The Kuala Lumpur airport is one of SE Asia’s newest airports, and is immaculate, modern, and super-efficient. Although located 70 km (40 miles) out of the city, the brand new KLIA Ekspres train takes you right downtown in 28 minutes. Don’t be suckered in by the cabs offering cheaper fares then the train – it can take up to an hour and a half, depending on traffic. The train is the only way to go. It was pretty empty both times we took it, lots of room for luggage, and very smooth. Which was important, considering how Wendy was feeling by then.

We took a few subway rides to the recommended hotel right across from the bus station, the Anuja Backpackers Inn. The room was very small, but seemed clean enough. The shared bathrooms however required walking through the smoke-filled lobby, past strange ever-present men who looked up from the TV to stare at us as we shuffled past in our PJ’s. The A/C, although it appeared to pump out cold air, did not make a difference in the room temp. The smell of cigarette smoke wafted in from the lobby. However, what we didn’t pay attention to as we checked out the room was the noise. It was on the second floor right next to a very busy street – we might as well have been camping on the street corner. The noise quieted down sufficiently that we were able to catch a few hours of sleep before the morning traffic woke us up.

Fortunately, another hotel that was mentioned in the guidebook as being for "business travelers" was right next door, the Katari Hotel.  Ian went to check it out – it was American motel style, and exactly what we were looking for. For twice the price, we were able to get a private bathroom with oodles of hot water, great sound insulation from the road, and clean clean clean.  We would recommend this hotel very highly. Great location, too. The 80 ringgit ($20) price was a promotion, but we would have been happy to spend twice that amount for the difference in comfort level.

Unfortunately, we spent most of our day in the room, still recovering from our little visit to the Perhentian Islands. The private bathroom turned out to be our most visited (and memorable) sight in KL. We did make it out to check out a few temples, and some shopping. We would highly recommend the Peter Hoe boutique just a few minutes away from the central market – very good prices, high quality crafts, and nice environment. It might not be as cheap as elsewhere, but it’s much more relaxed and no haggling. They also have a larger location just a few minutes away.

We also checked out the Central Market, saw a Batik demonstration and bought some other nice souvenirs (If you buy a traditional kite, good luck getting it home, there don’t seem to be any boxes in Malaysia big enough for it!! Fortunately we found a post office in the airport on our way out of Kuala Lumpur where the guy bent over backwards to create a box solution which worked perfectly). Anyways, the Central Market is definitely worth a stroll. Also, the covered street market along Petaling St. is full of knockoff  t-shirts and fake designer watches and is an interesting walk.

The next sight we saw, unfortunately, was the private hospital next to our hotel, where they seemed just a little too keen to admit Wendy for the night. After determining that it wasn’t anything more exotic then just pretty bad food poisoning, we just waited it out at the hotel.

Before our flight out of Kuala Lumpur, we checked out the Must See sight – the Petronas Towers. We got there early (8:30am), as the free tickets up to the skybridge are given out quickly for the whole day. Our allocated time slot was at 10am. We got to spend about 20 minutes up on the bridge between the two towers. The view isn’t that spectacular, and is only about half way up. I guess it’s a must-do just because everyone now associates the Petronas towers with KL, but it really isn’t that special. Apparently, the telecom tower offers a more impressive view.