Day 34 - Phuket, Thailand to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

New day new country. Very early start this morning as we have an 8am flight to KL and the airport is an hour away. Pretty excited about our KL and Singapore visits before heading back to a nice beach resort for Christmas. 

We leave Phuket, it has been so nice here for four reasons; 1) it's the first place we have stayed five nights so has felt a bit more homely (we even unpacked, got all our washing done, watched lots of films etc), 2) it has been a well needed chill out after a very hectic first month, 3) the hotel was gorgeous - we definitely picked the best part of the island to stay in Panwa Bay and 4) the hotel also had a great gym so we are even starting to feel healthy again!

Sleepy Nat

We arrive at KL and have a huge wait to get through customs then hop in a taxi for a long ride into town. The airport is miles out of town and it takes us well over an hour to get into the centre. 

First view of the Petronas Towers. Strangely they don't look as tall as they are. At 88 floors they are not far off New Yorks World Trade Centre was but don't look as big to us. Cool building though. 

We are staying at the Seri Pacific Hotel. It's fine for a couple of nights. Good value but a pretty bland tired business hotel. We are too early to get our room so we have walk around looking for lunch. Turns out there is bugger all around our hotel so we head back to the cafe in our hotel. Just in time too as the heavens open. Never seen rain like it with awesome thunder too. 

No kidding but when we crossed this about an hour earlier there was about 3ft of water in it. Now it's running at about 10ft easily. There are even rapids in parts (bottom right). A lot of rubbish flowing down it though.  

After a short nap in we head to Bukit Bintang and in the huge mall there it's the first time we actually feel Christmassy, probably because it is so western (we could be in Westfield) and the decorations are amazing. 

Tom, Dick and Harry's bar for a beer. Beer is extortionate in KL!

Next we went for dinner at a great place next door called La Boca Latino. 

Examining the menu. Decided to go for the steak. First one I have had in over 6 weeks!!! 

Such a great restaurant. A great atmosphere with a live two piece band. 

So many Christmas parties around. 

Couldn't manage desert though. 

On the way out of the mall we spot what looks like a bar on a roof and head towards it (top left)

The bar is at the top of this tower right next to the Petronas Towers. 

It is called Marini's on 57th (ie the floor). It's such a cool bar and phenomenal views of the towers. They look spectacular at night. Great random find. 

Lovely outside terrace. 

We are even as high as the clouds!

Difficult to see in this pic (the specks in the sky) but the top of the towers are surrounded by thousands of giant moths. Never seen so many. Shame for Nat as I was going to buy a place there ;-)

After we have a walk towards Hard Rock (naturally). We go past a huge Harley Davidson convention with hundreds of bikers at an open air heavy rock concerns. Looks pretty good. 

There she blows. 

We have a fantastic night in Hard Rock. Another live band on. Two in two nights. A record. We also meet a great chap Jens from New Zealand who is a pilot for Virgin. He is on training here in a simulator that trains pilots on how to not crash in different situations such as hitting volcanic ash or having to land on water. Very interesting chap. 

Anyway after we talk to him for a while Nat heads into the 'mosh pit'. No need for me to worry about where she is as she is being beamed on every screen in the place (bottom left)

The band are awesome. Metallica, Nirvana, Guns n Roses - the lot!

It's about 2.30am now and all the biker boys are in. 

Clearly new people to jump into when the band are playing Metalica. If this was the other way round it would be so inappropriate!

They finish the set at 3am with Rage!! Absolute quality. 

Such a good night. This is why we love Hard Rock. Damn expensive in KL though. Going from 80p beer to £8 is ways going to hurt!! In bed by 4am. How crazy are we?!?