Next up on our travels was a trip further south to Malaysia. Kuala Lumpur is an amalgamation of cultures with strong Chinese, Indian and colonial British influences all adding to the Malay melting pot. We flew into the huge KLIA airport and jumped on a bus to the centre of town (£3 – took about 45 minutes). There is an express train which can cut the journey to 20 minutes for £9 each but we had more time than money and the bus (coach, really) was plenty comfortable.
A small slice of the KL skyline, including the stunning national Mosque in blue
Accommodation in central Kuala Lumpur isn’t as super cheap as many Asian cities so our room at Sasana Hotel on Jalan Petaling was pretty small and basic (and windowless). However the reception staff were lovely, the location was very good and it was one of the cheapest options available – beggars & choosers n that!
The first mission was a little shopping trip for an underwater camera. After falling in love with diving and much more diving/snorkelling to come I thought it would be well worth seeing if we could invest in one. We set out from the hotel to find it was cloudy and raining – not what I had expected from a city that consistently hovers around 30C all year! In a change from our usual walking habits we jumped in a cab to the technology mall. There we found a camera shop with a very helpful lady on sales duty. She showed us a range of options and we plumped for a no-frills but decent looking Nikon which we could go down to 10m with.
We exited the mall grateful the rain had stopped. Our taxi man had pointed out a nearby road where he said it’d be good to eat. By this point we were absolutely starving and ended up getting a really expensive (but really nice) curry from a trendy looking bar and making our way back on foot from there.
We would later find that the weather we encountered wasn’t really a surprise. Every day in Kuala Lumpur seemed to start out amazing, then clouds would build up and you’d end up retreating from a muggy downpour by mid-afternoon. Still, it wasn’t cold so can’t complain too much!