Day 152 - Bad and Good Luck, and Singapore...

Helen's alarm went off at 7 am, & she turned it off 5 times without waking up. the plan was to be up early and at the Petronas Towers by 8:30, as tickets are issued on a first come, first served basis. we didn't really make it anywhere until noon, when we went to the bus station and booked tickets for the midnight bus to Singapore - only RM 30, bargain. I led us on a journey across town, on foot, to the KL Lake Gardens via Central Market and the National Mosque - the gardens are supposedly huge, cooler than the rest of the city, and pretty nice, however when we got there we found the gates closed, with no visible way in, so we hopped the fence in full view of the indifferent guard. It was grey and looked to be threatening rain, but we were hot and knackered after the (somewhat circuitous, due to my poor navigation) walk, so we found a place to sit anyway. While sitting and writing postcards, a friendly Malay-Indian guy, who said he worked in billboard advertising, came and chatted to us about various things - the weather, the freedom of Thailand compared to Malaysia and Singapore, his adventures at the Full Moon Party, and so on. He also informed us that they were renovating the park, and gave us directions. What a helpful dude.

We got the LRT to KLCC, where the Petronus Towers are, to get a glimpse of them at dawn - as we arrived at the station it started to piss down torrentially (at 5 pm, just as the Indian bloke said it would), so we stayed indoors and walked around the mall - just another fancy shopping centre like Siam Paragon etc., selling the exact same stuff in the same overpriced shops. We went out and looked in awe at the towers for a bit, & I popped in to see where one would get the tickets if we had been there early. As I did, a lady asked me how many we were, and said she's had some returns as it was raining, so we ended up getting free tickets after all, despite turning up half an hour before closing! The views were pretty awesome, although not as good as from KL Tower, as we were only half way up these ones, on the 41st storey Skybridge.

We went inside again to await dark to take more pictures, and sat down in the A&W burger bar, where I had a truly bizarre drink - a pint mug of root beer float, with loads of vanilla ice cream. I can't say it was too tasty, but it was cold and filled some time - I won't be having it again though - I'm not doing too well on drinks today, I had something pink from a street stall earlier that tasted like perfume and had purple wobbly bits in it. We got the LRT back home, and went for dinner at a street stall round the corner, where I thoroughly overstretched myself, ordering three dishes to try and get rid of all my remaining Ringgit. The bus we got was really good, only 24 seats on a massive coach, really comfortable recliners. I fell asleep almost immediately we got on, waking at 4 am at the border at Johor Bahru. We're now sitting in the kitchen/common room of The Inn Crowd, waiting for reception to open at 8 (we've been here since 6), and hopefully we might be able to check in before 12, but I'm doubtful...