22nd May 2010 Although you can fly direct from Siem Reap to Hong Kong, it certainly isn’t the cheapest way to approach the journey, hence our decision to fly firstly to Kuala Lumpur, then onto Hong Kong. We really enjoyed our time in Cambodia, but were looking forward to getting back to a developed nation where getting around is not such a chore and poverty isn’t hitting you in the face at every turn. ...
21st May 2010 Since we are due to leave for Hong Kong tommorrow, today was another chillaxing day, reading, surfing the internet and popping into town for some last minutes stuff. It will be a full day of flying tomorrow, with firstly a flight to Kuala Lumpur, then a flight to Hong Kong two hours later.
22nd March 2010 We had thought that it would be easy enough to get to the airport in Kuala Lumpur, which is some 60kms from the centre. After all, we had booked the shuttle bus, which we had been told ran on demand, and paid for our tickets. But of course, this is Asia, they do things differently here. We arrived at the bus terminal just across the street from our hotel at 11am to be told the bus would leave at 11.30am. No problem, still plenty of time so we sat down to wait. At 11.30am a man shouted for the bus to the airport, then led us out of the bus station across two streets and had us waiting on an island between two roads for the bus. By 11.45am the bus still hadn’t arrived, it was hot and noisy waiting for it, so we jumped in a taxi to KL Sentral so we could take the train instead. ...
21st March 2010 Directly opposite the old railway building in KL, which is a beautiful building in its own right, and only a short walk from our hotel stands the National Mosque. The National Mosque is Malaysia’s principal mosque and one of the most prominent buildings in the city. Reputed as one of the more beautiful mosques in South-east Asia, this uniquely designed mosque embodies a contemporary expression of traditional Islamic art, calligraphy and ornamentation. ...
20th March 2010 It’s a good job that the room situation is now ok since we’ve spent a lot of time here today. When I woke up this morning it was with a bad stomach which has persisted for most of the day. The few times we’ve ventured out I’ve felt quite unwell and too hot and had to return to the hotel. On the plus side though, the hotel sent up a plate of fruit and a box of chocolates to apologise for the problems with the room :D. ...
19th March 2010 KL has some very big malls, full of the latest designer gear and some of our UK high street shops. In a change of pace, today we visited the Suria KLCC mall below the Petronas Twin Towers (having tried and failed again to get up to the skybridge). It turned out to be a day of cool air-conditioning, away from the punishing humidity of KL. We took a wander around the mall. One name stood out, so we simply had to go and take a look in Marks and Spencer. It was just like being at home, albeit a lot quieter and with a different type of clientele. While we were there I was able to pick up a pair of light trousers. I’ve been looking for a pair since Oz with no luck, so to be able to pick up a pair for the same price as the UK and in a short length suited me and I can finally stop the ‘great trouser hunt’! ...
18th March 2010 Ok, so maybe I was a little premature when I said yesterday that our room seemed clean. We pulled back the sheets on the bed to go to sleep last night and there was an unidentified ugly stain on them. Of course, since it was now 11.30pm, when I rang down to reception to complain I was told housekeeping was shut and they would change them in the morning. When I asked what we were supposed to do in the meantime, the only suggestion they had was to change rooms. So, yesterday we checked into 608 but last night we slept in room 908 two floors above. ...
17th March 2010 Today we took the bus from Melaka onto Kuala Lumpur. We took a taxi to the central bus station in Melaka and managed to get onto one of the many buses leaving for KL at 11am. We arrived in KL at about 1pm and checked into our hotel. A sparse affair, even for the deluxe room that we’ve booked, but clean and comfortable never the less, with a great view of the KL Tower and the tips of the Petronas Towers and even tea making facilities - bonus! ...
10th March 2010 The current plan after Singapore is to travel by train to Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia then to fly out to Ho Chi Minh city in Vietnam. Vietnam is one of the few countries we need a visa for in advance so this morning we caught a train out to the Vietnamese embassy which is about a thirty minute train ride from the centre. We were slightly wet by the time we arrived at the embassy because it had been raining hard all morning, but we were able to fill in our forms and leave our passports in order to (hopefully) collect our visa on Friday morning. ...