Arriving anywhere in Asia at noon is never going to be easy for a backpacker… At the height of the day's heat we heaved our heavy bags from Kuala Lumpur's bus terminal in search of our hostel. On the bright side though, as we took wrong turn after wrong turn we got to get to grips with what the city had to offer. If first impressions were anything to go by, KL - as it's referred to locally - was going to be pretty awesome. It seemed to be a typical Asian cyber-city - where historic temples and mosques are scattered between space-age towers and shopping malls. We wandered aimlessly around traders' stalls piled high with pungent, yet delicious -looking street food and counterfeit handbags (!), while monorail cars zipped around above us.

Eventually, we found our way to our hostel. We stayed in an eight-bed dorm, and no one was around in our room when we arrived so we dumped our stuff and headed out on the commuter train to the Batu Caves. The swanky train darted through jungle foliage to the caves just outside the main centre of the city. Once there, we were able to get closer to the Indian culture of KL. The caves are a system of three natural caves, and the most famous is Temple Cave. It contains a Hindu shrine reached by a straight flight of 272 steps and is guarded by a 43m-high Murga statue - the highest in the world. It's also the only free cave, so it was the only one we went to. It wasn't that exciting inside, but the climb up the steps offered nice views. It was about 6pm by the time we came back down the steps, and the sun was still scorching hot - this city was giving sticky Bangkok a run for its money!

On the way back to our hostel, we nipped in to a huge shopping mall where Nat's search for trousers remained unsuccessful, and we followed the Lonely Planet to a popular backpackers jaunt for pizza -a reggae bar (Malaysians are bizarrely really into Bob Marley). It was slightly tacky, but the food and the service was suitably Asian and impeccable.

By the next day it was time to get under the city's skin and we started with the National Mosque. On arrival we were kitted out in respectable attire - a snazzy long purple gown a'la Hogwarts - before a volunteer offered to take us around. It was a mosque like no other we've visited in Asia - it was uber-cool and contemporary. The volunteer, who was a retired science teacher, was clearly trying to get us to convert to Islam though. He insisted on sitting us down to explain why Christianity is borne from confusion and that everything including the Big Bang has been explained in the Qur'an... We're not sure we're ready to convert, but we enjoyed the opportunity to understand the faith a little bit more anyway (even if it did take longer than we expected!).

The city was seriously heating up when we made the (not-so) brilliant decision to go on another walking tour. This one took us through the city's 'green' district. Our backpacker's budget didn't stretch to the entrance fees in to the world's largest bird aviary, so instead we peered through the fence as we walked through the park area to an hibiscus garden, and then getting utterly lost on the way to a lake. We hoped to hire a rowing boat on the lake but we were informed on arrival that the boat house had been closed for two years (Thanks again, Lonely Planet!). By this point we were literally melting, and practically crawled along to the final stop - the National Monument.

We managed to arrive at the same time as a Chinese tour group. These guys were clearly from very rural China - they couldn't speak a word of English and it was like we were back in India as people ran around after us excitedly to try to take our photo. One group insisted on us standing to attention for a photo in front of the monument…

From here we walked some more to Merdeka Square - the traditional heart of KL. And, guess who was there when we arrived to take a look around…? Yep, we timed it perfectly to be harassed by the same group of Chinese tourists! This time they were a little more brave. They decided they each wanted a photo with us - one at a time - and pushed and pulled us into position to pose with each and every one of them. But after about two photos, it was made clear no one was interested in Bret. He was literally pushed to one side as the rest of the group continued to jump in for a photo with Nat. While she looked hopefully for Bret to rescue her, he did the dutiful boyfriend thing and just stood by laughing and taking photos as well.

Once they all had a token souvenir photo of the strange sweaty white girl, they piled back into their coach, leaving us to explore the square. The one-time cricket field formerly known as the Padang, Merdeka Square is where Malaysia's independence was proclaimed in 1957. Today it's a choice spot to view some fetching colonial architecture. We admired it as long as we could until the heat was literally killing us, and we dived into a 7/11 to guzzle froken Cola until we got brain freeze…

After some dinner, we went to the KL City Gallery. This was a really cool little place, the highlight being the huge, hand-made model of the city.. It was lit up alongside a video which showed how the city has evolved to what it is today. One hundred and fifty years since tin miners hacked a chunk out of the jungle, KL has evolved into an affluent 21-st century metropolis. Like much of Malaysia, ethnic Malays, Chinese prospectors, Indian immigrants and British colonials all helped shape the city, and unlike Thailand where they take pride in never having been colonised by Europe - Malaysia celebrates its diverse cultural influences.

…Today is our last day in Kuala Lumpur, and we couldn't leave without a close up of the most iconic sight in the city. Bright and early, we headed to the Petronas Towers. Formerly the world's tallest skyscrapers, the Petronas Towers serve as the headquarters of the national petroleum company. It cost way too much for us to go up them, and we've come to realise that sometimes the best view is found for free anyway, so we wandered around the surrounding gardens to take those all-important snaps in front of the towers.

The sun was heating up to another scorcher of a day, so we bought some salad and had a mini picnic under a tree in the gardens. There was an outdoor pool to paddle in too, which cooled us down nicely.

After lunch, a small walk took us to the KL Tower, which is a telecommunications tower. Much cheaper to climb, we decided to buy tickets for this one. The views from nthe top were really lovely, even if the observation deck was a little tired.

Back on the ground, we had just enough time to squeeze in a walk around the city's China Town before our night train to Singapore. Unfortunately we managed to get on the wrong bus there, so we didn't have as much time as planned. But we did get to circle the city twice on the air-conditioned free bus, that also had free wi-fi. So after checking our emails and catching up on the news, we finally arrived with just enough time to see the main sights. The area was pleasant enough, but it was definitely a watered down version of the China Town in Bangkok. We also visited the Hindu Temple which was right next door to our hostel (it meant we could leave our shoes at the hostel, which was handy!)

With our train due at around midnight, we hung out in the hostel for as long as we could before trekking over to the train station. Despite being the most modern city we've visited on our trip so far, Kuala Lumpur Sentral station was by far the most confusing (we won't include India in this, which is a different kettle of fish altogether!) There was no signs at all to say which platform we should leave from - or which level. The only guidance we'd previously picked up from a blog, was that we needed the platform next to the Dunkin Donuts shop… Unfortunately that shop has now closed down though. Eventually we found a group of people with lots of luggage hanging around a platform, which seemed like it could be the one for Singapore. We waited there with everyone else, and we all began to wonder if we were in the right place when 15 minutes after our planned departure there was no sign of our train.

Eventually it arrived, and as we piled on to the train we waved a fond farewell to beautiful, interesting and oh-so-welcoming Malaysia. It's one of the cleanest and most comfortable trains we've been on so we're counting on a good night's sleep. That's if we're not thrown off the train during the night in order to clear immigration…