This weekend was absolutely brilliant!

Woke up early on Saturday morning to head for the coach that would transport me to the Malaysian capital city of Kuala Lumpur which literally means "muddy confluence". When I arrived it was anything but!

I traveled on an executive coach liner to Baraja Times Square in the heart of the city. The bus journey was really surprisingly pleasant - even better than a plane actually! The seats were huge and we had a TV and massage chairs so can't complain! The customs weren't as scary as I thought they would be either - I had nightmares of being stuck in Malaysia in a detention centre due to some misunderstanding! - they even joked around at my passport photo!

The hotel I stayed in was gorgeous; it included a beautiful pool with cabana's to lounge on in the sun, a Jacuzzi, a world class spa, sauna and was covered in marble with a resident piano player so I think I hit the jackpot! The man at reception was overcome by my apparent beauty and wouldn’t stop repeating how beautiful I was - not so beautiful for a free room upgrade though might I add!

I checked in at 1pm and as I was waiting for my key, I stoted over to the tour desk to book some adventures! As I was only there for the rest of Saturday and Sunday afternoon I definitely wanted to pick some good stuff that would cram in all there is to see. The Cultural Tour and the City Tour were decided upon so I booked myself up and headed to unpack and lounge by the pool for a few hours before my first adventure.

The Culture Tour was amazing; it began in China Town shopping area where I once again bought too many presents and spent too much money - my haggling skills are definitely getting even better though! I then visited a Buddhist temple which was gorgeous inside and I was lucky enough to see monks praying and blessing some people - a real cultural experience :) We were then taken to the dinner show combined with authentic Malaysian cuisine buffet style with banquet surroundings and also an amazing dance show filled with traditional dances across Asia. On the tour I made friends with a mother and her daughter Nadine from Australia so even though I traveled alone I wasn't really which was good :)

The next day it was up bright and early for my next cultural experience of the City Tour. It was definitely worth the money to say the least! I was joined by a family of doctors from Aberdeen and made good friends with the daughter roughly my age and we have agreed to keep in contact.

We began the tour at the famous Petronas Towers which are a breath taking sight! I would upload some photos but it doesn't seem to want to let me but I will gladly show anyone who wants to see the photo's at the next networking event :) - I have many! We then headed to the worlds largest flag pole which is surprisingly not American! We saw a war monument - didn’t know Malaysia was involved in WW1 but there you go! - also drove past the world’s largest outdoor bird aviary and it literally looks like a huge spider has woven a web over miles of trees! Visited the leather factory and saw some VERY EXPENSIVE shark, elephant and sting ray skin wallets which were kind of minging but then again each to his own I suppose! The chocolate factory was very nice! Free samples galore! I even tried chili chocolate and durian chocolate! For those who haven’t heard of it; a durian is a fruit from here that really really stinks. The smell is so foul that they are barred from the MRT service and from quite a few hotels and buildings. Needless to say the taste was not very nice! The chili chocolate followed and that did not make it better, if anything it amplified the taste and added a kicker of a sting to your glands! A bottle of water sorted me out though :) We also visited another Buddhist temple and were once again lucky enough to see a ceremony of chanting and singing amongst the monks. The temples in Malaysia and Singapore are absolutely gorgeous and the atmosphere inside is so pure - once again a real cultural experience.

The tours were both fantastic and were a great insight in to Malaysia for a two day visitor! I really wanted to visit the Malaysian elephant sanctuary as you bathe the elephants and things which would have been amazing but the time constraints did not permit it :(

After my exciting day I headed to pack for my journey home and prepared myself for a nice facial - had to be done! I justified the amazing expense as a one week early 21st present to myself which made me feel better :)

I was really sad to leave Malaysia as it is a beautiful country from what I saw and I really hope to go back at some stage in my life - two days is definitely not enough! The previous 2009 intern Rachel was right; Kuala Lumpur is a must see to any Asian intern!

Only scary part of traveling alone to a foreign land (except Singapore obviously because that is my new home :) ) is the traveling back again! I got totally lost on the way home and felt so sorry for myself walking around the shopping centre and monorail station with my case and huge heavy bag of goodies for the family :( security guards and staff were really nice and tried to help but no one knew where I was going! After nearing the point of tears I looked right in front of me and lo' and behold the coach check in desk! I must have walked past it a million times! So I relaxed and lounged back in my double decker first class bus with massaging chairs and TV and slept :)