November 6th - 1st Day in Kuala Lumpur

We planned our day nice and early and jumped up at the alarm. Armed with a big bottle of water and a map we hit the mean streets of KL! Our 1st aim today was the Petronas Twin Towers, we had read that it's important to get there early as the tickets for the viewing bridge are free but dont last too long once available. It didn't look too far to walk but as we wanted to get there ASAP we headed for the train station round the corner. It was just like being in London using the underground, except a bit cleaner and no buskers. Once on the train, the big difference from the Tube became very obvious...despite being a much hotter day than you're ever likely to see in London, the train was beautifully cool, god bless aircon!

A few stops later and we were at our desired destination. The station was located opposite the towers and there was an underground walkway which took us directly into the huge Mall found at the base of the towers. Once in we needed to find the ticket queue, we spotted an English couple talking to a security guard, being pointed towards an escalator. Using our detective like skills we decided to follow. It turned out to be a good plan as they led us directly to the queue! Although it looked quite long we only had to wait around 20 minutes before we were issued with tickets. Our tickets were for the 2:45 group and it was about 9:30ish at this point so breakfast became our next priority!

We took a stroll upto the food hall which was located on the 4th floor of the impressive shopping centre and did a full circuit to eye up the munchies on offer. Unsuprisingly the theme was once again heavily biased towards the classic chicken rice combo. We had a giggle at the counter claiming to serve "Favourite Western Dishes", which were all various forms of "charbroiled" (no that's not a typo) meat, we were very much intreaged but decided to keep walking. The counter that eventually won us over used croissants, at least slightly breakfasty, however all were filled kebab stylie with meat and salad. Tom had lamb and Sam had chicken. Gotta admit it was tasty good, although a little heavy at that time of the day, no complaints from me though! After our feast we washed the meaty goodness down with a smoothie each from a fruit bar we found during our brekkie search. We still had loads of time to kill so took a leisurely wander around the shops. The one that really caught my eye and made my day was the ingeniously named B.U.M. Equipment! hehe! We obviously had to stop for a picture, goes without saying really, what made this even funnier was the group of girls in full traditional dress from head to toe sat on a bench on the floor above...I noticed them just as we took the picture, as they were all laughing. I'd like to think they saw the joke too, I waved and we got smiles and waves back, good to see bum jokes can span all cultures!

Once we worked our way back down to ground level we headed outside (the aircon was getting a bit chilly) and into the beautiful park set directly behind the shopping centre. We sat for a while, feeling a bit jaded by now, and watched the men cleaning the fountains. I don't think I've ever seen someone move so slow - loving the laid back approach! Once sufficiently re-heated we went back into the shopping centre and, as our croissants were but a distant memory now, when we saw an Ice cream stall, we dived right in!! Not sure if I had chocolate all over my face (tres likely) or what but we noticed that we were being stared at quite a lot! Not in an intimidating way but just different - we thought Malaysians would be used to seeing foreign visitors and pay no attention, but alas this was not the case!

Our ice creams were finished just in time for us to shimmy on over to the Petronas Towers for the bridge visit. It began with a little interactive information room for some tower swatting up! My fave' was the demonstration of lightening hitting the poles on the roof, flashy! After a few minutes they called us through and handed us a pair of classic 80's looking sunnies, 3D glasses they explained. We then had to sit and watch a mighty dull '3D' film about how great the tower owners 'Petronas Oil' are, bit disappointed there was only 1 flinch your head 3D bit!

Finally we got moved on...to another queue like airport security, before they allow you up the towers. A quick body scan and bag x-ray later and we were actually in the lift!! The lift was very quick and there was a lady in the lift to explain just how quick...oooo...but we can't actually remember! Once up to the bridge linking the towers we were let loose to admire the views and take pictures. The first thing that hit us was not the breath taking views but the weather! During the extended wait to get up there, the lovley sunshine had turned into heavy rain - stupid monsoon season ruining our pics! Our 10 mins of bridge time soon passed and we were back with our feet on solid ground.

We made our way back to our LUVERLY room - did we mention our hostel?!? 3 inch thick matress, no cover, white tiled floor gone black, pink desk fan on a chair - the Ritz this was not but cheap it was!!!

After our brief encounter with the infamous Chinatown night market last night we thought we should give it our full attention tonight, and oh does it require a lot of attention. There was not even an inch gap between the stalls and two main corridors running the length of the street. We discovered that this was the legit part and the agressive touting we found last night was the 'non-legit' part. Once we were bargained out (didn't actually buy anything) we sat our bums down on the plastic seats of a chinese restaurant just off thye main market strip. The position of our table meant that we could watch the stalls opposite and all the people walking the street - much better than TV!

During the meal we found a taste sensation. Sam ordered a dish called Deep fried dry salted prawns (such a risk taker), when they came they were massive and there were lots of them too!! To top it off, they were awesome, and came with a kind of crunchy shaved garlicy topping....which I'll add that Sam tricked me into a spoonfull of before I tasted it - she didn't want to be the only huffy one!! The other dished were good too but not even close to the prawns, so spesh!! A good end to the day