Bangkok - Saturday

Pearl arranged us a taxi to Kuala Lumpur International Airport which would pick us up at 8am so that we could make our 11:30am flight. Normally this would've been fine, but we had been out partying at the Butter Factory nightclub until the wee hours, and we were shattered! Anyway we got the flight without incident and made our bleary-eyed way into Bangkok.

We booked a taxi driver to take us to our hotel, and after nearly being dropped off at the wrong place a couple of times, we were redirected by some very friendly Thais at found our home for the next two nights, Ratchada 17 Place. The place has a swimming pool with clear glass sides which I liked the look of, although I never swam in it. There was also a pool table and restaurant. The room was startlingly good, very spacious with two beds and a table and chairs, clean ensuite, free water in the fridge, and best of all a balcony with a cracking view of the sprawling metropolis that makes up a large portion of the city.

After settling in and spreading the contents of our suitcases around the room a bit, as well as an obligatory shower, we set off to explore the local area. We found lots of 'street food' carts, the ubiquitous food vendors of Bangkok, as well as much of Southeast Asia. Then with the help of a little map on a scrap of paper we were given by the hotel, we searched for and eventually found the nearest underground train station (MRT); Sutthisan. We bought railcards and then had a self-congratulatory meal at a very peculiar restaurant, called Peking.. something.

The peculiarity of the place was mostly thanks to the serving staff, who were numerous despite the complete lack of customers (yeah we know, don't go to an empty restaurant.. What can I say, we were intrigued). We were immediately shown to a table and swamped by around four of them, who handed us menus and then stood by our table expectantly waiting for us to order, which was a bit disconcerting. I sent them off to get drinks which bought us enough time to decide on our food; pork dumplings for Andy, Kuey Teow for me (I think). These were brought out one at a time, meaning I had almost finished by the time Andy's food arrived. We thought this was odd, but it quickly became clear throughout the week that this is fairly normal practice in restaurants. The waitresses then watched us eat, thankfully from across the room rather than at the end of the table. After that, we decided to cut and run and just put the whole experience down as one to laugh about afterwards.

Further down the road from the MRT station, back towards our hotel, were a couple of points of interest; firstly Mansion 7, which is a kind of spooky, haunted house theme bar, and another bar called Poseidon. I understand that there are some very friendly people working there, but we didn't go in. We passed a similar bar called Copa Cabana on the way home too. Back at the hotel we chatted to some people by the pool and played a bit of ping pong before going to our room to crash.

 

Malaysia - Friday

Our last full day in Malaysia. Most of the day was dedicated to packing up our stuff, which we had expertly scattered around our room, although we did find time to grab breakfast at Dr Cafe. By the time Pearl arrived to pick us up, we were packed and ready to go the next day.

Pearl took us back to hers, where her mum cooked us a wonderful English-style roast dinner, with loads of roast potatoes! The reasoning was it might be the last western food we will see for a while. It was a very kind and thoughtful gesture, and the food was scrumptious.

A few hours later, we headed out for one last clubbing session, to a place called The Butter Factory. The place had good music and a really good buzz about it, and we had a wicked night, aided and abetted by the Grey Goose and Jägermeister. On the way home, we got some excellent Chinese food, before bidding Pearl, Tucky and Michael a very fond farewell at our hotel door. Very much looking forward to seeing them again soon! Here's my snaps from the night:

 

Malaysia - Thursday

On this day, we had a bit of a lie in before getting a lift with Tucky to the train station for our first ride on KL's transport system. They use tokens instead of tickets, but apart from that it is much the same as most other metro systems I've seen.

We went to a shopping mall in central KL which contains a theme park, which we went to see after getting lunch at a Chinese place on the street outside. There was a huge indoor roller coaster which looked like it had been designed by a maniac with a piece of paper and an orange crayon, it looked utterly terrifying! So we went to try some archery. Andy was obviously a natural, pinging off a bullseye with his first shot. I was less accurate, missing the target entirely several times. But no matter, we had a laugh.

Next up was a quick round of bowling, despite the best efforts of the determinedly unhelpful staff. Andy won again, though narrowly, but the best highlight by far was when Tucky wound up for a power bowl and accidentally threw the ball backwards.

