Thurs 27th March - Tues 1st April (Week 27-28)

Thurs 27th - Long day of travelling today. Got the minibus shuttle from Lanta to Krabi airport at 8:30, arriving at 11:40. Yet another on time Air Asia flight (Flight no.31) and we landed in KL at 5pm local time. Another 2hrs to get into town and to our hotel, so were finally able to put our bags down at 8pm and grab some dinner.

Fri 28th - Overslept by an hour as I forgot to change the time on the alarm clock ! Went to Ever Fine Travel to apply for our Burma visa and it wasn't too complicated - just needed to prove our flight from KL to Bangkok, Bangkok to Mandalay and Yangon to KL ! Then went to check out the largest Post Office in KL to get all the info on how to send parcels home. Bought a 3-day KLIA Express train pass to the Sepang F1 circuit for the Grand Prix and finally got there at 3pm. Caught the final 20mins of practice, and we were able to wander around all the stands freely, so we got some good views of the pits and various corners and straights. Watched a bit of the Malaysian Super Series and they were actually a lot louder than the new design F1 cars ! Queued up in the pouring rain for 1.5 hours to do the Pit Walk. Got to walk past all the pits, see the crews working on the cars ready for tomorrow, watched a few TV crews and got some cool photos ! Left the track at 7:30 and after waiting and trying to negotiate a better rate, ended up sharing a taxi back to KLIA airport with 2 other travellers for the extortionate price of £10 ! Back in town at 10 and headed out for a quick dinner.

Sat 29th - Picked up our passports with our new Burma visas in, then headed to the Post Office to send a 5kg parcel of various souvenirs home. Have been looking forward to getting that sent off and hopefully make our bags a little bit lighter ! Caught the KLIA Express train to the circuit at 12, arriving just in time for the 1pm practice session. Then at 2pm we wandered around the show tents looking at the merchandising and had some lunch. The heavens opened and we had a proper tropical downpour for about an hour which delayed Qualifying, and we got drenched and still got wet even in our undercover grandstand seats ! It finally got underway at 5pm, but none of the 3 sessions lasted long as at least one person went off each time due to the wet track, so it was all over by 6, with Hamilton in the lead, followed by Vettel and Rosberg. Came back to KL Sentral and went to the bar in Aloft hotel where our new friends we met yesterday (and again today) are staying and had 2 very expensive drinks ! (Twice the price we normally pay for our dinner ! ). But a lovely hotel, rooftop pool, classy bar, and views to the Twin Towers. We haven't stayed anywhere like that in a while, so it was nice to go and have a socialable evening for a change !

Sun 30th - Headed off to the GP at 9am, arriving at 10.20am. Quickly joined the autograph signing queue which had already filled up the metal gate area - goodness knows what time the people at the front of the queue arrived ! Spent a very hot 2 1/2 hours sitting in the boiling sun, sweating away, to get some of the GP drivers autographs. We didn't know how it worked and were really hoping they would all be there at one long table and we could run along and get all the signatures. However, only 6 drivers came at a time, for 15mins, then another 6 came. The signing was only from 12-1, and at 12:50, we were really panicking we weren't going to get in at all ! But we were pretty much the last people let in, and we got the 2 Marussia drivers and 2 Force India, and were 30 seconds away from getting Jenson Button, but he left just as we got there ! Brandon was distraught ! The aerobatic display didn't happen - no announcement or anything, then the GP got underway at 4pm. Hamilton lead for the entire race, and as it stayed dry, there weren't many incidents so it wasn't as interesting as Sao Paulo. We couldn't hear the commentary or really see the screen so didnt really know what was going on for most of the race ! Went over to the concert area at 7:30 which had a great stage, amazing lighting and sound, but no alcohol !! Calvin Harris came on at 9:30pm and we enjoyed dancing around for an hour before we had to run off to catch the last shuttle bus at 11pm - missing the last hour of the gig ! Also missed the last monorail, so had to pay for a taxi, and were finally in bed at 1am.

Mon 31st - Had a lovely lie-in until 9am, then spent 5 hours checking out the various malls around us looking for a replacement pair of sandals as the cheap ones I bought in Chile are now also falling apart ! It seems women are not meant to wear trekking sandals - there are hundreds for men, but impossible to find for women. I really wanted to buy a proper pair that will last, but all I managed to find were another pair of cheap ones - and they were literally the only pair in KL I could find !

Tues 1st April - Left our guesthouse at 9:30am and got a bus from KL Sentral to LCCT for our 13:40pm flight to Bangkok (Flight no.32). Huge checkin queues which took over an hour, and then a long security queue as well and we ended up having to run to the gate and were the last few to board ! Arrived at 3:50pm local time. Got a taxi to our "nearby" guesthouse, which took 30mins for the taxi driver to find ! Nothing to do in the area, so just chilled out and caught up on some pre-reading for Burma tomorrow.