First stop, Kuala Lumpur!

[So, It's been a long time since I posted this and, if possibly only for my own reference I've decided to revise it... completely!! - I had no idea at the time (or reference point really) what a great city I was exploring, it's taken a LONG while to learn to appreciate cities, I'm getting there!  SJT 04/06/2015]

So...13 hours flying without sleep and then 13 sleeping, thank god the hostel room had air con!

The hostel was basis, really basic, but the lack of windows was a dream for getting over the flight in.  Don't get me wrong, it was dreamy flying with Emirates... I just didn't actually do any dreaming.

It actually took a while to reach the hostel too; a few screenshots of the hostels location on my tablet might not be all we need going forward, maybe "banning" taxis for the off wasn't such a great idea either.  Anyway, we made it, it had a bed.  Sorted.

We rose in the evening to feed and got totally confused ordering food and even more attempting to pay for it [the latter would become a theme in Malaysia].  Nevertheless we had completed the basics one way or another, hazzah for us!!!  Now back to bed.

Next morning, in outrageous humidity, we started to stretch our backpacker wings and, for me at least, push comfort boundaries.  We risked life and limb crossing roads and then ventured onto public transport for the first time (all in the effort to shun organised trips and do it ourselves).  Turned out the metro system blows ours out of the water and it's a piece of cake!! - little LEDs light the way on a map in the coach so you know exactly where you are!!  Visitors to London would no doubt love to see this on the underground!

The destination for this little adventure was Batu Caves; no doubt the first of a crazy number of temple visits before 9 months is up! - not a bad start though, at least to my eyes!!  Some of the craziest sized statues you can imagine, a shed load of monkeys and my first near death experience... not bad for a few days in.

Once you've climbed a LOT of stairs and avoided all the monkeys, you arrive at the cave/temple proper.  The cave's "roof" is a massive open sky 50m up, edged in only partially visible vegetation.  That vegetation includes palm trees.  I know this as a coconut fell all the way down and shattered on the cave floor about 1 foot in front of me.  It actually took me a moment to fully register what happened; I was trying to work out why I had such a sharp pain in a rather private area and why there were monkeys everywhere... as it turned out some of the "shrapnel" had struck me in the nether regions and the monkeys were gathering up the unexpected free meal.  Bex obviously found this hilarious... as did I actually!

Over the next few days we visited a few odds and ends, started to learn a little language, got a lot more comfortable with the restaurants, markets and haggling; we didn't get much used to the temperature and humidity though - it was time to leave and quickly find somewhere cooler, and more mountainous!!