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So we were to become 3 for the next week of our trip with lovely Wolfe Senior joining us in the capital of Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur. After all the emotional reunion bit at the airport we set off into the City to find somewhere to lay our heads... now this was slightly more challenging now that we had Claire's expensive tastes to adhere to but eventually we came across a nice little place in a backstreet that at least looked clean! The guy showed us to our rooms which were pretty nice compared to some of the places we have been but I couldn't help looking at Claire out of the corner of my eye and seeing her taking it all in with a slight look of disgust... especially when he announced the 'shared bathrooms' aspect!
On the first day we set off to the Petronas Towers, KL's most recognisable landmark. They were (or maybe still are) the world's tallest bulidings at 452 metres (88 stories) and were made famous after featuring in the film 'Entrapment' which both Grant and Claire had seen so discussed in depth. I haven't actually seen it so kind of glazed over whenever it was mentioned but will def put it on my things to watch list when I get home... along with Napoleon Dynamite you'll be pleased to know Stu. The Towers are pretty impressive and are actually so tall that it's hard to get them in a photo, so we spent some time bending backwards, sideways and in the end laying on the ground trying to get a good shot for you folks back home... not quite sure we achieved that but you can be the judges of that! Anyway, it was inside and up the Towers next which Grant was pretty scared about, not being a fan of heights. However with some support from the Wolfe sisters we headed up and out onto the 50th floor observation bridge which connects the 2 towers together. This is only about half way up but is still bloody high and on a good day you would be able to see for miles. However, unfortunately there is a 'haze' over most of southern Malaysia and Singapore at the moment due to crops being burned in Indonesia, this means that a hazy smoke stretches out over these countries and obscures views, especially from high places (great time to be up the tallest buliding in the world we thought). Ah well, we were still able to see out pretty far over the city and look down, if you wanted to (I think Grant was secretly glad of the haze to be honest).
After the Towers we headed down to the KLCC, the giant shopping centre which sits below them. The precinct was enormous and we spent a good few hours looking around all the shops and feeling very out of place wandering past Gucci, Tiffany and Versace. There is literally every shop you can imagine however, including Marks and Spencer and Topshop! Took a trip to KL Aquaruium after this where we found some amazing sealife, including lots that we had already seen in it's natural habitat whilst diving and snorkelling, think we both felt kind of privelleged at that thought. Also got to see hundreads of "purples" which was great, including 2 giant ones measuring 2 metres across - monsters!! Another pretty amazing thing were the sharks which were in a huge tank with a walkway through, swimming all over your head and baring their enormous teeth. There was also a giant frog which was pretty much the length of the keyboard you are using now... just prayed we wouldn't be sharing our 'shared' bathroom with him.
That night we headed out to Chinatown where we had a wander through the market stalls, making a few more purchases. Stopped for a gorgeous meal and a few Tiger beers at a pavement cafe whilst some guy crooned in the background with a guitar and then took off home to bed as it was to be Claire's big old 28th the following day!
We woke up bright and early and set off to the KL Tower which is a huge communications tower in the heart of the city. We headed up to the observation deck and had a recorded tour round which points out all the major buildings etc. Obviously we hadn't learnt from the day before but because of the haze you couldn't see too far out. This was until Grant found out the telescopes were super super powerful and you could even see the people in the swimming pools below and what colour their bikinis were and everything (although he wasn't meaning to look at this obviously). After scaling up 2 Towers in consecutive days however we decided Grant hadn't faced his fear of heights enough so we would all take a zip wire off the KL Tower. Now, this is not quite as scary as it sounds as it was only around 20 metres from the ground. As it was her birthday Claire was voted to jump off first so launched herself with much gusto off the edge and flew down the zip wire. I was next and looking a little special in my hard hat I set off and sailed down. Now it was only Grant left, and maybe it was through lack of support from us, but he got a bit nervous up there on his own, stumbled up to the platform, shrieked and kind of fell off the edge!! The weight of that muscly frame obviously helped however and he came whizzing down to the end anyway with a half smile/half grimace and confessed he'd lost his bottle! We all had another go then and Grant, keen to put his demons to bed, went up first and raced off the end like a true pro - hurrah!
After all this excitement we took a trip over to Little India where we spent the day looking around the huge market and the extensive stalls. It is such a lovely area with vibrant colours, music playing and amazing smells. The Muslims were actually fasting at the time for Deepvali but we decided this was up to them and we were gonna enjoy our taste of Little India while here so tucked into the bahji's, samosa's and cakes... mmmm, more for us!
That night, after a 30th birthday soiree in our room (guestlist = Linz, Grant, Claire) we headed out to some bars round the financial district which was near where we were staying. There was a big stip of bars which all looked pretty cool so we took advantage of the Happy Hour deals and then headed onto another bar for some cheesy dancin'. We wandered home a few hours later under the shadow of the Petronas Towers which were all lit up and looking pretty spectacular, but not before grabbing some dirty food (Claire said she HAD to have a McDonalds on her birthday)! Crashed out in our beds and looked forward to waking up to Thompson G's big 2-6 and our trip to Singapore... little did we know what was ahead.... Linz x
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