Hopping busses and Louis Vuitton

How do you see KL in just over 24 hours and with children in tow? Simple, you head straight up the Menara Tower (not pictured) for views of the city and then get the hopping bus!

Winner of "The Best of Malaysia Travel Awards 2009" (as invented by a friend of mine) the hop-on-hop-off bus takes you on a handy tour of KLCC.

We started at Bingtang walk (KLs answer to Leicester Square but with better shops), in the Golden Triangle area of the City (near the Petronas Twin Towers shown in the pictures).

The bus took us down past the National Palace, the National Museum, the Bird and Butterfly Gardens (I had to resist getting off) and past the National Mosque (which is beautiful). We 'hopped' off at Independence Square for a few photographs and to mutter about why they no longer played cricket on the green there (possibly a health and safety issues but even so...). Then up to Raja Lut, the Indian area, where we hopped off more permanently.

The Indian area was amazing. Hindereds of shops selling fabric and ribbon (I've more than stocked up for Christmas wrapping purposes) and market stalls selling every kind of curry you could imagine. At one point we were handed a free plastic bag (and not a small one) of chicken rice porridge. Still roasting hot! I have no idea what we were meant to do we this (I smiled and put it in the bottom of the buggy - I now understand why people seem to like taking buggies shopping so much, its the storage space). Collecting free savoury porridge seemed to be a popular option, one man had about eight bags (no mean feat to carry all that!). My highlight was buying new sunglasses for GBP2. They are fabulous and I can afford to sit on them (which in itself means I am less likely to).

Through the Indian area to Central Market, an indoor market that is a mix of antique stalls, tourist tat and nice gift-type shops (incense burners and spa products). I resisted further shopping here although there was a beautiful antique jewellery box that I was very very tempted by. Hmm, maybe I can go back. Do you think they would trade in the non-antique one I bought at the HK market??

From Central Market on to China Town, a mass of stall selling every fake item you could ever imagine wanting. Watch, dvd, handbag, scarf. You name it, they can sell it. I was also, somewhat alarmingly, asked if I wanted a boyfriend. A few times. This was in the same tone as whether I wanted to buy a dvd. I wondered about asking if they had the same range for selection (for the dvds they have whole rooms full with every dvd you could ever want) but I decided that was probably a high risk strategy and politely declined. I declined the dvds too, in case you were wondering.

The 'you need boyfriend chat' reminded me of the conversation with the taxi driver on the way into the centre. His first enquiry was how many babies I had had (his words, not mine). He then expressed his sincere condolences for my being 30 and barren (he had had three babies by the time he was thirty). Somehow I kept a straight face and managed "we just haven't been blessed yet".

The other classic taxi-based conversations whilst in KL was "is it true that people in HK are so busy they eat while they are walking"...

The weekend was rounded off with a trip to a spa (bliss) and fun and games on the AirAsia plane...

Many thanks to the friends who took me around for the weekend, we had an ace time.

Right, I'd best get to work. I hope you are well.