25th – 28th May

Andy’s phone is on the fritz. We discovered this recently and it is infuriating for him, and for me, as he keeps on trying to sort it out by Googling YouTube videos to see if anyone else had this issue. The screen is broken, it’s lost its sensitivity at the bottom which is where all the home and back buttons live. We went to a shop in Singapore to see how much it would cost to get a new screen, and the price was more than what the phone is worth. So now in Malaysia hopefully we can find a discounted store to buy a replacement phone. The last straw came when we attempted to text Holly from the plane to say we were delayed and the darn app kept throwing us out. That’s it! We are buying a replacement!

When we landed in KL we bought my phone a new SIM card as we are only here for 4 days and it was pointless getting one for Andy. I downloaded Grab (similar to Uber but you could pay cash) but unfamiliar with how it worked, we went to the taxi rank and bought the fare to get us to Holly’s, which is where we were staying for the weekend. Holly and her fiancé Matt are both teaching in Bukit Utama which is a 40min drive from the airport. When we landed and finally got to their apartment it was nearly midnight. They live in a very spacious 3 bed flat on the 19th floor overlooking the city. We could see the Petronas Towers glimmering in the background, and it felt marvellous to be here with them!

Day 1 – Centerpoint, Helipad, Jalan Alor

The view from the flat.

Holly made bacon bagels for breakfast and we went for a walk down to the Centerpoint mall near by. It’s hot and humid here too. Get used to this Liz, this is it now for a couple of months! We went to exchange our Singaporean money to Ringgits and again see if Andy’s phone was able to be fixed. It was no good, too pricey still.. we were told there was an entire electronics mall in KL, we would go there!

We went for lunch in the food hall of the mall, we ate fried rice and noodles, quite basic but good. The room was not air conditioned, it was all rather sweaty!

Afterwards we went to a bar and we drank peach belinis, delicious! It was fun to catch up.

After a freshen up we went into the city to meet up with Vicky and Riaz. Vicky and I lived together at Uni, and this trip was the first time I got to meet both Holly and Vicky’s partners, so I was very happy! The Helipad bar was on the top of a skyscraper some 36 floors up. It was incredible to be there for sunset!

Me, Holly and Vicky

We next walked to the ‘main strip’ Jalan Alor. Very touristy and all the restaurant staff were very grabby, come here, eat with us, specials today! We quickly chose a place and settled down for food.

Andy, Vicky, Matt, Holly, Riaz, me

After eating we walked the whole stretch but it’s always a bit stressful being pestered constantly; no we have eaten, no thank you, no we don’t want to try Durian fruit. (Bleugh!) after a while we went to a different area and had a final drink in a bar before setting off back to H&M’s.

It was great, lovely first day in the city eating and drinking and catching up with old friends 🙂

Day 2 – Sunway Lagoon

Today we went to a water park!! It was epic fun and the rides were great. Matt couldn’t come along because he was playing footy, but Vicky and Riaz’s friends also came along so there were 7 of us in total. 7 is a bit of an awkward number, most rides require pairs or groups of 4.. so there were a few round robins of people going up and down with different people!

The best ride was Vuvuzela, after going down through a flume tube you enter a huge trumpet shaped zone at the highest point, and slide your way up and down the sides to the narrowest part. It was terrifying and hilarious.

Another ride I didn’t think I would be able to do was one where you got into a glass case, a bit like a space time freezing capsule, and after a countdown from 3 the floor opened and you drop through it. It wasn’t actually that bad because it became a flume slide pretty quickly but you had to wear this back float which protected your neck. If there is protection then you know the peril risk is higher!!

It was so much fun, love water parks.

After a full day of walking around we got a taxi back to Holly’s and Andy went to watch Matt’s game. We then all of us went out for food at a tapas bar which was very tasty!

Day 3 – Batu Caves

Andy and I were again left alone to explore whilst our hosts sadly had to work. We spent a lazy morning booking flights out of the Philippines and researching where to stay in Cebu. Eventually it was time to leave the flat.

We got a Grab (now that we understood how to use the app) and set off to the Batu Caves. We got a little ripped off, or maybe it was a miscommunication thing.. either way we paid a fair amount of ringgit over what we should have but in the end it was about £2, so we decided it wasn’t the end of the world.

We arrived at Batu and it’s very impressive.

So colourful!

I was showing off my knees so received a scarf. It went quite well with my tee shirt.

The view from the top!

When we got to the top of the steps we were very hot! Inside the cave there were more temples, all brightly coloured.

We came down the steps slowly. They were pretty steep! The monkeys were very crafty. They knew that the bananas were for them so if you had one it wouldn’t be yours for long!

The trip to the caves seemed over before it had begun so we went in search of more temples and caves. There was one further down the road, which you paid to get into, it was empty of people. Inside was cooler, and it had the story of Rana and Sita, depicted in life size models.

There was a staircase which we decided to climb. Nothing said we couldn’t go up, and it was lit so we thought there might be something up there! There wasn’t anything up there except you were further up in the cave! How disappointing.. So we climbed back down again.

The lighting was very gaudy and in your face. I quite liked it though.

Next we got on the train (why not..) to Central Market on route to Lo Yat Plaza which was the shopping mall of electronics. At the market we got some food but it was very salty.

Next the plaza. We dotted about between Oppo and Samsung and Andy finally decided after a coffee, that he was going for Samsung. One of your finest cheapest smart phones please! For £95 you can’t go wrong. We complemented it with a see through plastic case so it wouldn’t immediately get scratched, and off we went back to H&M’s. The rain had started, and boy was it coming down. Thunder and lighting all the way back. The taxi driver looked a bit scared!

We went to a pub for food for our last evening with everyone, which was very tasty. Lovely way to finish our stay with some awesome folks!

Thank you Holly and Matt for hosting, and Vicky and Riaz for coming over the other side of the city to see us each evening.