Malaysia truly Asia...

China town KL...

It was time for our first AirAsia experience! To our surprise everything ran really smoothly and the plane was nice too. We got to KL in no time at all and found our way to Chinatown. After fighting our way through the crowds on Jalan Petalling Street we found our Hotel. ‘The Oasis Guesthouse’ think of a luxury hotel with beautiful plants and water features. Well it was nothing like that at all. More like a wet cardboard box just big enough for a double bed with a shared bathroom 100m away. Susi was not happy particularly being right next-door to reception. You could hear everything including the night market activities and the 'Malaysia Truly Asia' advert blaring out repetitively every 2 minutes

We decided to give it a go and rough it for once and headed out for a wander around and with some sunlight remaining we found yet another Reggae bar just round the corner and soon found out how much pricier Malaysia was going to be. “£2 for a half pint, you must be joking”. In Malaysia most prices are given as the price++ meaning you have to add on government tax. So a drink might be advertised as 10 ringgit++ but really its closer to 13. It caught us out a few times before we learned to ask for net price!

Techie heaven, Low Yat Plaza...

The next few days where spent exploring what KL had to offer. We found Low Yat Plaza, it is KL’s biggest electronic goods mall. Both in gadget heaven we spent a couple wandering around. I came out with an iPad Mini (to replace the iPhone and Kindle that was stolen a few days earlier) and Susi thinking she was being left out bought herself the new iPod Nano!!! To celebrate we had a couple of drinks and headed up to Little India for a curry. We found a place down a backstreet and it was full of locals and what a fine choice it was, not only was it delicious but it only cost us 22 Ringgit (about £4.10), at least the food was going to cheap in Malaysia.

Sunset over the mosque in KL...

The cool architecture of KL...

Our next day was an action packed tour of KL highlights including a hop on hop off bus ride all around the city. It was an open topped bus with English speaking tour guide and it was a really good way to see the city if you’re on a tight schedule (recommended to us by Susi’s Mum and Dad). The bus takes you all around the city past some amazing architecture, loads of shopping malls, parks, the palace, temples, the national Mosque, museums and of course the impressive Petronas Towers. 

What the hell is that!!!

KL Bird Park...

We even went past the Medical Centre where Susi would be having a check-up. After a couple of hours we decided to finish the day by heading back over to the Park to go and see the Bird Sanctuary. Apparently it is the largest covered free flight bird sanctuary in the world with over 3000 varieties of bird species. It is definitely worth a visit. We thought it would take us an hour to walk around but instead we spent about three hours there in total just before it closed. It is an impressive space and really nice to see the birds walking and flying around you instead of in cages, for obvious reasons the birds of prey are kept in separate enclosures but it is still really cool.

Susi getting festive in Times Square KL...

We had another couple of days in KL exploring the impressive sights and shops including one afternoon in Times Square Shopping Mall which had a 12 screen cinema and a theme park inside! As the weather was pretty rubbish we decided to hit the Cinema and go and watch Hunger Games 2, which was really good. It was strange sitting watching it in English in another country when all the locals where laughing at random bits of the film???

Our next stop in Malaysia was the Island of Penang. 

Bev and the Beards...

This sleepy little place has some amazing street art and fantastic food. We stayed in a place just off Love Lane called Star Lodge, which was really nice and came complete with a bathroom! (It is quite common in touristy areas to have a shared bathroom). Just down the road we found a really cool little place that was essentially an off-license. On an evening the owners set up tables and chairs outside. It was here that we randomly bumped into one of our tubing buddies from Laos Bev and some new bearded friends. (Enjoy Sumatra Bev!) 

The weather was really nice the first couple of days so we took advantage of this and hopped on the local bus visited the national park on the western coastline. It was a good little trek climbing up and down banks and avoiding the monkeys and ants and had a bit of beach time too.

Trek through Penang national park...

We also walked around the city taking in some of the sights and looking at all the street art. One of the highlights of Penang though was the food, we found a little man selling bhaji’s and samosa’s that where a great starter. We found an Indian restaurant that’s open 24 hours a day that did the best chicken tandoori. On an evening the streets are lined with food stalls serving local delicacies.

Some of the fantastic street art of Penang.

Best food so far...

Nightlife in KL - Changkat Bukit Bintang

KL stop no.2, with a night spare we headed back to KL but this time avoiding the Oasis we opted for a room near Jalan Bukit Bintang. It was a place called Checkmate Guesthouse that had little rooms but they where clean and had a bathroom. We should have stayed in this area before as it is so convenient to get anywhere in KL. After Susi's routine checkup at a very posh medical centre we where ready to head to Melaka. We where pleased to learn that Melaka is another sleepy little town with a really nice little riverside feel. What we didn’t realise is that on a weekend Melaka becomes tourist destination no.1 for anyone with a bit of money in Malaysia and Singapore. Every guesthouse, hostel and hotel was full. We wandered around, lonely planet in hand trying every option they had. Luckily we found somewhere in little India that only had two rooms left.

Dodgy advertising...

Jonkers walk is in the middle of Chinatown in Melaka and is a big street market with some really cool stuff but also a lot of crap. It does however have a really good atmosphere and some really lovely street food. We found a place right at the end that had Karaoke for the Chinese over 70’s. We took our seats, had some really nice food and some cracking entertainment. Everyone was singing and clapping along so it must have been good. The stage had some really dodgy advertising though!

You really can't go anywhere...

The best way to see Melaka is to cycle it so for our last day we took a couple of bicycles and headed out to explore and to buy some bus tickets. Our bus station was located 5km away along a busy road and was located next to a huge Tesco’s (bigger than the one in Bangkok) so we bought our bus ticket and went over for a bite to eat and a photo opportunity. We had a good old ride around and along the nice riverside. We stopped off at a nice tandoori house and cycled as far as you could go up the river.

In a nutshell we had less than two weeks in Malaysia but think we got to see some really cool parts. Malaysia seems pretty laid back especially after Vietnam and it has some great things to see and do – the people are super lovely too! With a bit more time we would have liked to stop off in the Cameron Highlands and try to get to a few more islands in. Next time!

Now though its time for some jungle trekking with our ginger furry friends in North Sumatra, Indonesia…