After my whistle stop tour of Melaka, I was ready to meet Jo in KL. Originally, we were to meet up in Penang but as her role in KL had been cut short, we'd arranged to catch-up in KL instead.

In Malaysia, there are some very deluxe ('VIP') buses plying the tourist routes, offering almost lie flat seats and individual entertainment units. However, I keep ending up in the crappy 20 year old buses with shot suspension! I was expecting to arrive at the Pudaraya bus terminal in Chinatown, which was a 3 minute walk from the hostel I'd booked, but it turns out that Pudaraya was being knocked down and all buses now docked about 30 minutes out of the city! This meant an expensive taxi ride and this time my taxi driver dumped me on the street, pointing at a sign and said, "That's it". It wasn't it! My hostel was actually down the other end of the street! I learnt my lesson and used the light rail whenever possible after that!

The hostel was awesome. It's called "BackHome" and located just near Petaling Street, the Chinatown market that sells all of the fake bags, watches etc. I'd booked into a dorm for one night but quickly extended to two as it was awesome! Instead of the metal stand alone dorms that all of the other hostels had, this one had wooden bunks built into the walls. Each bunk came with its one shelf, electical outlet and light; whilst the room had lockers, a sink, mirrors and even a chalkboard to write notes to your roomies!! I shared the room with 2 Swiss boys and a girl from New York. She'd just arrived, intending to stay for a night before she started work in Thailand (she'd just spent 18 months in Canberra as an au pair) but the airline had lost her bags. I gave her directions for a nearby mall to purchase the essentials and then headed out myself to Pavillion shopping centre.

Having been in KL so many times it feels like my second home. Pavilion was my favourite shopping centre and had an awesome food court at the bottom where I found fried carrot cake, my new favourite meal from Singapore. I did a little bit of window shopping and checked my e-mail, and then returned to the hostel to freshen up before meeting up with Jo (I tried dressing up to the best that my backpack could offer!). We'd arranged to meet at Malones, an Irish pub at Suria KLCC (the shopping center at the bottom of the Petronas Twin Towers).

Malones had apparently become her home away from home whilst in KL, being on name basis with all of the staff. It was great to see her again and also meet Jason. We had a great night catching up and drinking - we had intended to go to Skybar for a drink and Bukit Bintang for a meal but ended up staying at Malones all night. We had tapas for dinner - crumbed Camembert, eggplants, mushrooms; and even indulged in some dessert (chocolate mousse - yum!) I had to return to the hostel by 12pm for fear of being locked out, but we arranged to meet the next day at 5pm for some more shenanigans.

Since I've been to KL a number of times before I've done most of the tourist atractions before but teon thing I haven't done is been to Batu Caves. Batu Caves is a series of caves and temples, beginning with a series of 272 steps and large statue. It's completey free and was quite busy with tourists (August is peak month plus it's also holiday week, with Malaysian national day on Tuesday). Wild monkeys abound here, trying to score food and stopping to hiss at unsuspecting tourists - quite scary! I'd always thought Batu Caves was solely the 272 steps and statue viewable from the road, but the cave and temple complex continues on for some time beyond that. Returning to the bottom I asked an Indian man to take my photos. Once down though I was descended on by Indians, all wanting to have their photo taken with me. I refused the all - Monish had told me a story once that his cousins had taken a photo of him and I and sent it to all of his family, claiming I was his new girlfriend, and I wasn't keen for that to happen again!

I had lunch again at Pavillion, somehow managing to avoid all of the cupcake stores and bakeries, and purchased the new Sophie Kinsella novel, 'Mini-Shopaholic'. Needless to say it didn't take me long to get through it!! On the train home, I noticed an interesting sign. The sign was a list of 'what not to dos' on the train, comprising all of the normal (i.e. no smoking, eating, drinking) plus a picture of people kissing - no public affection please, we're Malaysian!

I met up with Jo and Jason at 5pm at Trader's Hotel. This was another place I'd never been to - on the top floor, they have an amazing bar that overlooks the twin towers, complete with swimming pool in the middle! Needless to say the drinks here were quite expensive so we sipped at a leisurely pace whilst watching the sun go down. We got chatting to an Aussie who was in KL for a Tupperware conference, and upon mentioning 'we' were from Canberra, he went over and fetched a Canberra rep who was also there. Of course being the small world that it is, Jo knew her!!

We moved on from Traders to Bukit Bintang, the main street for restaurants. We headed into an Italian restaurant that was fantastic!! Whilst Jason and Jo had oysters and salmon/steak, I went for a gorgonzola gnocchi that was to die for!! Thank goodness for the great exchange rate! The effervescence front of house then treated us to a strong drink and we made our way across th road to a bar that was blaring with music. The street made for great people watching, and as we were watching, a Bentley suddenly pulled up near us, blocking the traffice behind us. A young girl stepped out of it and throw her keys to a valet, who then went to park it - on the pavement! This is KL, where pavement are insufficient as it is, but he drove it right up the pavement vertically, with a little of its nose still sticking out. All pedestrians then had to start walking on the street to accommodate this car! All the 'Western' folk just stared in amazement ....
I made it back to the hostel just before the stroke of midnight again after farewelling Jo, ready to move on.