Day One - Kuala Lumpur

The Renaissance are twin 24-storey towers but when you later see them against others they dwarf in comparison. The hotel is beautifully positioned for the stopover of just a couple of days. From our bedroom window, framed in the gap between the East and West Towers was the Kuala Lumpur tower, an edifice that looked as if it was designed with our BT Tower in mind, but higher, much higher. Step outside of the front of the hotel and the Petronas Tower could be seen in all its glory. The night view is absolutely magnificent. A five minute walk away was the monorail station, Bukit Nanas and another couple of minutes to the LRT station Dang Wengi. We used them both and they were cheap and easy to get from A to B.

Ultimately we decided that we could have done with an extra day in KL. On arrival we were both naturally tired from the journey so we opted for a quick nap and that lost the first morning. Some of our problem in KL was self-inflicted as we had drawn on our experience in Bangkok and thought the shopping via the street hawkers would be the same. On the advice of a work colleague we took the monorail a couple of stops to Bukit Bintang, an area of five shopping malls. We needed a few bits for the Borneo leg and hoped that the market stalls would supply them “on the cheap”.

Unfortunately there was no market as such, so we wandered around the malls, that were very nice and the prices showed a saving on GB, but were not the cheap and cheerful that we were looking for. We spent a couple of hours browsing, bought a couple of bits and returned to the monorail before the home-bound rush hour took hold. Each of these trains only consist of a couple of carriages, so I would imagine they got sardine-like come the work exodus.

Another catch-up 40 winks and we went to dinner at the Renaissance. Today was Valentines Day, so a lavish buffet with love in mind was the theme, but the toll of journey (and probably the fact that we’ve seen 33 Valentines) was lost on us. Following a good dinner costing RM180 (about £30) a couple, not bad for hotel prices, we stepped outside the hotel to view the illuminated Petronas Towers. By daylight these are impressive, by night they are bloody fantastic. Not sure what it does for global warming, but with a sight like that I didn’t give a fig.