"KL"

Arrived at kl bus st and got shuttle bus to china town for 2RM (50p). Found my hostel (and had to swallow down my inner feelings of disgust
at the filthy mattresses and pillows as well as the rickety beds, which ironically are sprayed with lubricant to stop them squeaking despite them still shaking like leafs each time someone breaths near them). Before I've even sat on my bed a guy in my mixed dorm is introducing himself (Neil, 22 from Midlands) and chattering on about this and that (he was obviously bored and hadn't spoken to ppl in a while) whilst I tried to collect my thoughts together from my spinning head (spinning in part to him talking, the bus ride, and my hangover from the previous night). Anyway, Neil turned out to be a gem. We met another of our fellow dorm sharer, a girl called Mariam (Spanish) who like me had just arrived.

So we both decided to have a guided tour from Neil since he was leaving the next day and had nothing else to do! We went to the Central Market (saw a bag I liked but didn't buy it- I'm getting better at this), saw the old railway station (currently under renovation), went past a mosque, onto Merdeka square (housing the tallest flag pole in the world according to Mariams lonely planet guide), beautiful dutch buildings remnant from their earlier occupation here. Oh yes, and we visited china town and little India.

Then we ate, did a supply run at the supermarket where I ran into Jarad who (small world cliche) I'd made whilst at the Cameron Highlands! We arranged to meet up later in the week so he could give me a KL tour, since he lives here currently studying language and culture.
That eve we had some drinks then off to bed ready for our early rise to go to the sky bridge of the petronus towers, something I was really
looking forward too. The next morning (6am) our alarms went off, Neil left to catch his flight, and so Miriam and I got out stuff together and set off for the towers. We arrived there at 7.20 am and joined the queue waiting to get free tickets for a morning viewing. Tickets were issued to us at around 9 and we got a 9.30 viewing... Which consisted of watching a movie (no food or drinks allowed!) about how amazing petronus were etc snore, snore...
Zzzz...eh?! Oh right. The viewing. Well. Not as fab as I'd have hoped but it was good. Just not so high so couldn't really see skylines too well. But I did get some pics so maybe u can decide if you like the view?!

After that, I went into the Petronus art gallery, then walked around the park grounds for a bit but to be honest it was a baking day and I was tired from getting up early. So I went back to the hostel to relax, but instead ended up walking round china town looking for lunch with JT, a 33 yr old Korean guy who has cycled (oh yes, really) for 1.5 yrs (so far) from Korea through china down to malaysia, stopping when he wants (I should point out that he is in my dorm and sleeps opposite me, so not a random meeting)...after noodle soup he left to get on with his chores and I went to the bus stop to go to the Batu Caves.

Whilst on the bus, I met (the only other tourist) an American guy, Justin, 23 and we started chatting. He is living in Japan teaching English and loving it. Since we were both going got the caves we spent the afternoon just getting there walking round and exchanging travel stories (as u do). He was leaving that night so we went to the bus station together where I got my onward travel ticket to Mersing for thurs eve. It's a night bus that leaves at 11.30 and arrives around 4.30 am in Mersing before you catch the first ferry 6am ish to Tioman Island. One night accommodation saved!

Wednesday was my guided tour from Jarad. He picked me up and drove me to Punjaba something, the political city of Malaysia where all the government buildings are etc. There is a beautiful mosque, with a pink dome roof, a sliver 'air' mosque that glints in the sun and a massive suspension bridge that spans the wide river. We drive over it twice and the views were beautiful. It is a very pretty city, taking care of it's layout and design, but it was a v hot day so we didn't spend too long there (we had time for ice cream though!).

Jarad drove us back to KL and took me to Times Square, a massive shopping mall (they're all massive in Malaysia) which we walked round before having a Krispy Kreme doughnut (oh yes!) and Early Grey tea ...Heaven! Whilst this is random, the views from the car park were great! Also something culturally different from the UK, not only do they number and letter each floor, they give them an animal too! We were in floor 7 B, dolphin!! It's quite a good way of remembering your floor level :D

We took a walk from there to Bukit Bintang and, according to Jarad walked to the 'street of yellow tables' (Chinese restaurants abound) of which we found none! Then he realized they're only yellow in the eve due to the table cloths. So we arranged to go for dinner there to capture this elusive yellow table! Miriam joined us and we had a fantastic meal, peppered chicken, rice and kind prawns in a light batter of egg and milk fried- amazing! After dinner we headed to the Sky bar- which has a swimming pool in it's center (no u can't swim in it after 7pm in case of drink-swim offenses, and no, rather surprisingly, I didn't fall in, despite my expectations too). It had an open air roof and windows that were electronically controlled. I got pics of both the Petronus towers at night and one of the KL tower (which itself offers a 360• view for 40RM £8)... then we ordered some wine (daily budget blasted out of the window and over the hill) before heading home at a reasonable 3am! Followed by a McDonalds mcflurry icecream ha ha

The next day naturally consisted of a lay in, then Miriam and I headed to the lake gardens where we chatted, ate an ice cream and arranged to maybe meet up in our future travels...Then I sadly collected my bags and left my little mixed dorm of lovely friendly people to head over to the other side of the Malaysian peninsular to Tioman Island...