Capital of Malaysia

Thurs 15th - Bus to KL. Off the bus and the heat hit us - it is like being slowly cooked... Decide to walk to the hostel (!) with heavy bags on back rubbing into shoulders with the hot and sticky atmosphere, not good. Arrived after 10min walk which seemed like 10 days - thankfully the legs have just about recovered from the mountain conquering. Hostel - No.8 Guesthouse is new and trendy - v. minimalist and more like a bar. Lovely room but discovered it's drawbacks later on. Settled in and hit the streets of KL for more sightseeing. Visited the Petronas Towers - impressive as tallest building in the world. Enjoyed the shopping centre underneath even more. Had the misfortune of trying a restaurant called Johnny's Steamboat. Basically you cook your food in boiling chicken stock. Trouble is we were given a wierd selection of fish paste balls, veg and noodles. Yuk - no flavour and rubbery texture. Get a big slice of cheesecake to compensate.

Fri 16th - Decided to go on a walking tour out of the guidebook of the Colonial district. Got sidetracked and went to a butterfly park, a huge tent with thousands of butterflies. Most of these were the size of small birds and got a bit too close at times! C made a hasty exit.. We started the tour enthusiastically but within 30mins lost all interest due to blazing sun and feeling we were melting. Every time we saw a shop we dived in for a quick blast of air con. Gave in to urge for some home comfort food and good air con and went to Burger King for lunch after the trauma of Johnny's Steamboat yest. Walked thru the Chinatown (another one??) and bought pair of Oakley and Gucci original sunglasses for a tenner. Caught monorail back to hostel and were hassled into a reflexology session. There are salons all over the place and it cost 4GBP for 30 min session. Wearing of flipflops and walking round the busy city is not ideal before having feet massaged - the filth which was wiped off! It was v.painful and not at all relaxing. Went to a mega shopping centre for tea called the Starhill Gallery which was full of designer shops, Ritz Carlton Hotel but best of all the restaurants and bars in the basement were all amazing. Drawback of the guesthouse was that our room bedroom was over the TV lounge and kept us awake for ages.

Sat 17th - Day to relax - went to Menari tower, ate a Vietnamese meal and planned the next few days.