My first day in Kuala Lumpur (KL)... I'm loving this city. Everything is nearly perfect. The public transport is amazing, and very cheap as well! (single journey inside city centre is something like 30p) I find the city very beautiful as well, there's lots of modern buildings and skyskrapers, lots of glass and marble, everything is clean and new and seems expensive (even though this is one of the cheapest places i've ever been to). Some things seem even futuristic, such as the transport system which is partially lifted up to the air (provides a great view of the city!) However, this all is contrasted with tropical trees and plants, old temples and mosques. Absolute stunning. The atmosphere is great, everyone is laid-back and friendly. For a big city this seems really peaceful and quiet which i've never experienced before. Awesome. This morning when I arrived, again the first task was to find a place to stay...which wasn't too easy this time. I went to the wrong place fist (the public transport here is brilliant but I still managed to misuse it), also the map I had was crap. I ended up seeing like half of the city looking for a place so it was actually not a waste of time after all! Eventually I did managed to find a really nice guesthouse, it was only opened 3 weeks ago so everything was brand new and nice! By this, I had spent the last two nights on a train, which meant I hadn't showered since I left Bangkok.... there was indeed showers on the trains, but the shower was in the toilet, so you should have showered when sitting on the toilet seat...plus, even though the trains were generally clean and nice, the toilets were absolutely horrible (train toilets always seem to be though!) so there was no way I wanted to spend any time there if not absolutely necessary (let alone get naked there). So guess what was the first thing I did when I got to the guesthouse! Feeling fresh again, I started discovering the city. The first thing I went to see was the Petronas twin towers (far left in the picture), of which Kuala Lumpur is very famous for (in Entrapment, with Sean Connery and Catherina Zeta-Jones, that's the place they try to rob in the end of the film, if i remember correctly) What I didn't know was that you can actually go inside the towers (i thought it would be like a high-security, employees-only thing). From the bottom you can access KL's biggest shopping centre, KLCC, which is situated kind of under and behind the towers (the shopping centre was absolutely massive so I don't actually have an idea how far it reaches). It is also possible to take a lift up to the 41st floor to enjoy the view. For this you need a ticket which is free but there's only a limited amount available each day, so you apparently have to queu ridiculously early to get one (and after having spent two nights on a train, I did not feel like getting up at 6 am) so I decided to pass that. It was impressive though, ever since seeing Entrapment I have wanted to visit KL and see the towers (I get really weird obsessions sometimes!) so now I can die happy. No, wait til I get to Singapore, then I can die happy. Later I went for a wander in Chinatown (which I'd already seen most of when looking for a place to stay), which was, quite unsurprisingly, full of Chinese people, Chinese shops, Chinese food and Chinese temples. It is also a kitch-paradise and a fake-paradise (oh by the way, if anyone wants anything from here really cheap, DVDs or whatever, let me know!) I also went to see the Independence square, which was quite impressive. Malaysians are very patriotic, and when they gained independence 49 years ago, a huge ceremony was held on the square when the British flag was replaced with the Malaysian flag. After that, my sightseeing tour was abrubptly ended by a)my camera running out of battery and b) the rain! It is the monsuun season, I know, but I was told it usually rains really hard for like 10-15 min, and then it'll be all nice and sunny again. But the rain I experienced was that annoying kind of rain when it rains just a little, but still enough to make you wet! So it was time to head back to the guest house and get something to eat. Lots of Chinese, Japanese and thai restaurants around...but where's all the Malaysian food???? Stay tuned for more news from Kuala Lumpur tomorrow!