Whoopee, we made it to Kuala Lumpur and woweee was it hot and humid! The temperature was about 34deg, but felt so much higher with the humidity. Once we got through immigration we used an app called Grab (which is similar to Uber) and got a car to our Airbnb. We had a lovely driver, who gave us lots of tips for things to do while we’re here and pointed out various landmarks along the way.

We’d booked an apartment through Airbnb here, which is part of a huge complex going up about 45 floors. There’s a gym, spa and pool on the 6th floor and top floor, which Sylvie insisted we try as soon as possible of course!

As we were all pretty exhausted from the ‘airport sleep’ and travelling, we decided to venture no further than one of the local food markets, grab some supper and come home. We aimed for Jalan Alor – a very popular food street in the heart of the city.

We couldn’t resist the fresh fruit juices – mango, dragonfruit, watermelon and guava to name a few!

Wandering up and down the streets absorbing the sights and the smells was quite overwhelming. It was hot and humid, we hadn’t showered or slept properly for a couple of days and the noise from hundreds of people just felt a lot. We still really enjoyed ourselves though – it felt like we’d really arrived in SE Asia.

We settled on a place to eat and ordered 5 dishes – salt & pepper squid, chicken satay sticks, prawn noodles, sizzling beef and some green beans. Kate was so excited for the green vegetables that she dug into these first only to discover they were the spiciest thing we’d ordered, ooops!

With tummies full and senses overloaded, we headed back to our apartment to get an early night. Well, that was the plan… but it turns out there was more we could squeeze out of the day, and that was a nighttime rooftop swim!

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Day two dawned and we were ready for another adventurous day. We decided to wander the streets (heading in the direction of the twin towers) as it was still relatively cool and we wanted to get a feel for the city. It didn’t take long for us to feel hot and bothered though, so the Bukit Bintang Walkway was a welcome relief – this is an elevated walkway between the major shopping/entertainment centres in the city centre and means you avoid all the traffic below.

At the end of the walkway we found ourselves in the KLCC, and right by the Aquarium, much to the children’s delight! We spent a lovely few hours in there…

After our fishy fun we headed to the park by the famous Petronas Twin Towers. This is a wonderful asset to the city, with a huge play park, a water park (sadly shut for cleaning when we were there) and lots of spaces for a picnic or just to escape the sun for a bit.

We had a lovely wander through the parks and around by the towers, and then carried on further down the streets on the hunt for lunch.

The twin towers stand at 451.9m tall and are the world’s tallest twin skyscrapers. They were actually the world’s tallest building until 2004, when they were taken over by Taipei 101. The steel and glass outer look was designed to resemble motifs of Islamic art.

We decided on an Indian Muslim restaurant called Nasi Kandar Pelita, and chose some dishes – mostly chicken and rice variations with some veggies on the side. The fresh juices looked wonderful too, so we ordered a few of those and Elijah even opted for a coconut! Despite ordering “no spice” food, quite a lot of it was pretty spicy!!

With hunger satiated and thirsts quenched, we grabbed a Grab and made our way to the Botanical Gardens. As we were driving, the weather turned and it began to pour with rain! Thankfully we’d brought our raincoats with us, but even with them we decided to hop on a golf buggy and give our legs a bit of a rest.

Our driver was really informative about the park, but also quite happy to take us outside after we asked where the butterfly gardens and bird park were. Sitting in an open-sided golf cart with no seatbelts being driven around the chaotic, busy roads wasn’t quite what we had planned!

At one point our driver stopped to pick himself up some fruit from a street seller and we spotted several monkeys in the trees. He kindly offered us some and although we were keen to try them, we didn’t know how to open them at first. They looked like new potatoes on a stalk (like sprouts) but tasted delicious, a bit like a lychee. They are called longan (which means “dragoneye” in Cantonese), and are actually easy to peel once you get the knack. Yum!

Once we’d had our fill of zooming around the botanical gardens we decided to go to the butterfly park for the rest of the afternoon before heading back to our apartment for a little rest before the evening’s activities.

The butterfly park is one of the largest butterfly houses in the world. It opened in 1992 and it’s most famous resident is the Rajah Brooke’s butterfly – the national butterfly of Malaysia.

Sylvie was desperate for a butterfly to land on her, so she spent a good 20 minutes patiently “making friends” – and that patience was rewarded!

What to do when it’s 5pm and you’ve had a good day out? Back to the pool!

After a refreshing break, we headed out into the night for food and whatever else we might find. First stop: Jalan Pataling street market. Martin got himself a new pair of sliders and Sylvie couldn’t resist the cat bags… but we all needed some liquid refreshment!

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Next stop: food! Chinese was the order of the day and we happily slurped our noodles, chicken and dumplings.

Last stop: back to the twin towers to see them at night! They were quite spectacular, shining in the darkness, but it was even busier than when we’d come in the morning.

As it was getting late, we tried to catch a Grab car home but it was so busy we would’ve had a 20 wait, so we made the decision to walk back instead – not the easiest with tired little legs but we made it and no one had any trouble falling asleep!

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Day three saw us have another one of those “why did we plan a 5:30am wake up again?” days, but boy was it worth it (as always). We went to see the Batu Caves – a series of limestone caves on the outskirts of the city and home to one of the most popular Hindu shrines outside India. It gets its name from the Malay word “batu” meaning rock.

Apart from a couple of devotees, we were the first people there, so it was lovely and quiet.

The giant golden statue is of Lord Murugan, the Hindu god of war, and is the second tallest of its type in the world standing at 43m.

The caves themselves are believed to have been used as shelters by the indigenous people, but came to be a sacred Hindu shrine around 1890. The steps were converted from wood to concrete in 1940, but only painted in 2018.

Once inside, you can see the temples built into the rock. We took our shoes off and headed to the main temple.

While we were inside we happened to strike up a conversation with a man from Singapore who explained that he and his wife had come that morning specifically for a ceremony they requested. He kindly invited us to watch and it was incredibly fascinating. What luck to have been able to witness it!

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The ceremony took around 25 minutes, and by the time it had finished we had been joined by many other tourists and Hindus (all fascinated like us). We headed back out of the temple, popped our shoes back on and walked further up into the caves.

Soon it was time to head back to the apartment, pack our bags and get to the airport ready for our flight to Borneo.

Our driver this time was a lovely Chinese-Malay man who was very keen to chat to Martin about his job and discuss his son who he hoped might get an internship in England. The kids thought it was hilarious to hear Dad back in ‘work mode’ for half an hour.

A quick turnaround at the apartment (kids were gutted there was no time for another swim) and we were heading to the airport. We had a slight mix up when we realised we’d booked to go to Terminal 1 (international) rather than Terminal 2 (domestic) but that was soon sorted and we were on our way!