Dear All,

Please accept my apologies for the distinct lack of blogs over the last few days - when was my last mammoth effort - Kota Bharu? I have now been in Kuala Lumpur four nights, plus one night on a sleeper train - so it has indeed been a while.

Going in reverse order, just to confuse everyone, I'm going to start next Tuesday morning, when I will be finding my way to the Low Cost Carrier Terminal and catching a flight to Laos. Malaysia has been thoroughly enjoyable, but I'm not totally enamoured with the country outside the islands. I have a flight back to Kuala Lumper on 20 June from Siem Reap, Cambodia, so I will make my way down Laos and into Cambodia over the course of a month. Oh yes, Ankor Wat here I come!!

To limit your confusion, I'll whisk back to last Tuesday - after appearing at the Tourist Information office far, far too early, we got told the train was delayed and to come back at eleven... the whole experience was getting stranger and stranger, so I abandoned the 'Home Stay' day out and headed back to the hostel. Having said good-bye to Joe and the Canadians, bound for Thailand, I decided that Kota Bharu wasn't a particularly 'happening' place and caught the night train to KL.

An interesting experience, a 13 hour journey that took 15 hours to travel next to no distance wasn't actually that bad. The bed was perhaps the cleanest I've seen throughout my trip (save Singapore, of course!), I cocooned myself in and slept soundly. Sadly, I didn't see a great deal... what with it being dark and all... but on getting to KL at 10am I was certainly met with the full bustle of city life that I have been out of for quite a while.

...consequently, I got ripped off by a taxi driver who charged me RM10 to drive me round the corner, and found the 'Malaysia smell' of dead animals, sewerage and urine that I seem to come accross in all the towns somewhat overpowering. Still, my hostel is in the middle of Chinatown, so the whole area is very alive with all sorts of sights, sounds, smells. I had a wander, met a few people, and ended up passing a very pleseant evening in a Reggae bar, being served by the most convincing 'TG' I have ever seen. All slightly surreal, all good fun.

I got in touch with Nicole, who had been in KL for a few days, and due to her sheer charm she had managed to have tickets reserved for us at the Petronas towers. As this would otherwise have involved a very early start to queue for the limited free tickets each day, I was very thankful. It was a highly amusing experience, really... before being allowed you privilidged eight minutes on the Skybridge (which really isn't that high... ), you are kitted out with 3d glasses (do you know they don't have red and green film anymore?) and sat down to watch what can only be described as oil properganda. Petronas are proud of their achievments, and Malaysia is proud of them, and oil is wonderful. Nicole burst into spontaneous applause at the end; I don't think this was the expected reaction as our Malaysia guide looked somewhat confused. Having exited our highspeed lift (the 41 floors in a matter of seconds, between making my ears pop, did remind me of something out of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory...), we were 'ushered' to 'our group's section' of the Skybridge, were we had eight minutes to get our fill of 'This-Is-Me-Up-A-Tall-Malaysian-Building' shots... sadly my camera died at this point, but hopefully I will be able to nab Nicole's photos. The views were pretty impressive, but as the most stunning building in KL was the one we were standing in, I couldn't help but think there was a little something missing...

We took in the Lake Gardens in the afternoon, and being a theatrical type, Nicole looked into what was on at the KL Performing Arts Centre; Japanese for dinner (New Yorker Nicole shocked I couldn't tell the difference between different types of sushi, with no real desire to try either...), before a truly excellent Singaporean play called Good People. Set in a hospice, it has a cast of three exploring belief systems and morality. The performance space was quite something as well, all sat on a tiered floor a few metres from where the play was happening. Nicole and I parted, her to Borneo, for more diving in Sipidan, me to my hostel, and to the rooftop bar, where I whiled away an evening chatting.

As a result, I found myself at a waterpark in 'Sunway Lagoon' the next day; perhaps one of my most surreal experiences to date - an African themed amusement/waterpark, full of Arab tourists bathing in head to toe black, next to an Ancient Egyptian themed mall with an ice rink in the basement. All with the call to prayer going off in the background. The waterpark was appauling, but the experience quite something, and having lost my watch, I was pleased of the fantastically tacky replacement I picked up...

Sadly I felt my throat swelling on me slightly, and by that evening I wasn't particularly well. I spent most of yesterday in bed, but met a thoroughly fascinating girl called Sarah in the stairwell last night. She's also a gapper, on her own, doing very similar things to me. She's the first other girl gapper on her own that I've met, and she hadn't come accross one either. Please accept my apologies for the appauling aliteration and construction of that last sentence. She's headed to India today, so I left her at the bus station after croissants and coffee for breakfast (the joys of city life!!)

I had headed off for a walk this morning, planning on doing my usual and taking in all the sights on foot, but I got as far as the bus station and got caught in a torrential downpour. The first rain KL has had in a month, so I'm told, and the vast majority of it seems to be dripping off me as we speak. I hot footed it back to the hostel, fearing my skirt going see through...

My trip to the Cameron Highlands proved to be abortive, as unbeknown to me, it is Wesak Day, and a holiday, and all of Malaysia is between Taman Negara and the Cameron Highlands... damn! Today is Sunday, however, so I have a night and a half more here before heading to Vientienne... KL is not a bad place, and in a way I prefer it to Singapore. It feels a bit more alive, a bit more real... even if every time I head out my front door I have to pick my way round Buddhist monks trying to sell me things, and "Lady! Lady! Watch, Handbag!!!".

Despite my protestations, I don't want any DVDs.

Love to All

Pxx

P(h?)S - Apologies if this blog entry presents as somewhat dull reportage - still not feeling on top of the world so I rather suspect my all ready limited skills as a raconteur have been blunted; either that, or everything has become so bizarre it is quite, quite normal. Bring on Laos and another fresh look at things.