After leaving Ko Lipe and talking more about the possibilty of making a trip home we checked flight prices and realised that they weren’t too bad and so we decided to make a visit home. We had struggled so far to find a solicitor to sign some of the forms so we just thought it easier all round plus it would give us chance to catch up with friends and family and enjoy some of the British weather for a bit!

We had arrived back to Pak Bara then made our way by bus to Hat Yai which took 2hrs and cost 140 Baht. We just had time to grab a bite to eat and then jumped on a tourist coach to Kuala Lumpur which took 8-9hrs and cost 600Baht which was about the same price as the train but took half the time. We have found this in Malaysia and Thailand that bus journeys can be far quicker than the trains although they stop many times for toilet breaks and food stops.

The coach was extremely plush and had plenty of room but even so neither of us slept. We arrived in Kuala Lumpur just after 3am and made our way to an open Indian restaurant for a strong coffee and a seat next to the monks.

We had resigned ourselves to the fact that we would not be able to find any open accomodation at that time in the morning and so we went for a wander. We thought we’d try our luck by asking a taxi driver if any accomodation was open and he pointed to a man stood at the taxi queue. He worked at a guest house called Wheelers and kindly offered us a free room to rest in until morning when we then had a choice of room at a very reasonably rate of 25MYR. We followed him into chinatown nearby and was nicely surprised by what greeted us when the lift floors opened to the reception. They certainly have made the most of this place, not so keen on all the large fish and small turtles kept in tank but they have tried their best to turn this into a special place. They have the offer of free mash and a meal on friday nights and on other nights they sometimes have free curry and rice in the evenings in the rooftop terrace bar. I think we were lucky to find thi splace, all the staff are lovely and althought the rooms and shared bathrooms are basic they are at least clean.

We had two days to spend in Kuala Lumpur and spent them mostly looking around the large shopping centres where you can pick up some real bargains. Not as cheap as last time I was here but I still found pairs of shoes for a pound!

A great way to get around is the skytrain, very cheap and regular service means you can zip around all over the place. KL isn’t too bad for a city, Chinatown is a buzzing little area with lots going on, you have the petronas towers and other tourist sights plus you can meet some interesting people as we did. One of which was a man named Jimmy Ko originally from Burma who calls himself a power massage master, a lovely man to talk to but not conviced by his massage which you could do yourself by sticking the blunt end of a screwdriver down your back, even so its good to try new things, he also gave us some cream which is supposed to be good for migraines, “Jimmy Balm” has not yet been tested out but we will report back…