at last I am able to say it was delicious and by far the tastiest thing I have eaten since arriving in Asia. For the first time in a week I cleaned my plate and actually really enjoyed my dinner we were seeing light at the end of the tunnel and it came just in time as I was really starting to get fed up with eating! After dinner we had another wee walk around the market before heading back to the hotel happy to leave all the mental chaos behind for the night!

The next morning and it was off on the monorail train to the city centre for a look around The Golden Triangle's sights including the famous Petronas Towers. The monorail station at Kuala Lumpur centre is right underneath the towers and the exit brings you out in the centre of the massive Petronas Mall. This is one of the plushest and fanciest shopping centre's I have ever seen. It is ultra modern which is a stark contrast to the rest of the city and with all the designer shops and expensive restaurants you could easily forget where you are. It is a beautiful shopping centre with lots of amazing shops however having been in quite a lot of centre's recently it was a bit like seen one seen them all and it wasn't really the Malaysia we wanted to experience. After a quick brunch we headed outside to get a look at the awesome Petronas Towers and they are certainly a sight to behold, the tallest building in the world until over taken by Chinas Taipei 101 in 2004. It is still the worlds tallest twin towers with 88 floors of reinforced concrete and steel each tower connected to the other by a giant glass walkway built to allow easy transfer between the towers and as an emergency exit for each tower. Not being one easily moved by tall buildings even I had to admit it is a pretty and impressive sight all shiny and new it glitters in the sunlight and when backed by all the other uninspiring building on Malaysia's skyline it really does look like the jewel in the crown. We had watched a programme on the contruction of the towers before leaving home (the things you do when married to an engineer) so it was kinda cool to be standing looking up at it from the ground. After taking a few photos of each other we wanted some with the two of us and the towers so we asked a couple of Indian men if they would mind taking our photo. They were more than happy to take a break from their own snaps to photograph us in various poses and orientations. It was really funny watching this wee Indian man on his knees, then lying on the ground then on his feet trying to take some nice photos for us, they were really sweet. Then after our photo session was done they asked us to take some of them and we happily obliged although I draw the line at lying on the floor as it was filthy but we took plenty pictures with both of their cameras. Just as we were about to wander away they suddenly asked if they could have their photo taken with us?? We were both a little puzzled and far to polite to say no so the next thing there was one wee Indian man between Mike and I while his pal took a photo! Then they wanted to swap so that the other man had the same photo him in between the two of us? I couldn't stop laughing as I found the whole thing soooo strange. Then it all became clear when one of the men burst out laughing, turned and said to me "I am just so black and you are just so white"! Turns out where they are from they rarely see white people and they hadn't had the opportunity to get a good up close look at white folk so that's why they were so keen to engage with us and get our photos! Absolutely hilarious and I still chuckle to myself when I think about them developing their photos and there are little white Mike and I grinning away!!! After the towers we took a wander through the golden triangle so named because it is where all the tourists frequent with all their money, as such it has lots of westernized bars and restaurants. We had a walk around and weren't really too impressed so we headed onwards to The Menara Tower a giant communications tower built in 1995 and the 5th tallest in the world. We had read in the guide that you can pay to go up to the top of the tower to get magnificent views of the city and the Petronas towers. Once we arrived at the gates to the grounds a ramshackle minibus takes you up the hill to the entrance of the tower. Much to our disappointment the only way to ride to the top of the tower was to buy an overpriced package of things we didn't even want to do which included the ride to the top! As much as we really wanted to see the view from the top we couldn't justify the price and despite our best begging we weren't allowed to just pay for the tower! We left the tower in search of another area to go explore and being a Saturday we chose the weekend night market in Little India. The plan was to have a look around and hopefully get something from one of the stalls for dinner. The market was absolutely insane, the street was much narrower than Chinatown but there were just as many stalls and people. We had to battle our way along the street sandwiched between all the locals who knew exactly what they were looking for. Fortunately we were just able to