After that it was time to head back, so we went to the station and managed to squeeze ourselves into a rush hour commuter train on the second attempt. I wanted to take a photo, but I literally couldn't move, it was the tightest packed train I've ever been on, including London Moorgate rush hour. Fortunately we were only on it for one stop before changing to a less crowded train.

From the train station, we drove to Pearl's boyfriend Andy's place for dinner. He knocked us up a delicious pasta and bacon dish, and all the plates were clean afterwards. I asked him what his trick was, he said "lots of bacon". Can't argue with that!

After leaving Pearl and Andy, Tucky came back to our hotel and we chilled for a bit before he left for home and we went to sleep.

 

Sunway Lagoon & TDH

Today, we went to a water/theme park in Kuala Lumpur called Sunway Lagoon. It's very big, with several attractions and lots of different sections, and we saw them all!

Very long suspension bridge!

View of the park from the bridge

After this, we couldn't wait any longer, and headed straight down to the water park. I couldn't take my camera for obvious reasons, so I've put another one from YouTube in below. We had an awesome 4 hours riding some pretty epic water slides! The red and yellow one on the photo above was a clear favourite, it's called the Vuvuzela and reminded us a lot of the Tropical Cyclone from Centre Parcs in Thetford. You sit in a raft in groups of four or five and are swooshed through the tube, until you are tipped into the 'vuvuzela'. It's awesome.

View of the park from the bridge

We tried all the other rides too. There was one where you lie on your front on a kind of float and zoom down in a straight line over bumps. Andy and I raced down that one several times - I think I won, even if only thanks to the superior (?) weight advantage! The next one was a very steep slide you go on in a two-man dinghy, and zoom up the other side, before sliding down backwards again. Then we tried a flume ride, again in a two man dinghy, and scared ourselves half to death - there was no one around so we just hopped in and pushed ourselves off, but it was completely dark inside (as it was an enclosed flume), and the dinghy seemed too big to fit. We were scared that we would get stuck in the tube in the dark, and tried to climb back out, resulting in Andy falling out of the back just as we got going! Miraculously he hauled himself back on and we got through it without getting stuck. We didn't ride that one again though!

We chilled in the shallow water for a while, rode the slides some more and got dressed to have lunch. Then we explored another area of the park, which was themed like the Wild West. And we bumped into Jack Sparrow on the way!

Howdy partner

Sympathy for the broken cowboy

Horse toppling or MC Hammer?

Obligatory

Next to the rapids

Then we went on this ride:

Next to the rapids

View from the bottom

Then the rapids:

Next to the rapids

Got wet, despite the assurances of a random Ozzy lady who said we wouldn't

Pedantic I know, but that's not how you spell BUNGEE!

Big place!

On the way out

So that was the end of our adventure at Sunway Lagoon, I really hope I get to go back one day! We took a taxi back to the hotel, had some Chinese food at a restaurant nearby and rested up. Pearl came to pick us up later as we were going for a drink with some of her friends, but Andy was very tired so I was the sole Gwai-Lo (white person) representing.

Next to the rapids

The bar we went to was English themed, called Tom, Dick and Harry's (TDH for short). All of Pearl's friends were really cool and good fun to hang out with and talk to. After a while they taught me a new card game, which I sucked at, and got my hand slapped several times as a result. So I decided to teach them my favourite, somewhat violent card game; Irish Snap. It's the same as normal snap except you throw your hand in if the card is one higher or lower than the previous, and the last person in picks up the cards. It was fantastic fun, everyone got well into it and tension was building and everyone was laughing. Pearl was genuinely crying with laughter most of the time, it was hilarious. Eventually Chloe lost the game, and we paid up, said our farewells, and went home.

Next to the rapids

 

Genting Highlands

Andy playing Tekken while we waited for the bus

On Tuesday we visited a place called Genting Highlands, which is way up in the mountains near Kuala Lumpur, at an altitude of about 1700m. It is basically a huge holiday resort with 5 hotels, a shopping mall, theme park and food court.

Through the bus window

Crazy colourful place

The first thing we did was take the mini monorail so that we could get a good look around the place.

We took a ride or 5 on the bumper cars..

Found M&M world..

Ate some pizza..

Walked about..

Before heading back to the bumper cars and becoming very competitive (in a friendly way of course) with some of the kids there. We must've played about 20 games before leaving!

Tucky picked us up after we got the bus back to town and we spent the rest of the evening with him before crashing in the hotel.

 

Thanks for reading, come back soon!