Now we're in Phnom Penh, the home city of new extreme sport..... tuk tuk riding, guaranteed to thrill you and kill you in equal measure. But I must return to the past to write about our brief but beautiful sojourn to Kuala Lumpur.
It started so well with a fantastic coach ride out of Singapore accompanied by three beautiful guys namely Tom Dom and Jamie, and two random Swedish girls going by the names of Emmy and Sandra. This coach was fantastic, literally amazing, beyond belief. Fully reclining massage seats, with our own tvs in front of us with little game consoles attached to them, fantastic. no tv till we crossed the border though. We almost didn't make it through immigration as we'd lost our immigration passes for a moment. No fear a run back to the bus and a rummage through the luggage and we'd found them again. Onwards to KL. Talked to the hot Swedish girls, on with the journey. Watched the so bad its good Spiderman 2 on the coach before falling asleep. An hour later and we're rudely awoken by KL. Get out of the coach into what appears to be the least populated area of town (not counting the packs of wild dogs). We reject the taxi drivers thinking it would be best to go at it alone. The accommodation can't be that far away right? wrong. 20 minutes, three lady-boys, 1 wild dog attack, and 7 sets of burning shoulders, we emerged onto the main road, otherwise known as Bukit Bintang sweaty like an unfit bunch of lads who just walked 20minutes with a 20 kg pack on their backs. Did i mentiopn it was hot? 2 in the morning and it must have been 25 degrees out. We walked past a hotel called Babylon which little did we know it would be our final resting place, we walked into the Chinatown districtlooking for cheap accommodation, there was some. I have to say something here, we may be tight arsed backpackers but we do have standards (some) and they are way above the accommodation on offer in the budget inn. An hour later we arrived back at Babylon and worked out a price, 100 Ringitt for a double room, with tv, aircon and ensuite. Hello Asia. (5 ringitt to the pound) Had a shower and crashed, we were asleep with 30 minutes of entering the room.
Woke up bright and early the next morning by my lovely alarm clock telling me its time to visit the vietnamese embassy. Jump up shower and off we goooooo, we flag a taxi outside the hotel and 15 ringitt later we're outside the embassy. Go inside and after a 20 minute wait we're told that if we want to get a visa in KL we'd have to wait till Wednesday to get it, we fly out on the Saturday so that's not gonna happen, we take the form and off we go back to the hotel to rest our bleary eyes, the ride back only costs 5 ringitt. Thats why you should always take a metred taxi when in KL. We get back to the room after a half hour of resting we hear a kerfuffle outside the room, the girls are going out but we said we'd meet up that night and go out to the bars, see what there is to do. Another half hour later Tom, Dom and Jamie emerge from their room, we all head off to McDonalds for a tired breakfast lunch. We spent the day pavement pounding and generally wasting time, we went to a bar for a while, so chilled in that bar. However eventually we had to go out and meet the heat. So we left and walked for a while. KL seemed like a step down from Singapore in terms of modernity and organisation. The roads were a lot more lawless with unannounced lane changes and skipping of lights everywhere, especially by the massive scooter population. Go back relax for a while, head out for food, we go to Chinatown for our first experience of KL food and overall it was a success, for me at any rate, lovely noodles for me, Henry's food was nice apart from the chicken foot soup that came with it, everyone else seemed distinctly displeased with their meals though. On the walk back we saw the girls again who said they'd be back soon. 11 o'clock and they're still not back, all the same the drinking must go on. Henry joint purchased some vodka which reminded us all of perfume and not in a good way. Eventually the girls get back, and a half hour later they emerge from their room ready to go out, first though drinking games. After drinking games we head out for a club we'd heard about in the guidebooks called Zouk, supposed to be good for travellers, oh how wrong it was. When we first got there, outside was a lamborghini and a ferrari, then we saw the rules on the door, guys have to be 23 to get in girls 21, have to pay 28 Ringitt and have to be wearing shirts or collared t-shirts. Pretentious idiots. Only one of us could get in so we all jumped in a cab and left, we ended up on a street with loads of different bars scattered along it, the one we went into was called Reggae bar, guys had to pay 20 ringitt girls nothing but we did get a free beer. which almost made up for it. On entry I'm pretty sure i saw at least two lady boys maybe more. Interesting. Had a fun few hours but the music was way too quiet. they chgucked everyone out at three and we heade back to the hotel in a taxi. We walked a small way back, part of the way there we grabbed some random guiys guitar and Tom played wonderwall much to their amusement whilst we all sang along, they videod it all. Got some great pictures, we all retired to bed around 4.
Woke up the next morning to find all the pictures I'd taken the night before were gone as well as all the pictures of Singapore. Very annoying. We get up around 12 go for another McDonalds for brekkie, the mega macs are a dream over here, think a big mac but twice the thickness, lovely. Having a mega mac for breakfast has become a KL tradition never to be broken in our three day stay. After eating we go for a stroll, around 2 we decide to get proactive, we take the skyrail to Bukit Nanas, jump off and walk towards the towers, take some amazing pictures along the way. Get to the bottom of the tower, pose for a few photos, go inside, we head for the little shopping centre bit first, walk around for a bit, Henry spots a Paul Smith shop so in we go. We spend the next 20 minutes pretending to be rich trying on 500 pound blazers and asking the shop people for different sizes etc. leaving and telling them, we may be back, get a massive sugared donut which was incredible. Then we try to go up the towers and fail miserably, we don't have any tickets so we cant go up, we go back to the hostel and spend the next hour or two before tea time watching tv and showering. Henry, Dom and Jamie go out for tea around six but me and Tom weren't hungry by then so we wait a while. The girls come back in the inetrvening time so 2 hours later we go for tea with them. The others still aren't back. We go to the bar we went to on the first day and I have the most amazing Thai Green Curry ever. Henry, Dom and Jamie turn up halfway through, they'd been inside in the bar drinking for the past two hours. After dinner we head back to the hotle picking up some alcohol on the way. We talk in the rooms until people decide to go out, Tom and Jamie are gonna stay in as they have no money, I reluctantly agree to go out, we walk to Funtech to start with but its rubbish in there and we need money so we go to the cash machines....which aren't working i take this as a sign and bid goodbye and walk back to the hotel. Rudely awoken by Sandra jumping on top of me at 2.30 followed quickly by Henry. They invite me to subway which i agree to. Tallk for a while they go back to their room with Dom and Emmie for a while, I walk in ready to go and find them all asleep on a little double bed. So much for subway, at least i get a whoile bed to myself tonight. Woke up at 10.30m the next morning packed, we originally intended to leave ourselves lots of time at the airport and leave at 11.30, leaving 20 minutes to get to the airport for a 2.55 flight like the receptionist said we should, but we go to McDonalds with everyone for a final meal before we part ways, after breakfast we all hg outside and we head back to the hotel to get our bags. We pay the bill on the way out and stroll to the cashpoint to get some money out thinking we still had plenty of time, its 12.15, Henrys lost one of his trainers so he runs back to get it while i take some money out. We go outside and flag a cab to go to LCCT terminal, this is when we find out the cab ride actually takes an hour or so the driver said and costs 90 Ringitt, which we don't have so I run back to the cashpoint in a wild panic to take out some more money, all the while thinking we were gonna miss the flight, we take some more money out and i run back to flag another cab, we agree a price of 70 and he reckons he can make it to the airport on time so off we go. I tell himwe'll give him 80 if he gets us there before 1. He floors it, he hits 140 kph along the empty stretches of motorway, all the while telling us thats the fastest he's ever been in his cab as its only two weeks old. Fantastic. We make it there on time and get to Phnom Penh without incident and thats where I must end this post.xx