Kuala Lumpur

One airport train, five stops on the monorail (plus the walk to the station), one long walk past the 24 hour McDonald's, and we were at our KL hostel above an Iraqi restaurant. The presences of in-room air-con, Kirsten's continuing cold and the early morning start, meant we didn't leave again for some time.




The hostel was in the Golden Triangle – a business district east of the colonial centre and south of the Petronas Towers, where a lot of the big hotels are. We spent the afternoon shuffling between air-conditioned malls and enjoying the plentiful free WiFi that is available throughout the city. In the evening we dined at Blue Boy vegetarian cafe – as there didn't seem to be anything resembling a menu, the cheerful owner took one look at us a decided what we should have and soon we were tucking into a tasty array of tofu-masquerading-as-meat dishes. We ended the evening by walking to the Petronas towers which look pretty spectacular after dark.















Petronas generously give away 1400 free tickets to the Skybridge between the towers on the 41/42nd floor. The guide books recommend getting there before 0830 to avoid disappointment. We dutifully queued and were allocated a 0945 slot, but when we returned from breakfast the queue had vanished and they were still giving away tickets for the afternoon slots. Before getting in the lift, there's the inevitable promotional video from Petronas, which among other things claims the Skybridge to be the highest 2-story bridge in the world (see what they've done here - there are of course much higher single-story sky-bridges). The view is frankly a bit of a let down – at only 170m high it's far from breathtaking, and obviously you can't see the towers themselves, which are the most impressive piece of the KL skyline.

We spent the afternoon wondering round the Colonial Centre and Little India stopping at the Coliseum Cafe (which felt like neither the décor nor the menu had changed since it's hay day in the 1920s) then down to the central market – now a kind of arts and craft fair. We ended the day's sightseeing with a short walk through the forest reserve to the KL tower. This has an observation deck at 276m and provides a great view of the city including an, albeit side on, view of the Petronas towers.

On a more bizarre note, someone nicked Kirsten's sandals from the entrance to the hostel (they had a shoes off at the door policy). They were Prada, but at 5 years old and size 3, it seemed somewhat of an odd crime.