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Malaysia
We arrived Malaysia 5 hours before the estimated time arrival and it was 3am. We had all been asleep, so we was a bit disorientated when we got off at Kuala Lumpa (with no accommodation booked and taxi drivers offering to take us to a hostel.) After a lot of talking, we decided to follow a man we met on the bus from Brighton who was staying at a cheap hostel. We walked with him for 5mins and we arrived at Reggae Mansion, it looked lush from the outside and more of a hotel look than hostel and we thought it would be a bit expensive. BUT it turned out to be 7quid a night and the place was so clean, modern with Victorian interior design. We had a courtyard, rooftop bar and a cinema room! As we arrived early hours we had to pay a bit more to check in, we took that option rather than waiting till 2pm as we didn't sleep much on the coach!
When we woke up again, we walked around the town, it had a lot of different cultures! There was China town and Little India area that had markets selling lots of stuff, we went into a souvenir shopping mall and did some window shopping. We also had Nandos but it was a BIG disappointment - nothing like British version....boo! We looked for cheaper accommodation, found a lot but nothing was as nice as the Reggae Mansion so we decided to stay with them! The vibe there was lovely, they did BBQ in the courtyard, we had our own restaurant with delicious food and cocktails and they even had a rooftop bar!
We went back there, sampled their lovely cocktails and shots before dinner then we checked out the rooftop bar. They had their own DJ playing loud music and at one point we got scared as out of nowhere another building had set up fireworks and we just heard a loud shattering/banging noise that made us jump out of our skin. Then we saw the lights and ashes came down on all of us, so they must have been very close-by!
The next day, Gemma and Coco needed to catch up on their sleep, so Mischa and Alysha headed out to see some more sights. We wanted to go to the park and the lady at reception said it was best to get a taxi as it was too hot to walk. We looked at the map, and it appeared to be near,so feeling confident we decided to walk! We went round and saw that there had been a festival for their king and queen the night before (which explains the fireworks!) We went to the Kuala Lumpur museum and learnt a bit more about its history after posing by an artwork that was quirky! We asked for some more directions from a man working in the museum and proceed to follow them but typically, we got lost! Walking around in circles, looking for the mosque that he said the park was near! We could see it but just couldn't reach it! It was getting seriously hot, sweating profusely while we appreciated the buildings (a mixture of old shacks, royal looking buildings with asian/islamic influences and modern skyscrapers) Mischa took good pictures showing the fusion of the mixes. We got to a train station that was really pretty, with cut outs patterns in the buildings, we we told that we had to get across it to get to where we wanted to go, but it was impossible!! We saw the mosque that we were looking for, had a few pictures outside but was a bit too daunting to go inside, especially was we were just in vests and shorts (not exactly appropiate attire!) But we still couldnt see the signs that would lead us to the park, after what seemed like eternity, and sweating bucket-loads, Mischa and Alysha gave into their pride and hailed a taxi which made them even more frustrated as Kulua Lumpua is full of one way roads so the taxi man took us back to where we started, and we saw that we had just missed one turning that would have led us to where we wanted to be!!
To make it worse, as we got to the park it was not your average park, all the sections where closed off and you had to pay a lot of money to see the bird park, the botanical gardens, the monkey sanctuary! So we ended up walking around outside a lot of fences before getting frustrated again, as all we wanted to do was chill out with a bit of green, have an ice cream and top up our tans!! So shortly after we jumped into a taxi to take us back to the mansion. But we decided it wasn't a total waste, as we did see some nice sights and got to know our way around a bit more.
