Hello lovely people - it's that time again, more verbal splurgings from the mind of Kat, with handy asides and input from Lee (many of which are - are you done yet?). We're coming from a whole different country as we've now settled into KL and I have been dragging Lee down memory lane somewhat! Are you sitting comfortably...? then I will begin!

We set off from the hotel for the airport mega early, I thought we should account for rush hour traffic being early on a Monday morning however I appear to be my Dad's daughter through and through as we arrived stupidly early - so early in fact there was no sight nor sound of our flight on the board - despite there being some later flights posted. T'was a few gut wrenching minutes where we wondered whether said flight had vamoosed into fresh air, when lo and behold it appeared, and it was still an hour before check in opened! Cue much ribbing from Lee and some muttered utterances of the phrase 'mini mike!' However, after that all went swimmingly, we played nicely with the free internet in the airport (much better than Charles de Gaulle!) and were on our flight and on our way before we knew it. Now the rule on flights as you all know is that you can't have electronic stuff as you go up or come down so when the seatbelt sign clicked off I was away in deep DS mode, however I'd barely had time to solve a single puzzle when the signs came back on and we we're descending - seriously the quickest flight I've ever been on.

We set off from Singapore amidst threats of thunder in KL but arrived to bright sunshine and hot, hot heat. We decided to make like locals and get the bus into KL city as you do when your 'travelling' (which I still count us as doing despite the higher standard of hotels Kath and I stayed in when living here - remember Ah Chew Kath, t'was the very hotel where we feared for our lives!) Anyway, one bus, and two very hot, very sticky LRT trains later we arrived! Hot, sticky and somewhat lost, everyone knows my map reading ability is somewhat challenged so we were wandering down what I thought was the right road with me asking Lee if he remembered what the hotel looked like at all because I was pretty sure that we we're walking round in circles. Lee however remained his calm self and as I was getting a tad irate with myself (I was very, very hot and hungry - we've not been eating much you see - too hot to eat so we're pretty much just eating at teatime) When I was raising eyes skywards and asking what on earth we needed to do to find this godforsaken hotel, he merely pointed to the big sign above us advertising the very hotel in which we we're booked into and said, 'well I suggest following that big sign!' So we did and thankfully we arrived at our nice hotel just as there was a huge mahoosive rumble of thunder. We sat in our room eagerly watching the sky for a performance of a storm and it went away - all mouth no trousers that storm! It was still very hot so we decided to jump on t'internet (We're trying to arrange to meet up with Chong who I knew from when I lived here - we can only seem to co-ordinate via facebook as although he's given me his number I seem to be unable to get a message across!)

We then decided that as we were going to head to KLCC and the Petronas towers tomorrow we'd take a wander downtown to Chinatown to have a ganders and grab some food. In our usual style we chose to walk, we are right next to the LRT but you see so much more when you walk - especially when I am map reading and take some 'scenic detours'. Well we managed to find our way in the direction where we we're heading with Lee asking almost every minutes 'don't you recognise anything from when you we're here - for six whole months' and to be honest I didn't recognise a thing, not a whiff off familiarity about the place until we hit Central Market - the cool crafty market which Kath and I visited lots (I took you there too Mum & Dad), I made a big point of how much I remembered it and from there it was memory city, we went to Petaling Street (not sure how you spell it) which is a busy, busy street market in the middle of Chinatown. You can buy anything there as long as it has a designer label (and some the designers probably don't even know they make some of the products on sale for example Prada giant plastic shopping bags - like the ones granny's use) Now you designer label lovers would either love it or hate it, seeing it either as lots of lovely, shiny designer products at affordable prices (and they seem to be damn good copies!) or I imagine the diehard fans would see it merely as a sad sorry sight pimping all the designer goods! We're fairly indifferent as no matter how cheap we just don't like that style; I did however buy a couple of canvas traveller style bags for a few quid (the hippy in me just won't die!).

We then had the most amazing food (Lee had sizzling deer and said it was on par with the first night! We somehow got onto the topic of the zoo when we were eating and I couldn't resist pointing out that he probably saw some of the deer which were now sizzling on his plate frolicking around Singapore zoo, he remained typically unmoved! We ate outside in the street market - again with the fantabulous Tiger beer, remembering to take our malaria tablets which so far fingers crossed have yet to disagree with us! we had a brief debate about whether one should take such a tablet with beer, but then decided that the packet does say take with food and drink and doesn't exactly stipulate with which drink!

We then wandered the rest of the market when Lee suddenly stopped and said to me, look it's Michael Schumacher, I turned and looked and agreed the man looked very, very much like him and then lee pointed out that he didn't look like him, it was him! So our star spotting whilst abroad takes a new high (we spotted Grant Mitchell aka Ross Kemp in New York - such a sighting pales into comparison when seeing Schumacher!)

After all that excitement I decided to rank it up a notch and treat Lee to a guided tour of my first real Malaysian experience. Take a moment if you will to imagine being 18, first time from home and a lot homesick and being dropped at the place I'm about to describe....the wonder of Puduryah! Now this isn't a famous landmark or exciting venue tis merely the bus depot but it is busy, bustling crammed with food and stalls (many of which are roast duck roasted completely and including head and flippers!). When you buy your bus ticket you then descend the concrete stairs into the dark, smelly, smoky underground part where all the buses pull up. When I first took Mum and Dad here when they arrived to see us in KL Mum aptly described it as descending into hell! Now after using the station A LOT when here before and telling lee all about it I decided he had to see it and prayed and hoped that it hadn't changed a jot - Lee spent the whole walk teasing me saying it had probably been revamped and was now hi tech and made of glass but IT WASN'T, it was the same stinky, smelly, hot busy place I remember so well, so many memories came flooding back that I excitedly pointed out which dark staircase led to the Melaka bus and walked around with a big dopey grin which many people tend not to wear in Puduhrya! T'was so pleased it was as it always had been - although there are worrying signs talking of development and pictures of the 'vision' which did look scarily like Lee's teasing before - so maybe we came just in time!

We've meandered our way home again through little India, a few more markets and to now, in a little internet cafe in Little India, where the fans are whirring 19 to the dozen and it's still hotter than hell! Anyway there is much to do tomorrow, so we are going to take our tired heiny's home to bed. Will probably write more tomorrow (wasn't going to write today but had to share the Schumacher excitement!), then there will be a break for a few days as we go climb every mountain (we hope!) as I doubt there's an internet connection at 4000m. After tomorrow we'll update when we get back - so now's your chance to take bets on whether make it to the top (we climb on Thursday so think of us!)

Huge hugs and hot sweaty hugs

Love Kat & Lee xx

PS thanks for all the messages your all leaving we love reading them and glad you're enjoying my rambles for there shall be many more!