Bye Bye Melbourne, Hello KL.

Thursday 19th January 2017 - to Kuala Lumpur

No KL is not Kirkby Lonsdale, it's Kuala Lumpur or Lumpy Koala as I like to think of it.

We have checked the weather forecast for Kuala Lumpar.  It is wall to wall thunderstorms and 30 degrees, so we might not be exploring the area as much as we would like.  We have three nights there but only two full days really.  We have booked a nice hotel which has an indoor pool and gym so we may stay put? 

We said our goodbyes to Marg.  She has been a star. 

Janice and Marg are doing a 'Shazam'.  They have identical bracelets and they link them together and say 'Shazam'.  I'm not sure if it's something to do with the Arabian Nights?

We caught an Uber taxi to the airport.  The driver was an Indian philosophy student.  It was the most unusual taxi conversation I have ever had.  Like most Philosophy students he had lots of questions but no answers!  We covered topics ranging from Brexit, Donald Trump, the state of Democracy, the power of the Media and the rise of the British Empire.  All topics I prattle on about on a regular basis.  Quite a range of topics considering the journey only took half an hour.

We had a pleasant wait at Melbourne airport.  We enjoy people watching when we are travelling.  I am always shocked at people's propensity to queue to board a plane before the plane arrives.  Why, especially considering that everyone has an allocated seat?  It seems that people are desperate to sit in the aeroplane seat for longer than they need to, I don't understand it myself. 

We weren't particularly impressed by Malaysia Airlines.  The flight attendant wasn't very friendly and an inflight pizza wasn't too good.   The flight was fine though.  It was about 8 hours long and we put our watches back 3 hours.  I watched the film 'Casablanca' for the first time.  I thoroughly enjoyed it. So, 'Here's looking at you kid'!

From KL airport we caught an express train into the City and then bought a taxi coupon to get to Traders Hotel.  We were advised to get a taxi coupon to avoid being ripped off by taxi drivers.  We paid 18 Malaysian Ringgits (about 5 Ringgits to the Pound) for a 20 minute journey, not bad value.

By the time we checked in at the hotel it was 11pm and considering that it would be 2am Melbourne time we were pooped.  We went straight to bed....but not without admiring the view from the hotel of the Petronas Towers.

A-ma-zing. The view is from floor 32 of the hotel.