Lads on Tour: KL

Our two weeks travelling with friends, Sam, Tom and Rich, didn't quite get off to the best of starts. Rich hadn't made it onto the plane. I honestly couldn't believe it. His passport was close to expiry and so they wouldn't let him fly. Whilst we were all catching up with each other in KL, he was somewhere in Liverpool trying to get an emergency passport to allow him to travel within the next 48 hours from the UK... would he make it out to us?!

We'd not seen our friends for over 9 months and so there was a lot of catching up to do over some obligatory beers. We were staying at Reggae Mansion Hostel and they had a nice bar upstairs for us to enjoy their happy hour in. It was good to get some of the gossip from back home.

Tom and Sam needed some catching up on sleep after their long flight, but after that were keen to explore KL. By now it felt like me and Jason had spent a lot of time in Kuala Lumpur and so knew a few of the sights they'd want to see. It was Chinese New Year when they arrived so thought we'd head for a wander around Chinatown, only to be disappointed that there was no sign off any celebrations there. That said, I still think Tom and Sam enjoyed wandering around the area soaking up a little of a night market atmosphere. Of course there was one thing on their minds... Food! We had a lovely meal at an Indian restaurant in Little India; a table full of naan beads, curries, mango lassis and rice. We then spent our evening back at the hostel bar playing card games with a g&t (or two).

The next morning we went to the famous Petronas Towers. Tom's an architect and was keen to see them up close in the day light. The area surrounding these mirrored towers is nice to walk around, with a park, aquarium and shopping mall close by. We'd only seen them by night light previously from a distance so it was good to actually see them up close from a different perspective.

We'd read that you could get a cracking landscape view of Kuala Lumpur from Tittiwangsa Lake. We jumped in a taxi and had a nice stroll around the lake, taking in the views and stopping for a drink. The lake appeared to be a stop for local families to take their children on bike rides around the lake, we were the only tourists there and I felt like we'd dropped on a gem of a spot as the views of the city were so good.

We thought we'd be in time to visit Masjid Jamek mosque back in KL, but unfortunately it was a Friday and they don't allow tourist visitors' entry on Fridays. That was a shame as we made sure we'd timed it for after afternoon prayers... maybe if we get chance we could visit it on our return trip at the end of their two week holiday. Instead we went for a curry...yes again! We stumbled across a little cafe that served a brilliant lamb biriyani and the best garlic butter naan I've ever had.

We were pretty sure that Sam and Tom would enjoy to spend an evening at the Heli Lounge with a cocktail watching the sun go down over KL. We'd done it previously with Jason's mum but enjoyed it that much that we wanted to go back again. It was just as good. After this we went to Bukit Bintang to enjoy some Chinese food. The area had a great atmosphere, really bustling with some buskers nearby. It's just a shame that the road isn't shut off from cars as they squeeze their way between the rows of restaurant chairs. After many beers and satay chicken skewers we found a bar based on a recommendation Sam had had from a friend. It was really nice, outside of our backpacker budget, so Tom and Sam kindly treated us all to a bottle of Bombay Sapphire gin for the table... let's just say it went down very well! It was soon 4am and I was ready for my bed; but the boys made time for a final early morning curry stop before bed!

We had a plane to catch the next morning. Rich was supposed to be flying in 48 hours later than scheduled and meet us at the airport... however... both of his flights had been delayed! His bad luck continues. Luckily there were a few flights leaving for Medan from Kuala Lumpur that day, we just hope he would be able to get a last minute seat on one of them...