Arriving in KL

So I totally jinxed myself with all my light hearted comments on flash packing last night - i am officially flash packing no more! We left lovely lovely chilled out, relaxing, sunny (but not too hot) Krabi and went to the airport. We got through immigration etc and Kev was not happy to see that the monsoon rains had arrived. As he looked out the window at the mist of rain, I tried my best to tell him that it was better to get the rain out of the way now before we got on the plane and that by the time we got in the air all the rain would have gone - besides, a plane wouldn't even try and take off in this weather...would it? As I said that, so an Air Asia flight took speed on the run way and made it's way into the stormy sky. It's fine, I said, these pilots do this everyday - it's different to getting an easy jet flight from Cardiff to Glasgow in the rain - these pilots are totally used to the monsoon rains! I'm not sure my attempts to make everything sound rosy worked, but either way, we got on the plane and it was fine - a wee bit of turbulence but nothing bad. We landed and easily found our bus to central bus/train station. From there, I was exceptionally pleased to find out the next train we were getting was overground (not underground as I had been totally psyching myself up for). Got off the train and had to find our hostel in the 32 degree heat - i was not happy - i don't do heat very well. My first imaginations of Kuala Lumpur were modern, clean, futuristic even - but I was presented with dirty, smoggy, bustling, scary Chinatown. Eventually we found our hostel and hauled ourselves up three flights of stairs to the reception. I had joked about staying in rubbish hostels were we don't even have a window in our room, but the joke soon turned sour when the lovely hostel staff opened the door to our cell here - a room hardly bigger than the storage box we hired in the UK to keep our belongings in while we're gone. A lovely cold shower room just down the corridor will be where we will wash for the next couple of days and the stiffling heat outside on the street is the only alternative - i was not happy! I'd been totally spoilt with my flashpacking in Thailand and now I was being hit with backpacker reality and I'm not good at backpacker reality. Anyway, we dumped our stuff and went out to get some food and beer. The bar we found was great although despite the sign on the door saying 'we discourage smoking inside', this was the smokiest place I've been to in a long time - it seems most people ignore the discouraging sign - never realised how lucky we are to have smoking bans in the UK. Feel much better now and am happy that we have a plan for a hop on hop off bus tour tomorrow - proper tourist style and air conditioned! So far, Kuala Lumpur reminds me of the image i had of Bangkok that I had in my head before i got there. I know that KL is Ian's favourite city and he told us that it took him a couple of days to get into it, so I'm holding by Ian's word and waiting to love this place - but for the moment, chilled out Thailand remains a beautiful memory. xx