Kuala Lumpur

We're continuing our trip through Malaysia and today we arrived in Kuala Lumpur but first, a brief round up of what we've done since we last blogged.

Penang was OK but nothing really stood out there compared to where we have been. We walked around George Town city for the day but it was a bit too hot for just wandering.

We shortly jumped back onto a rickety coach and headed for the contrast that is the Cameron Highlands. It's 1500m at it's highest point, so the hot humidity of our trip so far soon gave way to cold nights, rain and mist. It was a bit of a shock and we even had to put on a jumper!

The place we stayed was great, a funny little guest house with some shared bathrooms, some rooms that you had to go through other rooms to get to and a wonderful view of a half built building. We arrived, had a look round and yet more great meal, this time Indian, and an early night for our full day of activities that followed.

This began with a trip to a tea plantation and factory. The Cameron Highlands is essentially one enormous tea making machine, so we had a brew there and set off for a Hindu festival that happened to be on that morning. This was one of those that involved some serious self-mutilation in the name of removing evil spirits (apparently), specifically a man and woman jabbing a bloody great skewer through their cheeks. One of the girls in our group fainted and the rest of us watched it all in amazement (and Kev got some very gruesome video).

Once they've got this 10 foot pole hanging out their mouth, they have 3 hours before all the drugs, hypnosis and god knows what else wears off to get to the temple to have it all removed and presumably a few stitches. It was a memorable morning.

After stopping for a brief lunch break, we set off into the jungle for a bit of trekking but stopped on the way to look at and hold a variety of creatures, from beetles to snakes, butterflies to millipedes. Charl also fought back the fear to hold a stick (leaf?) insect - it looks like a leaf but honestly it was alive and moving...

We arrived in the jungle for a good 90 minute trek to see this rare flower that only grows once every 4 years and only lives for a few weeks. Very nice, but the rewarding part was getting there and back - crossing rivers, climbing up and down muddy hills, avoiding falling bamboo etc. Charl hasn't done anything like it before, but was first behind the guide on the way back with everyone else trying to keep up! A rewarding day.

An early start this morning and a long bus journey led us here, to the capital of Malaysia. The sight of MacDonalds, KFC, Burger King and Starbucks on our way in did not bode well. There isn't much trace of authenticity to the place which denies it some soul. Nevertheless, we were going to go up the KL Tower this evening but it was foggy, so we'll do it tomorrow. It's an impressive structure, and the Petronas Towers aren't too shabby either.

Added photos to this post and below!

That's it for us so far, speak to you soon!