Malaysia

We got a train out of Singapore across the border and all the way up to KL. It didn't take too long and we ended up having the first afternoon just pottering about. As our hotel is in Chinatown we had a look at the market there and all the weird and wonderful food on offer! The second day we got up really early to go across town using the LRT (local commuter train), so we could queue for tickets to go up the Petronas towers. The tickets are free as the Petronas towers are a working office, but the problem is that they only give out 1200 everyday - so you have to get there early! We got there at 9am (ticket counter opens at 8.30am), as it was midweek we didn't think it would be that busy. Silly us. There was a massive queue by the time we got there, luckily it moved quite fast and we got our tickets half an hour later to go up the towers at 3.30pm. So we left there and went to have a look at the colonial district in the mean time. The buildings were colonial with a Islamic/Malaysian twist, very distinctive! We walked around there for a while and then headed back to the Petronas Towers for our 3.30 trip!

I must admit we were not particularly excited about going up the towers as you only get to go half way up to the sky walk and you are only allowed 10 minutes up there! There are taller things in KL than the sky walk as well, unfortunately rendering these towers not useless, but slightly less significant. They managed to drag the whole thing out for nearly an hour as well, firstly we had to watch a sideshow about the construction and then a 3-d movie about the oil company Petronas and then we had to queue some more. Finally they let us up in the lift and we got to walk up and down the famous sky walk for 10 minutes. The view was pretty amazing, and Im so glad we went up - it would have been something we regretted if we hadn't done it.

After that we headed back to the hotel and then got a taxi to the KL tower, which is 421 metres high (compared to the sky walk in Petronas Towers which is 170 metres high) to go and watch sunset. I didn't realise but Chris had a surprise up his sleeve. We went up to the observation deck to watch the sunset and before it had even set Chris wanted to go - very odd. We went to the lifts to go down, but it turned out that he had booked a table in the 5* revolving restaurant at the very top of the tower, to celebrate our one month anniversary! I had no idea! The view was fantastic and we sat right next to the window. The food was equally yummy as well! We had a fantastic night and walked back into town afterwards.

Today we leave KL and fly back to Bangkok. We leave for the airport this afternoon and get to Bangkok later on this evening. After that we are spending one night in Bangkok and then getting an early bus to Siem Reap in Cambodia, famous for the Angkor Wat temple complex!

Hope everyone is well, missing you lots
Lots of Love
Chris and Alex xxx

We got an overnight train from Surat Thani, which is the main town on mainland Thailand where we arrived after getting the boat from Ko Samui. The train was only an hour late in the end and we boarded at 2am, after a 6 hour wait at the station. We arrived late the next day in Butterworth and checked out of Thailand and got our new visa for Malaysia. For some reason we only got given a 15 day visa from the last time we entered Thailand so we ended up having to pay 40 pounds each because we had overstayed by 3 days. Not the best news, but whats done is done now.

We got a boat from Butterworth across the river to George Town, on the island of Penang, where we only stayed one night. We wish we had stayed longer as it turned out there was lots to see and do, unfortunatly the day we chose to visit was a Sunday so most things were closed. We didnt really mind, we walked around the colonial district and down to the sea front, all of which are well preserved and really quite impressive. After that we got a bus to Penang hill where there is a funicular train which takes about 15 mins to reach the top. We had glorious plans to go up for sunset but when we got there all the tickets were sold out, the only ones for sale were for 7.30pm. So we waited around a bit and then popped up whilst the sun was setting (it sets really late here). The views were amazing, we got to see the whole of Penang and Butterworth at night. We stayed up there for about an hour before getting a cramped funicular back down the hill. We really enjoyed Penang, its just a shame we couldnt stay longer!

Onwards to Singapore!

Lots of Love,
Chris and Alex xxx