Early morning start, we were
picked up at 7.30am and driven to the airport. We were there even before the
girls that check you in and had to stand around waiting for them to arrive and
get organized. The bag nazi lady came and bossed us all around and told us
where we could and couldn't stand, you have to be behind the yellow line and
she gets grumpy sorting out which is your carry on baggage and which bags she
needs to put a tag on. She had everyone doing exactly as they were told. We got
through customs and passport check without any problems and then sat around in
international waiting for our flight.
Malaysia Air has been great
to fly with and feeds you on every flight, an hour and a half flight later we
were in Kuala Lumpur airport. The same one we left from. We queued to get through passport check and
this time instead of having our photo taken we had our two pointer fingers
recorded by laser reader on a scanner and recorded. We didn't need an arrival
or departure form like in Phuket. We finally got out of the airport and found
our driver waiting for us. It was much less chaotic the when we arrived in
Phuket, but it was about one hour travel from the airport to the city centre.
We finally arrived at 3pm.
Our hotel is right in the
middle of the shopping centre area of KL. There are literally thousands of
shops and restaurants all around us. The traffic is chaotic and the crowds are
never ending, even at night. The shops are open from 10am until 10pm every day
of the year. I don't think it is as cheap as Thailand, but not too bad. We
don't have the deals at the hotel here that we did in Phuket.
We headed off to the shops and
Gerard and I ordered our new glasses, much cheaper than buying them at home and
really nice frames, they will be ready on Wednesday at 4pm, which is handy as
we leave on Tursday. We had a wander around the shops and then came back to the
hotel as Liz and Nick were due to arrive, they are on different flights to us.
We did our trick and asked the waitress where we could go for a genuine
Malaysian meal.
We headed off to the
restaurant and found it about a 15 minute walk from here. As we arrived they
made the guys wear sarongs as they had shorts on, and even though us girls were
wearing shorts and singlet tops we were ok. The funniest sight the three guys
in dresses. At the temples we had to put sarongs over our shoulders but the
boys were ok, so go figure! The restaurant had a buffet on for the evening and
you could eat as much as you could of the most amazing variety of Malay foods.
It was fantastic, and made even better by the stage show they put on. Much
dancing and singing and telling of the story of the Malay culture. A great
night out and enjoyed very much by as all. We wandered back and the shops were
still open and the streets were crowded.
