We Have Arrived In Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Our time as homeless tourists in our own country is over. All our belongings have been packed, our goodbyes have been said and our mothers have been hugged. The time had finally come to get on the plane.

As if frequently the case we were required to get up absurdly early. 3:30am this time around. Fortunately this shouldn't be a regular thing as this should be the only flight we'll be taking for a while.

We arrived in Kuala Lumpur around lunchtime yesterday, asked around until we found the bus we were after then spent an hour or two staring out of an entirely different window. The bus driver dropped us off on a busy city street with little idea of where we were going. We had a map from our guest house but that turned out to be a little vague. It doesn't help when you don't know where you are to begin with. After a bit of wandering and some lucky guesses we figured out where we were and where we should be going.

The guest house is very basic but seems clean enough. We're only in it for two nights so its not the end of the world if its a bit sub par.

We made the effort to get out and find our way around as much as possible. Along the way we ate a few decent meals, had an expensive but very good massage, devoured some unknown fruit that had been deep fried, bought all of our required toiletries, bought umbrellas, bought a power converter plug and popped into an old church. Quite a productive day really.

The massage was an interesting experience. A good hard massage if you haven't had one for a while is pretty painful. The next one should be better. This one was brutal.

This morning was spent going on a self guided walking tour which we abandoned about half way through. There's only so many 19th century barbers and storehouses you really need to see. The tour did however take us to a temple that was being prepared for a wedding. Sadly we were a little early for the main event and had to content ourselves with the car out the front and the girlish giggling coming from one of the back rooms where it sounded like the bride was getting ready.

We've now have a few experiences on the Kuala Lumpur Rapid Transit (KRT) system as well as the monorail and so far they've all been positive. It's quick and clean and can you most places for a few bucks at most.

Its fairly obvious why people come to Kuala Lumpur to shop. There are quite a few enormous shopping centers scattered around the city. They're big, clean and, best of all, air conditioned.

At the moment we're unsure what we think of Kuala Lumpur. There are a lot of beautiful buildings but Kuala Lumpur is very rough around the edges. The scene in the streets doesn't really tally with the sky scrapers and pristine malls. I would however highly recommend it if you're planning an international shopping trip.