KL, a very tall building, and being attacked by mosquitos

Arriving in Kuala Lumpur, or KL as everyone calls it, was a bit different to arriving in Singapore. Even though the bus was 2 hours late, and it was dark, I refused to get a taxi and attempted to find the monorail station. This proved pretty difficult as there are no signs anywhere, and there are millions of people all trying to sell me another bus ticket, but I found it eventually thanks to a helpful local. On the way, I passed a guy with a motorbike and several cats sprawled across the seat. At the hostel I met 3 nice blokes, Kev, Ranj, and Tom, they invited me out to dinner, and although I wasn't going to drink anymore (had resolved to give up drinking when I got to Singapore, without success), we stumbled across a bar which was giving out free drinks to ladies, so my plans were foiled again.

The next day, after visiting a very nice art gallery with the lads, I went up the observation tower to see the city, it was an amazing view, KL has some great buildings. Afterwards, I decided to talk a walk in the small forest in the centre of the city. The forest has a paved path running through the centre, but it also has tracks running off the main path, and I'm the sort of person who cannot walk past an interesting looking path. This was a mistake.

I was a couple of minutes in when the mosquitos came out. At first I wasn't too bothered, I've seen plenty of mossies on my travels and have kind of got used to them. I soon realised these were different though, for starters they were HUGE, and jet black to make them look even more evil. If I waved my arms about, they wouldn't budge off me, and if I brushed them off the thing that they stick into you to suck your blood out detached from their bodies and stuck in me. In the space of about 6 minutes I got bitten 81 times. 81 times!! this isn't an exageration, I counted them afterwards.

The thing is with mossies is that, even if you are aware you are being bitten, it doesn't really hurt at the time. Its the next day when the itching starts. Even with my double defence of anti-histamine tablets and Tiger Balm, the itching was unbearable. It actually made me feel sick. It didn't help that I smothered myself in Tiger Balm, which is great stuff but also smells like you walked into a vat of cough medicine. On top of this, I looked like a chicken pox victim with big red blotches covering my arms and legs. Yuck.

Ignoring the mosquito bites, I went out that night with the guys and had a fun evening in a Karaoke bar. The Malays love karaoke, its sort of a national obsession. We joined in whole heartedly, and I did a great Ricky Martin song. We were pretty bad singers compared to the locals, but it was fun and we sang loads of songs.

The third night I went up the KL tower again, with Tom this time, to see the city at night. It wasn't as lit up as much as I'd hoped, but I guess it was a Sunday night and the office buildings were dark. We did get a great view of the Petronus towers though.

The towers are the largest building in the world, if you count the antennae. If you don't, Sears Tower in Chicago beats them. Also there are towers that are taller, the tallest being in Canada. Since when is a tower not a building? Anyway, it doesn't really matter, as the Petronus towers are mesmerising and beautiful. Tom and I walked over to them, and standing beneath them is so cool. They don't look that tall from far away, but when you are next to them they look massive. Your neck really hurts if you look right to the top. They are great.