Whiskey galore! KL style

Thankfully the ridiculously expensive airport "food hall" at Siem Reap got us back to the price reality we'd have to get used to now that we've arrived in Kuala Lumpur. The rest of our trip is going to be lamentably more western and expensive - and as if to celebrate this fact we ate like kings in KFC (our first western chain restaurant since, well, for ever) as soon as we arrived in Kuala Lumpur. We felt very guilty about it but pretty soon after we were feeling a lot more than guilty, and lets just say that we saw a lot more of the hotel toilet than most of the sights of KL.

Nudie! Victor has a naughty lighter

But between bouts we did pop 'round all the shopping haunts of KL, mainly just to see how much we can't afford things by. This place is expensive. KL is thoroughly modern, and a fair bit souless as a result. It's also thoroughly muslim, and a fair bit boring too, as a result. So we ticked the boxes, saw the malls, took the monorail but mainly hid in our hotel room looking at our pristine view of the huge Petronas Twin Towers and missing Cambodia and the madness.

Round 15 - MS serves up some lovely crab

Then, along comes MS Chin to the rescue. MS is a friend and Thermo King work associate of Lisa's dad, and we think he'd been given express orders to show us a good time. That he did. He picked us up from our hotel with a cheery wave and took off through horrendous capital city traffic towards his favourite restaurant. Along the way we got a lot of insights about Malaysians and KL in particular. Then came the food. MS took us to Pearl Inn Seafood restaurant where he and his buddies like to eat and drink. But eat mainly. Then drink. Out came a bottle of Black Label Johnny Walker and after a few "Slainte's" the first of many many courses arrived.

Survivors of the wonderful food onslaught

The food was sublime. Crab and huge prawns, giant fish - I wish I could remember half of it - scallops, calamari, all done beautifully. The whiskey kept coming and so did MS' friends. We had a great laugh. Before long I had them saying "f*ckin' deadly" in their best Dublin accents and they were proudly showing off their cigarette lighters that projected nudey pictures (not too nudey, this is a muslim country afterall). We learned that Chinese Malay people never smile, which is so true - all night I looked around the other tables in the restaurant and never ever was one other person looking the slightest bit happy. Weird. MS explained; they all have money but don't know how to enjoy it yet, unlike him! He's Chinese Malay, so he can say these things.

The KL towers open a portal to heaven

The next morning MS arranged for us to join him, his friend Frankie, and his two boys at a Chinese breakfast buffet. Again the food was exquisite (still no smiling, apart from our table) but that damn KFC (or maybe the whiskey) started to kick in again and we had to be careful not to stock up too much.

So, after all MS' wonderful hospitality, it's time for us to head on to pastures wild again. We're off to Borneo (Sabah, the north east corner) to see Orangutan's and anything else that will let us look at it.... I think the 30 odd courses of food we've had in KL should see us through until September. Thanks MS!!

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See all Paul's photos of Kuala Lumpur (they're aren't too many this time.....)

The Petronas towers at sunset

The view from top of Menara tower

Victor - in fairness, we shared the bottle