look at all the stalls and try to work out what everything was. It was completely different to the Chinatown market in that there were no designer knockoffs the clothes stalls were all Indian sari fabrics and headscarfs or gents shirts, tunics and trousers. There were stalls selling what looked to be a load of crappy junk and then all the other stalls were selling food and drinks. It was a pretty in your face experience getting so up close and personal with a bunch of strangers but after about 5 minutes you sort of blank everyone else out and just concentrate on what going on around you. All the stalls with the sari fabrics were so colorful and watching all the muslim ladies delving headfirst into bargain bins of brightly colored headscarves was thoroughly entertaining. Then I must talk about the smells as we walked along one minute it would be delicious cakes then the next minute you would walk into a pocket of stinky fish or honking miso soup (my new pet hate). Most of the time we had no idea what we were looking at and it was a complete guess what most of the pots or containers held. After walking the full length of the market it was time to turn around and walk back this time we had decided we each had to try at least 2 things from the stalls! Feeling a bit thirsty I decided to get one of the many colorful drinks that are sold from giant plastic containers. There are an array of colours from bright green to pink and yellow and they are either not labeled or the labels are in Indian so you have no idea what they are! Of all the colours to choose I thought a yellow/orange one would be the safest option as it would be some kind of fruit. Mike took the first sip and when his first words were "oh that's a bit weird" I just knew I was going to hate it! I took one sip and was horrified at what it tasted like, I had no clue what the hell flavour it was meant to be? Even though it only cost 20p Mike still managed to drink it and I not wanting to be beaten by these bizarre drinks went to try another one. This time I wisely chose one that had bits of orange floating around in it so I had a better idea of what I was getting! Whilst it wasn't the nicest thing I have ever tasted it certainly wasn't undrinkable. Whilst at the second stall I also noticed what was floating around in the one Mike had just drank and took great delight in informing him he had just consumed sweet corn juice!!! Our next experiment was with a table filled with different colored cudes of a jelly like substance. Again it was the bright colour that attracted me and having seen them at a few stalls I was ready to give it a try. As it turned out it they were just very bland sweet coconut flavored pieces of set jelly and they all tasted exactly the same so not nearly as exciting as they looked! Mike chose a couple of Murtabaks (little nanbread like parcels filled with chicken curry) they were delicious and definitely our success of the night! The final experiment was from one of the woks and it was a noodle and prawn concoction which might have been tasty had it not been freezing cold? At this point it started to rain very heavily and without an umbrella we decided to call time on the market having had a good look around so we quickly scuttled off to the train station and got subsequently drowned running back to the hotel!
We had been unable to go up the towers the previous day as it works on a free ticket, first come first serve system and we had unfortunately missed the free tickets. Not wanting to miss out and on the recommendation of the concierge at the centre we arrived at the towers for 8.30am and joined the already massive queue. It only took about an hour for us to get our time slot of 12.30 leaving us plenty of time to get some breakfast and have a proper look around the magnificent shopping centre. Most of the morning was spent on the electrical floor playing with the different cameras, laptops and mobile phones before it was time to go up the towers. The experience starts in an information centre which has lots of information about the design and construction of the towers as well as an amazing demonstration of lightening hitting a model of the towers to show how the building is protected from Malaysia's frequent thunder and lightening storms. After spending about 10 minutes here we were called to the auditorium, given 3D glasses and shown a film about the company Petronas and their towers. After the film it was time to pass though the x-ray machines and into the lift up the towers. Whilst there are 88 floors to this beast the walkway is accessed from the 41st floor so this was as high as we went. With the towers being the nicest thing in Malaysia's skyline the view from inside the towers over the city is fairly uninspiring if I am being completely honest and with the usual grey muggy clouds hanging in the air it was definitely more about the experience of being on the walkway rather than the views. After our 15 minute slot was up we were all called back into the lift to make our decent but just to be able to look at the towers from now on and know we were on the joining bridge was worth the early start and the hanging around.
