Day One

A pint of Paulaner always goes down well but a pint of the Munich brewed beer next to the Petrona Towers is something special. The barman poured it beautifully as well. Something a Munich native would have been proud of. As you can expect I was hovering somewhere in the vicinity of cloud nine. I was then given the bill to send me tumbling back down. 50RM. A quick bit of maths in my head as I handed over the cash told me this was expensive. Once I had sat down I opened my currency converter app and noticed 50RM comes to approximately £8. That's more than what you pay in central London. The most expensive pint I've ever bought comes in South East Asia, an area of the world that is notorious for cheap beer. Oh well, at least my dinner, a Korean specialty, only came to £3!

So as you may know I am now in Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia. I arrived early this morning after a long day of travel from London Gatwick to Dubai and then onto Malaysia. With very little sleep I was craving a bed, any sort of bed, as soon as possible. The hostel was not easy to find though. I thought I had myself pretty well organised and it seemed just one straight road from the train station to the hostel. Turns out that road was a motorway with no footpath so I had to resort to public transport. I ended up taking a taxi and despite the taxi driver just merely dropping me off in the near vicinity to the hostel, I stumbled upon it some point later on in the morning. 

After a nap I headed up to the Petrona Towers, probably the biggest attraction of Kuala Lumpur. I have to admit, they are not quite as draw dropping as what some attractions can be. They don't seem noticeably tall. Don't get me wrong, they are tall. But not that tall. Does that make sense? Probably not.

They come alive at night though. Lit up as you expect skyscrapers to be and the surrounding areas also come to life with music, colourful water fountains and an overall good vibe.

About This Blog

Go grab a beverage. I insist. This could be a long post and I don't want any readers (if there are any) getting a perspired throat before the reading is complete. So go refill your mug of coffee or tea if you are settling down to this over your morning breakfast. Perhaps go grab a bottle of beer (if you have Asahi, then all the better) from your fridge if this has caught your eye in the evening of a long day. Or if it's midday somewhere hot and sunny, and you're reading this while soaking up a tan from your back garden then go refill your glass of water - and don't forget to add the ice cubes and, if you ever so fancy, a slice of lime to boot. Go grab whatever you need to be comfy, then we can begin.

Comfy? Let's go.

Firstly, I have a confession to make. You probably already know what I am about to say if you are a frequent visitor to this site. The confession: It's hard to keep regular blog posts going. Why? This is not due to lack of motivation, laziness or even time constraints. It's simply because I keep asking myself the same question whenever I think of this blog; "What shall I write about?" And that question is consistently answered with the same response: an empty void the size of my mind.

This blog is first and foremost a travel blog and when I am not traveling it is very difficult to be inspired to write about other topics. There is, of course, the odd occasion where I write about subjects that are not travel related however since I was last traveling I have posted eight different posts on here and five of those were in the "travel" genre! Needless to say, I prefer to write about travel.

Therefore the health of this blog depends largely on the ability of its author to realise his wanderlust. The good news is that in a few days time I will be doing just that. My possessions for over a month packed into my 40L backpack, passport in pocket and a motivated blogging mind in gear.

I leave London Gatwick on Friday and I will be away for approximately 33 nights. The itinerary is relatively fixed although I am far from nailing down all my hostels (I'll do that as I go). The first stop will be Kuala Lumpur. After the Malaysian capital I will take a short bus journey south to the smaller Malaysian city of Melacca. From here I will take another bus journey south and cross the border into the flourishing Singapore. After a few days I will fly to Sydney and will meet up with good friends Ben and Erin (who will be getting married towards the end of my stay). While in Sydney I will make trips to Melbourne, the Blue Mountains et al.

I've used this site in the past to write about my travels and this time I want to take the whole thing up a notch. Firstly, I aim to put more content on here during the trip than I have done in the past. Secondly, I will do my best not to "rush posts for the sake of getting a post out there". Hopefully the quality will be improved compared to previous entries. Finally, photos I take will be added to the blog as I go and, like the words that accompany them, I will aim for the photos to be of a higher level than the last trip.

That's the goal!

So perhaps add this blog to your favourites, leave a comment and share it with people who you believe will be interested. I would be grateful.

P.S.

I feel bad for the lack of photos so here's some of a folding up, compact, travel toothbrush. Unbelievable scenes...

P.P.S.

This post wasn't half as long as I anticipated it to be. Good news all round, I suppose. Enjoy the rest of that drink.