We returned to Gemma and Coco, had a nap ourselves and got ready to go to the rooftop bar. We met a man called Robert (the manager of the place) who said he was organising a party bus, that took us to bars and clubs and it was free as we were his guests! We told him we would most definitely be there! We had a few more drinks, then around 12am we headed down to reception and asked about the bus taking us to town, the staff said it wasn't happening as there wasn't enough intrest! Then they offended Coco saying that she wasn't smart enough to go out! (did they not know that we were travelling?! So clothes were limited!!) We had a bit of a banter with them, and then it started to rain and we still wanted to go out, so we asked again if they could drive us as we didn't want to get wet, they just laughed at us, till Alysha said "you know what...(reading his name badge) Chris, I'll just have a word with Robert who told us about this trip and we'll see what he has to say!" Well, didn't that get the ball rolling! They all looked scared and said "No, no, no, we will take you! Just sit down and it won't be long!" (1 point to us!) so we waited for a bit, then a load of girls came down in dresses and heels, full blown make up and looked us up and down (yes we were wearing flip flops and.....problem?) and they all went over to the bus but we've been waiting longer so we went to the bus, ensuring we got a seat. Then a girl yelled "But we paid for this!" in a snooty way and looked at us rudely! We informed them that we know Robert and then he cheekily turned on us and asked for money to save his face!!! So we paid the fee (it was still cheap, 2quid in our money) and smirks at the girls who looked at us as if we couldn't afford it! Then the b****ing started, they talked in their language (German) and kept looking as us and laughing. Well two can play that game, we switched off our voices and started signing, and mimicking their behaviour! (Already we had regretted getting on this silly bus) When we got to the first bar, we ordered some drinks and met some Russian deaf girls (but we had no idea what they were saying AT ALL!) Then Robert came along and we got chatting with him -found out he was the owner of Reggae Mansion plus another hotel and the bar we were currently in and the club we were going to later!!! So he wasn't being so friendly after all, he was in business mode! Clever man!! We moved on shortly, to another club and once again the girls had barged in and took all the seats and refuse to move up. So we were standing around like lemons and didn't buy any drinks as the menu was pricey. Then Gemma had overheard Robert saying that we would have to make our own way home after as the bus had gone! Rude!!! So, we ordered some expensive drinks and we looked at each other thinking the same thing and walked out to get a taxi back, hoping either the girls or Robert would have to pay! Laughing at how silly the girls were, and us for going on a rubbish night out! At least we all have each other! *group hug*
The next day, we did a tour of the city by getting on a hop-on-and-off bus with the ticket being half price as we were deaf! And we could get on and off whenever we fancied and another bus would come at a stop every half an hour to resume the tour. It was very good value for our money because we saw Little India town, the park gardens, the king and queen's palace, twin towers, their version of Times Square and a massive shopping mall that we couldn't resist going in!! We did a bit of shopping, got lovely lunch at the food-court and returned to the Mansion for some more cocktails and then we watched a film of our choice in the cinema room. (We paid 50p for popcorn, drinks and the room was like a mini cinema with comfy seats!)
The next day we went to the gym and swimming pool for the day in a private apartment complex that belonged to Reggae Mansion. We had a workout in a gym room using all their equipment and then chilled by the pool for the afternoon before returning back to do our cookery class.
We signed up for a class thinking that we would each make 6 dishes and was rather excited at the prospect of that. Instead we went to a kitchen that was tiny, the chef had already sorted out our ingredients into bowls and we would only be making one dish each! Alysha was irritated as she was not learning anything new (all the dishes were curries and she knows how to make that already) What she really wanted to learn was to make Satay chicken and curry parcels that was supposedly on the package deal! Nevertheless, Gemma made a delicious ginger beef stir-fry, Coco and Alysha made a lamb curry and Mischa a chicken curry. Once all the dishes were cooked we returned to the restaurant to eat our food and it was rather yummy! But we did complain to the reception staff and they gave Alysha a recipe on how to make her satay chicken! We finished off the night with more cocktails, making new friends and then watched another movie later in the evening!
We also went to a water park Sunway Lagoon one day - that was an experience in itself! We were the only girls in bikinis, forgetting that we were in a Muslim country when we went there! We stripped off and got loads of stares, finger pointing and whispers! All the women wore swimwear bhurkars, covered from head to toe while the men where in shorts/speedos! It was a very uncomfortable experience, we even got into a mini argument with a bunch of men! They did not have a problem at leering at us, making disgusting gestures of kissing and licking lips! Then their wives appeared, they claimed that they were offended by what we were wearing, our answer was simple - don't look at us then! That's all we said....
It wasn't the best water park we had been to, but they had a mini zoo there and the animals were cute, we saw some tigers being fed and we went to a funfair to find that most of the rides were closed! But we still manged to have fun with paint-balling, archery and quad biking (all inclusive!) The quad biking was slow, following a man onto a mini track! We laughed at a man getting sent back as he kept going too fast, trying to overtake us!! We also did zip gliding, surf boarding at a mini pool which was hilarious!!! It was hard trying to stay on the board and the fake wave was so strong it'd throw us off, and our bikinis kept coming off! The only best thing there was when we first went in the park, we went to a scary house which was reallyyyy scary!!! We kept screaming and held onto each other whenever a person leapt out to scare us, and we got dizzy when given our 3D glasses for one part and went on a bridge that moved sideways in a tunnel that had swirly paint! Brilliant fun!!! :)
When we left Kuala Lumpur, the night before we had been warned that there was a peaceful protest taking place in the morning (something to do with the government) and it would be best to leave early morning before the roads got closed off. So we left around 7.30am and already we saw the police barricading the roads near our hotel and it was hard to get a taxi, so we walked a bit until a nice taxi man stopped and took us to the coach station. He explained what the protest was about and as we were driving we saw loads of people in yellow t-shirts getting ready, cheering and gathering on the pavement! On the motorway - our side was clear but for him to get back it was chok-a-block and he said he would be in traffic all day as the roads were closed to get in. We did feel bad so we left him a little tip when we arrived at the coach station.
The ride to Singapore wasn't that bad, it was just annoying that's when we got to the border, we had had to take all our bags off at custom stops, to check our passports, put our bags in the security scanner - it was slow moving and a bit confusing as it was like checking into an airport!! But a lovely lady who was on our bus helped us with the ways around and back to our coach again.
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