Jill & George's trip: Cloudy KL

We arrived back in Kuala Lumpur, me slightly hungover from my 2 glasses of wine on my birthday (travelling obviously hasn’t made me any less of a lightweight) but both of us keen to get to know the city which was littered with domed mosques, old English colonial buildings and modern sky scrapers including the famous Petronas twin towers. We were staying in the heart of Chinatown on the pedestrianised Petaling Street, which was a hive of activity with stalls lining the street, selling fake everything from watches to bags to trainers. Sadly none of the trainers came in a George-sized 12, much to his disappointment. Preparations for Chinese New Year were in full swing, so as we wandered through the streets – well as best we could with hundreds of other people doing the same thing – we were frequently met with the sounds of Chinese drumming and Dragons dancing through the crammed streets followed by people handing out sweets and oranges. The first time I saw the oranges being handed out I thought I was in luck, so dived into the scrum with the locals and emerged victorious with a couple of bags. I soon realised that oranges were given out by everyone at New Year, it must be a Chinese tradition, so before long we were overrun with oranges and not quite sure what to do with them all. At least we were getting our vitamin C!

Unfortunately it rained for most of the 3 days we were in KL, so we had to seek out things to do which involved being inside. I found the lovely old Art Deco central market, which was so unlike all the other markets we had visited in SE Asia, it was clean, orderly, full of (mostly) genuine local wares and an absolute joy to wander round. A short monorail ride away were the Petronas Towers which were shrouded in rain clouds, making it impossible to actually see the full scale of the buildings. We were surprised to find a very large shopping centre housed in the lower floors and decided this was a great way to while away a few hours. I reacquainted myself with a few old friends, Top Shop, Banana Republic and Zara.

After a day of avoiding the rain, we decided to embrace it and head to the city park, Lake Gardens. This turned out to be quite a mission and we only managed to get into the park after crossing a dual carriageway, walking through a hotel car park and passing though the closed observatory – as we said before, the attractions aren’t thrust at you, you have to actively seek them out! We had wonderful views of the city from the park, which rewarded us for our efforts. We had a similarly difficult time trying to get to the KL Tower, the highest point in the city which can be seen from all directions. We had planned on splashing out a little and going to the bar at the top of the tower to enjoy a cocktail with views of the Petronas Towers (the rain had finally ceased). After a few wrong turnings we ended up on a jungle trail, which wound its way up through the ‘urban forest’, along rope bridges and mossy steps until we finally reached the entrance. Our best clothes which we had worn for the occasion were now slightly sweaty and my hair was taking on the familiar humid frizz! We were then told that we had to book in advance to go up and no, we couldn’t just go up for a drink! Marvellous! So instead we ended up at the Mandarin Oriental, sipping very expensive cocktails and admiring the stunning views of the Petronas Towers lit up against the night sky.