Kuala Lumpur

We arrived in Kuala Lumpur airport at 13:15hrs on Wednesday 19/5/10. We then took a bus to the main terminal to seek out an Emirates airline desk to alter our flight from KL to the UK. We did this and are now returning on Sunday 23/05/10. Now this is a crazy journey......We leave KL at 2am arriving in Dubai at 04:40hrs local time (6hrs 50mins flying time). We then take our next flight at 07:45hrs local time which lands at London Heathrow at 12:15pm local time (7hours 30mins flying time). The Dubai - London trip is on the big Airbus A380 again, so that should be fun...I hope the pilot makes a better landing than the previous landing we had.

We have decided to cut short our south east Asian trip as we have mostly seen what we set out to see and in the part of the world we are in now, things are getting a little more expensive for much the same quality or even less so in some circumstances. We are finding that the tours are becoming more expensive, as is the traveling around. Planes may be more comfortable than coaches, but they sure eat into your budget!!!!

After a few days break in the UK we are heading off to Hungary (arriving in Budapest at 23:40 hrs...We pick all the best times to arrive) There Eri will be able to catch up with her friends and family ( Whom she hasn't seen for almost a year) and celebrate her 30th birthday on 29th May. After a while we may head off to some other holiday destination for a week or too, or travel to some other places in Europe or in Hungary. Depends if we can find some something cheap or not. I don't return to work until August so its all still a holiday for me..

So, what have we been up to in Kuala Lumpur???? Well having made our way into town (the airport is 75kms away) by coach and and by using the light railway system, we found a hotel and then headed into a nearby shopping plaza to shop and find some food.

Next morning we headed for the Petronas towers. The Petronas Twin Towers (452 meters) were the tallest buildings in the world until Taipei 101 was completed in 2004. The Petronas Twin Towers remain the tallest twin buildings in the world. We arrived at just after 8am to grab ourselves some free tickets for the skybridge which joins the 2 towers together on the 41st floor, 170 m above the ground.

Unfortunately lots of others also had the same idea and there were at least 300 people in front of us, who had earlier than us, and many of whom were getting tickets for groups of people. Eventually having queued for over 1 hour we received our precious tickets and were told to report back at 12:30pm for our Skybridge experience....

With 4 hours to kill we took some snaps of the towers outside, bought some food and went shopping in the attached mall.... Later we went to back to the towers and watched what I thought was a 7 minute propaganda film about how great a company Petronas was and how it cared about everything from its people to the environment followed by a little info about the towers themselves. We then took the high speed lift with 18 others to the 41st floor (taking approx 41 seconds). Once there we were able to wander about the bridge and take snaps at out pleasure.. We were certainly high up but it felt good and nowhere near as scary as the Eiffel tower.

After our skybridge experience we headed to the forth floor of the shopping plaza to visit a mock oil rig with exhibits. The Petrosains discovery center houses more than 150 exhibits, which not only concentrate on petroleum science but also comprise other aspects of general sciences. The modern museum is designed to facilitate visitors to interact with the exhibits on display. And interact we did. We also visited an attached music centre where we got to understand the science of music as well as play a real air guitar (Bill and Ted style).

After this, as if we hadn't done enough already, we went to the cinema to watch Shrek 4 (in 3d). I thought this film was really good. Anyone who thought that the last film was a little disappointing will not feel the same watching this imho. We eventually arrived back in our hotel room a 7:40pm (having stopped for an Indian meal on the way), 12 hours after leaving...Tired

You may have noticed that I have not said anything else about KL. Well, I don't really have much too say (for a change). We have only seen a little of the city and it seems to be a city of contradictions. Some parts are really clean and ultra modern, other parts look disgusting. Also there's too much traffic around again. I think that this is another reason that we have decided to cut our travels short. We are kind of becoming desensitised to our surroundings and few things now seem to have that wow factor anymore. We have probably become used to things around us (good and bad) and probably need some change and time out.

Its good being away at the good places, but its equally not good being away at the bad places. Sometimes you just wish that the PC would upload pictures, or that the hotel room would have windows or that you could eat some of your favourite food.. Simple things. Stupid things at times......I guess that is what travelling is all about. Experiencing the highs and lows. Meeting new people. Seeing new things. Realising that some things back home are not so bad and that we take them for granted. Realising that some things back home are as bad as you thought and perhaps worse. Its a big world out there and there is plenty to see. We are but a teeny weeny part of that world. Life goes on with or without us, and sometimes you have just gotta do things, regardless of the consequences. I remember having a saying when I was around 16 that went "You gotta see all you can, cos you will never see all there is". I have no idea where it came from, but I used to say it a lot. Although it had a totally different meaning for me then, I can see that it still has a meaning now...

OK, enough ramblings.. I'm not even sure what I am talking about! But I'm sure that these travels have definitely had an effect on me - I'm not sure what that effect is. Only time will tell