Istanbul to Kuala Lumpur

3.11.14

The Honeymoon Adventure begins!
Had a very scary taxi ride from Istanbul airport to our hotel, driver was totally crazy and I didn’t think our trip would progress as far as leaving Turkey!
Istanbul Palace Hotel needs to be renamed. Probably the most depressing place we’ve ever stayed.
Our room door didn’t lock, closer inspection revealed it had been opened with a crow bar.
So we were moved to the twin bedded room next door.
I’m sure the mosque was in another bedroom and slept very little due to one very thin blanket in November.
John got up and took one from the original bedroom and we shared a single bed and tried to keep warm.
Couldn’t wait to get away from there by taxi at 9am back to Istanbul Atatürk Airport.
Flight to Doha was delayed by half an hour.
Watched The 100 Year Old Man Who Climbed Out The Window film on the plane.
I started reading the book months ago but then didn’t read it for a while and had no idea what was going on. So at least by watching the film I would know what happened in the end. Fell asleep a few minutes before the end so I still don’t know.
Also read a book I downloaded on Kindle written by a man about his exploits in Cambodia and John is now banned from all massage parlours.
On a real positive the flight was 3 hours shorter than I thought it was going to be and on arrival at Doha the time was an hour ahead so just a short stopover.
Next leg is over 7 hours and will feel like the middle of the night when we arrive so must try and sleep.

Doha airport is HUGE and very modern.
Was surprised to see WH Smith and shocked to see Digestive Creams at just under $5!!!

3.11.14
Arrived at KL airport after an annoying 7 hour flight due to people behind us leaving their seats many times and feeling the need to swing on our seats and hover in the aisle talking loudly.
So very little sleep and then had to change watch forward 5 hours.

Changed a few dollars to Malaysian Ringets and then purchased taxi voucher at airport 74.3 RM. (£14) its a good system based on zones and stops taxi touts.
Shocked to see UK style plugs! Especially as we don’t have any.

The airport is 52 km from KL , driving is on left side, huge roads, modern cars, sensible drivers, loads of toll booths, whole forests of palm trees and a real mish mash of buildings.
Every track on the taxi radio was like 80’s electro on speed with people singing sounding a bit like Pinky & Perky.
We had a really lovely taxi driver who spoke quite good English and used to be in the Malaysian Air Force.
We discussed the weather, how lucky we are, yesterday and today first dry days for weeks. Also bombarded him with questions about inflation and employment.
Seems this Government is unpopular, too much highrise building to make it look prosperous. Hmmmm a familiar story….

Arrived at Orange Pekoe Guest House
(£16 a night) at 10, check in is at 2 but they were happy for us to leave our backpacks by reception.
Had lunch in a basic little eatery nearby, amazing spicy prawns and noodles.
We wandered around the surrounding area which is mainly malls full of designer shops.

Decided to go on the monorail to get our bearings and went to KL Sentral…more expensive malls but found an amazing store, Sams Supermarket where our fellow ex pats would be in heaven.
Will try and go back at the end of the trip to pick up a few goodies.

Our Hotel room is beyond basic but clean and the staff are friendly. There’s a communal kitchen area to make hot drinks and have breakfast.

Slept for a couple of hours, drenched the bathroom with the power shower and went to infamous Nagasari Curry house a couple of doors away.
Absolutely first class, best we’ve ever had anywhere.

We had a choice of a pub crawl, clubbing or a beer and x factor catch up in the room with a bar of fruit and nut purchased earlier at Sam’s, no contest.
A city full of shopping possibilities and we’ve bought chocolate and 2 travel plugs.
First impressions….I would imagine it was lovely before the frontage of modern buildings and shops most people can’t afford. Lots of poverty a few streets behind, cockroaches, amazing food.
Lovely people.

Petronas Towers today

Tuesday 5th November
So the fruit and nut last night wasn’t great, almost identical wrapper to Cadburys but that’s where the similarity ended. And internet not good enough for watching x factor but still better than a pub crawl. Definitely getting old.

Communal kitchen for breakfast is pleasant, sharing it with a lady boy ( or maybe 2) is a change from the norm.
A very quick breakfast for us, the more attractive of the 2 was eating with her mouth open and making horrible noises, the other was doing that hoiking snot thing.
oh well… more room for noodles later and am hoping to drag John back to Nagasari for more curry tonight.
Have pre booked a trip up the Petronas Towers at sunset and were really excited.
Off to explore the city today.
The humidity is so high that I’ve woken up with curly hair and its still not raining but taking brolly just in case.

The view from our room.

China Town, Batu Caves, Central Market and Petronas still to come.

Caught the purple line Government free bus to Chinatown.
Loved the main market area, lots of the usual genuine fake watches, bags and sunglasses but amazing street food stalls and atmosphere.

Made our way to KL station and caught the 11.58 train to Batu Caves. Return journey for 2 is 8RM ( £1.80) and takes approx 25 minutes to get there.
The lady at our hotel informed us there’s 272 steps to climb up but worth it.
She was right, but felt more like 500 steps.

Caves were an amazing experience. So glad we went.
Took loads of photos that probably won’t do it justice.

Lots of little temples and monkeys everywhere.
We just loved it.
John made loads of new friends

Afterwards we got the train back and explored Central Market, a rabbit warren of ethnic goodies.
Noodles and Biriani for late lunch and free purple bus back to the guest house to rest feet before our Petronas adventure later.
Still very humid, I’m sporting a light 80’s perm look now.

