Magnificent Malaysia!

After 3 months of travelling around India and Sri Lanka, we decided to take a break from travelling and treat ourselves to a much needed holiday..... (aren't we lucky!). Thanks to the lovely Wessex Wyverns (the team Butty coaches in the UK), we spent our Christmas and New Years in a much more luxurious fashion than we have grown accustomed to recently. They paid for us to stay in an absolutely beautiful apartment in the city of Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia, which came fully equipped with everything we have been missing. That list includes a fridge, a sofa, a TV, actual real pillows, a gym, swimming pool and most importantly........ A WASHING MACHINE AND TUMBLE DRYER!!! 

Having arrived quite late on Christmas eve, we wasted no time emptying out our dusty, dirty, ant-filled rucksacks and pouring literally everything we owned into the wash. It was the perfect Christmas gift :) We then took a walk down to one of the MANY shopping malls in the city, and within minutes felt our Christmas spirits rise as the impressive decorations and lights shone out around us. The area felt so clean and orderly compared to everywhere we have been so far, and we have both agreed Malaysians are the friendliest and loveliest people ever! 

We purchased some essentials (beer, new PJS and Pringles), before settling down to watch Christmas movies and wrap up our presents. Being both of our first Christmas' away from home, we were feeling a little home sick but still had a wonderful day attending a Christmas carol concert, Skyping our families and friends, attempting to make a Christmas dinner (featuring marmite and hotdog sausages!) and playing with our new Finding Dory Uno cards!

We spent the next few days smashing out sessions in the gym, lounging around on the sofa, and attempting to swim in the HUGE swimming pool - turns out it is a lot harder to swim when you don't have the sides to push off every 20 metres! It was so nice to just chill out and catch up on un-interrupted sleep, and being able to cook our own food again felt like a huge novelty. Once sufficiently rested up, we put our explorer caps back on and visited some pretty cool places around the area. 

Literally five minutes from where we staying was a little eco-walk where you can walk up, down and around swinging bridges across the treetops. Peeking out from behind the lush green scenery were perfect examples of the innovative architecture evident in the many skyscrapers in Kuala Lumpur. This contrast of the natural and the manmade is something reiterated throughout the city, and it gives it a fresh, modern and clean feel unlike anywhere either of us have travelled before. 

Another place we visited was the Batu caves which comprises of a series of temples in the region of Selangor. Outside of India, this destination is one of the most visited Tamil shrines and we were quite astounded at the amount of tourists making their way up and down the rainbow-coloured steps leading up to the caves. The huge statues, gloomy caves and colourful temples had an imposing and eery feel about them, and made us feel very small as the cave walls towered above us. Once we made it through the MANY monkeys on the hunt for treats and water bottles (luckily we had grown wise to this in India and literally took nothing with us), we took our time exploring and enjoying the much-needed shade provided by the caves. As we went to leave, Butty knelt down to take a picture of an adorable little kitten we had spotted in the shadows. Before she could do much about it, the tiny thing had climbed onto her lap, digging its claws tightly into her shorts. We attracted a small audience, with some people looking over in admiration and others telling us to get it off because of disease (we did try and explain this encounter was not by choice!). It all turned a bit hysterical as the kitten literally clung on with all it's might as Butty tried everything she could to remove herself from it. We seem to just attract animals wherever we go!

A few days later and seemingly in  the blink of an eye, Christmas had passed and it was suddenly New year and almost time to leave our little slice of heaven behind :( We had a super fun pre-drinks for two, sat up on the roof top of our extremely high apartment block and watching a huge thunderstorm unfold across the sky. It didn't take many beers to get us into the mood for partying, so we headed down to the strip of bars near where we were staying. As far as New Year destinations go, this place was AMAZING! The whole street was completely rammed of people with crazy wigs, hooters, and (weirdly) cans of fake snow. It didn't take us long to get chatting to some older Aussies in an Irish bar who we made a pretty good deal with - we were there wing-women in exchange for free beer! We entered 2019 surrounded by the happiest people, in the craziest street, drinking free beer and just having the best time. Once again, we made it home having not spent a single penny, sufficiently intoxicated and, this time, with two new caps! All round, a great night.

We left Malaysia on the 2nd January with a new found love for this beautiful city. It had everything we needed to recuperate and get ourselves prepared physically and mentally for the next challenge ahead ...... teaching for nine weeks in a rural town in Thailand. We'll post soon with an update on our first couple of weeks in our new jobs, but for now..... we have to go and lesson plan ;)