kuala lumpar

227 steep steps to batu cave
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arrived in KL, as it is locally known at about 6pm, arrived at the hostel which is only bout a 10 min walk from the bus station and the main shopping areas....oh yes i said shopping! anyway i took it easy on the first night, met a guy from melbourne who was the most irritating person i've ever met! we went for something to eat on this street that had loadsa outside chinese restaurants/hawkers. its right between where we were ataying and the butak bintang(main shopping area) it took him 2 hours to finish his dinner, i hadn't planned on drinking but he just irritated me so much that i had to drink and i was even finished before him. he was just so obnoxious, calling KL third world and that oz was the best country in the world etc....could've just smacked him. so eventualy after asking a few times if he was ready to go we got back to the hostel and just watched DVDs and went to bed early enough....still a bit shook after the cameroon highlands. met a lassie called susie the following day and we had plans to do stuff but kinda got lazy and headed to the shopping centres. they are huge. one shopping centre is attached to the other, dangerous territory for anyone thats the same size as the asians. i was safe i didn't buy anything. we headed for independence sq and did alot of walking around. then we headed to chinatown, got some cool new fake chanel shades for about 10 euro. a fake irish rugby jersey for about the same. loadsa stuff there but probably best to hit the shops towards the back for the cheaper stuff. we hit the chinese food street again....quite expensive and constantly people trying to pull you into their restaurant/hawker stand. good food though i liked it.  the next day we hadn't checked in and there was only a single room available so myself and susie shared it, it was fine. we met an ozzie girl on her way home to melbourne and she came with us for the day. we did alot of walking, we got the bus to the batu caves, 272 steps up to the caves, really steep steps too. they were really nice, not very big but it has a big religious festival every yr with people piercing themselves and pulling carts etc with their strategically placed piercings(we'd missed it by a month), loadsa monkeys around and they're not shy about grabbing anything out of your hand. they didn';t do it to me but i seen one trying to grab a can of coke from a chinese guy. then this indian guy started to follow a baby monkey and the mother went for him. so i reckon  they're dangerous enough but very funny to watch them go for other people! then we headed back to hostel and then off to the communications tower(221 metres). really great view of everything. its right beside the petronas twin towers but there's not point spending money to only go half way up the petronas(146metres). we waited for sunset and then back to the hostel to get ready to go out. we were told it was ladies night so we headed off in the hope of free entry and free drink. the place we were told to go to was 30 ringit in so we said we were gonna head to someplace else. walked around a bit and then ended up in this bar with a band and it was gonna be 21 ringit for a beer!!! soooo expenisive and we had a look around and there was a lot of older  white guys with young asian girls, so we couldn't stomach it and left. we found a bar that had ladies night, so free in and free spirits so i was on the rum and coke(really nice, no doubt cheap rum called wanason) and the others were on the vodka. great fun, but it was really strange as we were the only ones sitting at the bar and there was a good few people there, but we got up to dance and had a laugh. susie wanted to go to another bar further down the road, so we headed in and there was a band on. they were good enough but there was the weirdo beside me and he kept asking me to be with him and telling me he loved me and i'm looking away going"thank you" in my head going "go away" and he just wouldn;t leave me alone, so i uprooted the girls and moved to the other side of the bar. DJ came on with some really kicking dance tunes and myself and the ozzie girl got really into it and then pops up the weirdo again, so still trying to dodge him but susie wasn't happy there and wanted to go back to the other place so we headed off back to it but this time we had to pay for our drinks(not happy, but sure what can you do). all in all it was a good night and we had some indian from next door before heading off to bed. the next day, we had to move as the hostel was fully booked so we moved to a hostel down the road (called travellers palm)that was owned by sophies friend called susie as well(we'd met her a few times in the red palm) no where near as nice as the red palm but not the worst. they had a bicycle lock on the front gate and the tv had to be off by 11 and one of the toilets wasn't working. susie wanted to change her flights to fly out asap to melbourne so we trailed around looking for that for a few hours, and it was really hot and humid. so she got them changed to fly out the next day and had to book a bus to singapore where she was flying out from. so we headed to the hardrock cafe for a savage feed. ate far to much and headed back to red palm to watch tv(caroline was the only one staying there but they were cool about it) but as we were heading off to the shops i started to feel a little ill and had to make a mad dash for the travellers palm(remember bicycle lock and 1 broken toilet) was a close call but made it to the one working toilet. and despite not seeing anyone in the hostel at any stage that day, a knock came to the door!! i had to redirect him to reception and told him to talk there as i was going to be a while! embarrassing or what. anyway felt better after about half hour and went out and ended up having a chat with the guy, typically cute to make it more embarrassing. nice guy, french and we swapped travel stories before i headed off for a snooze and waited for the girls to come back. so we just went for a walk and the streets were all blocked off for a rehersal for the last day of chinese new yr. and as we were walking around i hear "hello" and of course there was the  weirdo from the night before! typical, if i wanted to meet a really hot guy again i'd never ever see him again! so i waved and legged it. so it turned out to be a quiet one in the end. susie left early the next morning and i packed my bags and headed for the bus station for the 2 hour trip to melacca

weirdo from the night before! typical, if i wanted to meet a really hot guy again i'd never ever see him again!