The icing on the cake

Those of you who know me well will know about my obsession with researching…well this certainly paid off with the visit to Petronas Towers.
The best reviews were from peoples visits at sunset so we definitely wanted a sunset tour.
John is the best at finding everything on the internet but was struggling to book the towers trip online.
Even putting in dates 3 years ahead came up with no availability. After diligently looking each day it became apparent that the site only let’s you book close to the event so the skill was catching it just right and snapping up the time slot was a masterpiece.
Well done John, it couldn’t have worked out better xx

We booked our guest house due to proximity to towers, just over 1km.
Most of the walk was through a covered walkway that takes you directly into the conference centre area. Luckily we were early as navigating through huge business areas, long corridors and a massive shopping area to find the tour check in desk was no mean feat.
Once checked in we had time for outdoor photos while still light.

Our tour was booked for 7pm.
The process is very well organised and the groups are small, after a safety film on a virtual screen we were showed into a lift that took us to the bridge level.
When we came out of the lift we were given some bits of info, including the fact that the bridge isn’t actually attached and weighs 750 tonnes but if we all jump up and down at the same time we’ll be fine.
I felt quite apprehensive but once they tell you to proceed and see the view…well….totally awesome and felt weirdly emotional. I could stick so many adjectives in here and it still wouldn’t cover it.
It was still half light and we were so lucky that it was reasonably clear as can be very hazy.
I forgot to take photos from my phone so will add from camera in due course.

Then we left the bridge ready to be taken to floor 86, just 2 floors from the top.
As we left the bridge we saw the next group take their first glimpse of the view, the reactions were so great to watch.
So floor 86……wow!

It was dark now and the city lights were just lovely.
We were in tower 2 and of course we could see tower 1 lit up in all its glory.
We had 20 minutes there. It was weird how safe and confident we felt.
There’s lots of displays, screens, models and facts dotted about but  the view is of course the main attraction.
In 1998 this was the highest building in the world. Overtaken now by 3 others a little higher and the tallest is now in Dubai and is nearly double the height!!!!
One for the bucket list maybe?

As we started the tour the usual photographer was there taking our individual photos against a plain green screen.
When the tour ends you find yourself in the gift shop of course, presented with your photos.
Overpriced for what they were but really nice but we said no.
On the escalator afterwards I said I thought we would regret not buying them and in the grand scheme of things…so we got the down escalator and went back!

Fab aren’t they!
Took lots of photos from outside again, looks amazing at night.

How to top this and round off a fabulous day?
Nagasari Curry House of course.
I had the delicious korma and pineapple naan bread again and John had the biriani of course.
Started raining, we dodged raindrops all day and seemed to have missed the worst in the town as we were up at the caves but no less up now, lucky we got back when we did, absolutely hammered down and the power went off for an hour or so.
Not sure what to do with our last few hours before leaving to fly to Vietnam.
Off to study the map….

Our last few hours in KL

OrangePekoe Guest house kindly said we could leave our back packs there after checking out.

Had a lady boy free breakfast and walked to KL Park as we had heard great views of the towers there.
Took loads of photos.

Very hot, humid and sunny and the park was lovely.
Later spotted purple buses and decided to go on a jaunt and anyway it would end up back near where were staying, wouldn’t it?

Whichever way we looked we could see the towers and the KL tower which should be behind us?
John was adamant to start with that we must be on the blue bus route…no…must be the green one…my logic was no…the bus is purple so must be the purple route.
Anyway, we decided we recognised something and tried to get off…too late …OK next stop.
Got off…no idea where but found a different little area of shops other than Gucci and Rolex and had a nice wander.
Found a traditional shopping mall, looked small from the outside…
John wanted to buy some boxer shorts and despite about a million brands and colours didn’t buy any.
Maybe he misinterpreted the meaning of Bum Wear?

We spotted the monorail by one of the many exits from the ‘little mall’ and knew that all the time we could see line 1 we couldn’t get lost but then the stress of so many directions and angles and exits and the fear of getting lost ( and the boredom of looking at endless boxes of pants and comparing prices), and then discovering the food court was only Mc Donalds and KFC we left with me in a bit of a grump.
Soon cheered up when we found a beautiful patisserie and got custard Danish and sausage roll for plane journey later.
John got amongst other things a curry doughnut, 2 of his favourite things in one.

Saw a little row of hawkers food….felt brave but lost our nerve… maybe it was all the different fish parts.
Ended up in Betty’s cafe where John had curry for a change although this one was messier than normal.
John, chopsticks, prawns still in their shells and chicken with bones… I was less than impressed when he dropped a prawn and fired red oily sauce 4ft at me.
Still it was quiet for 30 mins while he ‘ate’ it with me at a safe distance.

Another hour til we head back and collect our bags and make our way back to the airport to Hanoi, Vietnam.

Back at Orange Pekoe now and Johns changing out of his curried shirt
Bless his heart.

The drive to the airport was terrible. Started raining just as we left and absolutely hammered down. Thunder and lightening too.
Our driver was once again lovely, really interested in what we thought of our time in Malaysia.
He was thrilled to bits with his 10 RM- £2 tip.
He definitely earned it.

Apparently this is the start of the rainy season, hate to think what it will be like when we come back on 5th December.
We’ve been incredibly lucky and missed it wherever we went ….til today.

Bye Bye KL. Its been lovely.