A fine traveller I turned out to be...

Um. Heh. I'm er....(still in Kuala Lumpur).

Let me tell you what happened. When we got back to Oasis Guest House in KL, we ran into yet more people we'd seen in Laos, namely Claire and Gary, who I'm pretty sure I also saw in Siem Reap in Cambodia. We made new friends with the people who'd just arrived, and had a good night. Plus it was Matt's birthday and so we were all up late drinking and playing with poi on the roof.

Matt decided to go and find a beach by way of Pulau Tioman, and I stayed with cool people seeing as Shaun, Steve, Tom and Alam were still here. There was a new addition to the group (Rose) and for the most part, we've all been getting up late, eating late, drinking late, and going to bed early, say 8am or so.

We did organise a group trip to the Bathu Caves, a set of natural caves about one hour outside KL by bus. The entrance is dominated by a 100ft gold plated statue of Lord Muraga, and to reach the caves you must climb around 300 steps. They are numbered, so I have nothing except bad memory as my excuse to why I can't remember exactly how many there are. The caves are used as a Hindu shrine and prayer hall, as well as for festivals, where apparently up to 2m people attend at a time. We were there at just the right time to get deafened by gongs and drums marking the time to pray, and we watched in respectful silence while the service (for want of a better word) was conducted.

The caves are full of monkeys and cockerels, of which the former will try and steal anything you leave hanging around loosely. I managed to scare one quite by accident and it charged me, only just pulling up short and screeching at me. I stamped towards it and it ran off, not before it initially made me pee my pants just a little.

Another old travelling buddy from Laos turned up, Abi who we'd met in Vang Vieng and travelled all the way to Don Det with. Got to show her a bit of the city (seeing as I'm now a bit of a local) and introduce her to the local rothi canai shop (indian flat bread with a dip of either daal or chicken curry, all for RM1 which is 25p). We also went to watch Ice Age 3. Ruudyyyyyyyyy....

I am ACTUALLY going to go to Singapore tomorrow as KL, while it has charmed me and kept me entertained has now become 'just' another city, and while Singapore is a more expensive place to stay, I'm up for something new. With some luck Matt will be there within a day or so and then we fly to Melbourne.