Years back, when long haul travel was just a dream for me, it seemed you got free stop offs for the price of the hotels on long air journeys. Those days have long gone, Imagine Travel confirmed to me, as they jacked up the prices on our trip to accommodate a stop over, or Perth extension, to help us get over jet lag sooner as we travelled to Australasia. Yes we`d have preferred Singapore but how much!!!! Changing the flights on what had been a Travelzoo bargain booked 2 years ago to give us more time than just 8 hours in Perth before our next travel leg was nearly as much so Kuala Lumpur it was! Turned out to be one of my favourite bits of the trip.
But let`s start at the beginning. Faced with exhorbitant car parking fees at Heathrow for a month we decided to take the National Express coach from Leeds to Heathrow via London Victoria with an onsite hotel overnight just 700 meters walk from check in. We`ll be doing that again! No driving in the early hours after long haul flights and spot on with times going out and coming back. Highly recommended and cheap! After an overnight stay we checked in and went in to the Terminal 4 Plaza Premium Lounge for breakfast and pre-flight relaxation thanks to Beth, Kat and Neil who had bought it us for our 40th wedding anniversary. This whole trip was to celebrate our Ruby Anniversary. Wonderful start to a long day.
After a long flight, made easier by having 3 seats between 2 of us, we arrived in Kuala Lumpur at 7.15 am with a one hour plus taxi ride from airport to hotel. Amazingly they let us straight into one of the most luxurious hotel rooms I`ve ever stayed in with great views over the city and a rooftop pool. A past Facebook post fo mine highlighted the toilet with automatic seat movement on approach together with built in water cleaners ( for front and back!) as well as a drier all built in. My bottom positively sparkled for the duration of our stay as it became an obsession for me!
We were right next to the Petronas Towers which you could see from our window and pool where cocktails were a must. Despite the jetlag we set off to walk around until we dropped, aiming to see some of the street art and the market
This "pencil" building was one of Sue`s favourites but Kuala Lumpur was like the slightly less well off cousin of Dubai with skyscrapers a plenty. This led to us getting lost each time we ventured out. Given that we were next door to Petronas Towers this would seem unlikely as they were such a landmark to head for but once you were amongst it all they vanished!
Fortunately we had pre-booked a Petronas Towers trip in the UK as it was booked solid when we got there. A lift took us high speed to the 88th floor but not quickly enough to avoid the storm that came in just as we got there.
That said the views were still spectacular!
Never have I seen so many people with iPhones trying to get us to pay them to take our photos in front of a landmark. I mean I`m standing there with a phone and a proper camera in my hands and they think I`m going to pay them !!!
Afterwards we aimed to eat in a restaurant we`d passed en routr which proved impossible to find. Attempts to eat Malaysian style were thwarted when virtually all of the food offerings on the main street food sites were either Thai or Chinese! Thus we ended up in a street near our hotel at a corner bar where authentic Malay food was on offer. We just could not understand what it was as no-one spoke English and menus were in Malay. Reduced to pointing at a couple of pictures we ended up with what were effectively beef and chicken rotis with sides costing less than £2 each. The minced beef one was lovely, the chicken less so. Seems that when they mince chicken it is incorporated into the roti minced beak, bones and all making it quite inedible.
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