Living the high life in Kuala Lumpur & Langkawi

25th of June to the 10th of July

Weather: little bit cooler than Vietnam at around the 34 degree mark

5 Ringgit to £1: fantastically, I have yet to pay for a room so I actually wouldn’t know the price (endless thanks to Sue, Kelvin & my Mum) and a jug of tiger beer is about £6


After flying from Vietnam, I arrive in Kuala Lumpur around 1.30pm, move swiftly through customs (am perhaps the only backpacker here) and settle down to kill an hour while waiting on some family friends to fly in from Germany. Sue is originally a friend of my mum from College and her and her husband Kelvin traded the UK for the expat life 10 years ago, making KL their most recent home after Dubai and China. From what I hear, they live more than a comfortable life so I’m about to trade budget for luxury right after I get out this airport... this simply means a couple of hours in the arrivals hall, a lack of flights from Europe (the few unheard of places on the board turn out not to be from Germany), a quick conversation with someone’s driver, a realisation that there are in fact 2 airports, a borrowed phone and another 30 minutes and I’m on my way!

My only previous experience of Kuala Lumpur is a few hours in a stylish airport en route to Australia (different airport apparently) and from that I’ve figured that KL is either a great city or caters to a lot of connecting flights. Fortunately the earlier is true and the skyline, despite the haze, is gorgeous. High rise and sparkling, it is a gem of a city in the hot and frantic South East Asia. We’re staying in the heart of the action, on the 34th floor (or 33A according to the lift, as 4 is an unlucky number) of a building equipped with pool and gym and with a view stretching all the way to the hills with, of course, the infamous Petronas twin towers in the foreground. The apartment is like a show home and luxury is an understatement – especially in comparison to some of the places of the last 2 months! Sue and Kelvin waste no time in making me feel right at home and my clothes experience the joys of a wardrobe (not to mention modern washing machine) and my toiletries are instantly spread all over the beautiful bathroom and then the next few days are spent catching up over food, drink, shops, sights and sun. Mum arrives on the Sunday, perfectly co-ordinated and looking fresh and bubbly despite being missed connections and 48 hours of planes and airports and we all continue our catching up in the same fashion.

The warnings all point towards the growing problem of petty theft so we’re careful, as you should be in any city, but in general the people and atmosphere are genuine and friendly and rip off merchants seem few and far between. Very originally, the casual greeting is to ask if you have eaten yet - simply due to eating being one of the preferred activities, shopping being the other and there’s no shortage of places to do either.

So over the fortnight, we’ve covered the city at a relaxed pace - we’ve been up to the bridge in the twin towers, wandered through little China and little India, hit the shopping malls and markets and done a few city walks, as well as climbed hundreds of steps to the temples in the huge Batu caves, spent an afternoon in the bird sanctuary (where we even rescued a bird from drowning), visited the elephant sanctuary (where we all rode an elephant and I was dunked in the river) and the beach (which we left again pretty quickly). All this and we’ve still had plenty of time for evenings on the balcony and sunbathing by the pool. Those who say that KL is a 3 day destination are perhaps just not lucky enough to have friends like ours!

Half way through the holiday, us ladies took a holiday from being on holiday and flew to Langkawi, where I got to taste a little more 5 star. Langkawi is in a cluster of islands on the North West, with white private beaches and sea as warm as a bath. It is beautiful in a luxury resort type way and due to swine flu and the recession; high season is low season so it was anything but crowded. Mum celebrated an idyllic birthday here and many ‘toilet trips’ in order to sneak around buying presents and organise champagne paid off beautifully. In fact, a day of island hopping and swimming in fresh water lakes, followed by cocktails in the pool bar and toasting champagne on the beach at sunset was almost too perfect for even a postcard. We brought it back to normality by going out for dinner after all the restaurants had closed though.

So a few more glorious days in KL brings us to now, Sue & Kelvin are celebrating their wedding anniversary, Mum is en-route to Auckland and here I am, slightly scared and slightly excited, on a bus leaving Kuala Lumpur as a solo backpacker. I’m heading back up North to Penang, an island near Langkawi, which I hadn’t even heard of a week ago but a few beers and a Lonely Planet and this is my plan. I’ll keep you all updated…