Our last day in KL was to be spent exploring the older colonial part of the town a small district housing most of the cities prettiest architecture. On the way to this area we stopped in at the giant city market for a look around and were surprised to find a very clean and airconditioned centre rather than the stuffy and cramped markets we had become accustomed to. This market had not only stalls but also little shops selling loads of lovely colorful Chinese gifts, intricately carved wooden ornaments and loads of other authentic Malaysian gifts. It was a really pleasant change from some of the junk we had seen at other markets. If you were going to buy nice gifts to take home this would be the place to do it! After walking around for a while we stumbled across a little sign that said fish spa and feeling suitably intrigued we ventured in for a closer look and much to our amazement there was a giant paddling pool filled with lots of smallish silver fish. Around the pool were stools and on a couple of the stools were people sitting with their feet and legs in with the fish. On reading the leaflet given to us by the lady running the shop apparently the fish nibble away the dead and dry skin from your feet leaving only soft skin behind!? The action of their toothless bites also give a massage to improve circulation whilst ridding you of your dead skin. At only a pound for 10 minutes I couldn't resist as it was without a doubt the strangest thing I have ever seen! I paid my 5 ringits and prepared to put my feet in the pool. As soon as I dropped my feet and legs in there were literally hundreds of these fish all around me nibbling at my feet. I have the most ticklish feet so god knows what I was thinking doing this? All around the pool everyone seemed quite happy with the whole sensation but I was just in hell giggling and squirming on my stool. I was assured by some of the other victims that you get used to it after a while so unable to have them eating the soles of my feet I put my soles on the bottom of the pool and let them nibble around the outsides and on my lower legs. It was such a strange sensation as they were actually nipping pretty hard and a couple of times I had to kick one off as it felt like it was really nipping me! It was something that I had to share with someone else because it was just too weird so I persuaded Mike to pay 5 ringits and join me! Having tickly feet his reaction was similar to mine and he almost found it unbearable initially. Never a man to wimp away from anything he gritted his teeth and managed to last the full 10 minutes with me! We were both ready when the 10 minutes was up to remove our feet and inspect what job the fish had done. Unbelievably our feet were transformed and I couldn't get over how smooth they felt. Where I had cut my foot swimming with the dolphins had healed up covered in dry skin and it was completely gone but the real miracle was Michael whose feet have never seen a foot file and lived in Rugby boots all his life much to the distress of his feet but there was a marked improvement with them looking better and definitely feeling smoother. What had started out as a bit of fun was actually the best 2 quid we had ever spent and a hilarious start to our day! Following the spa we followed the sound of a honking horn to a bakers that had just put out fresh pasties and cakes so that was breakfast taken care of as we munched two giant cream filled almond croissants walking around the rest of the market. After the market we headed to the colonial district and it is definitely the prettiest part of town. We arrived at Merdeka Square a former parade ground where the declaration of Malaysia's independence was made. The square is a giant grassy area surrounded by pretty gardens, fountains, statues and a giant Malaysian flag. Around the square were the Sultan Abdul Samad building home to the supreme and high court, the Masjid Jamek Mosque, the national history museum as well as some other pretty buildings. We first visited the Masjid Jamek Mosque where both women and men have to wear long gown and the women have to wear headscarves (all supplied by the mosque). Feeling like a couple of idiots we were left to wander the grounds ourselves with nobody to explain any of what we were seeing so to be honest it was a bit of a waste of time as we had no clue of what we were supposed to be looking at! After the mosque we walked for about 30 minutes to visit the national mosque where again we had to dress up in gowns before entering. This mosque is one of south east Asia's largest mosques and was a much more impressive place to walk around. Under the mosque is a primary school so we were able to watch the children reciting their prayers and it was lovely to see all these tiny boys and girls reciting perfectly in time with each other. We took a few photos and read a bit about what the significance and importance of their prayer which must be recited 5 times a day and due to the different time zones around the world it is the only prayer that is constantly recited every minute of the day! The worst part of the experience was when I had to go to the toilet and the ladies made me keep the gown on and I wasn't allowed to put on my flip flops the result being that I had to try to wrestle with the gown all the while trying to keep it out of the squat bowl whilst trying not to think about all the pee either side of the pan that I was having to stand in with my bare feet eughhhhhhh! Afterwards I thoroughly washed my feet with the little lady hose they have in each cubicle (I am pretty sure your meant to wash other things with it but we wont go there)! and emerged 10 minutes later thoroughly flustered and exhausted!! The next stop on our colonial tour of the town was the old railway station which turned out to be far more impressive when viewed from a distance so having walked the legs off ourselves yet again we headed back to the hotel to rest for an hour before heading our for our last dinner in Kuala Lumpur.