Kuala Lumpur

This is the first visit to KL on our way 'back to Blighty'. Also our first 'long' flight on the no-frills airline AirAsia. Considering it was 8 hours and no in-flight entertainment, apart from ourselves, books, music and a whole lot of people watching, it seemed to pass pretty quick – oh, there was also a bit of snoozing by Helen. Our stay in KL was also in a no-frills hotel, Tune – the same holding company as the airline. It was all ok, very clean and a good location. Although having been to KL before we managed to do some different things - we visited the Old Central Market Building but also did some stuff we'd done before like a wander around Petalang Street, Chinatown.
A walk around the 'forest' (in the grounds of the KL tower) in the centre of the city is always worth it and this time we managed to see some monkeys and a big lizzardy-thing. David did ask the guy who had 'captured' it what it was, he told him, but David didn't quite catch it by name only on camera. Helen then also asked what it was after she'd jumped at the sight of it, but didn't quite catch it by name either, possibly due to the shock having seemed to jump out of her skin when she saw it close up. Certainly a first for us in KL was visiting the very large parklands area, which housed an hibiscus garden as well as an orchid one. The hibiscus were blooming well, but it didn't seem quite the right time for the orchids. Further along in the park, it seemed to be a full on photo shoot for models and wedding couples as they were competing for space of the perfect view for the perfect spot of the perfect couple – nobody took our photograph.
We went to the national museum - which was also a first and whilst we picked up a lot of information about the history of Malaysia, it's 'ownership' and significance of the Malaccan
trade routes, we also learnt some new stuff too, particularly about its 20th century history and the terrorism prior to independence.