How to tackle Kuala Lumpur - divide and conquer

Scale model of Kuala Lumpur

Arriving in Kuala Lumpur it is very easy to be overwhelmed by the city's sheer size and the height of its colossal buildings. I know I was. For a start, the receptionist at the hotel welcomed me and said that my bedroom was on the 14th floor and I looked out of the window at the sprawling city beyond.

It became quite apparent from this moment on that I would have to work out a plan to tackle the city, otherwise I was going to end up feeling lost, tired and that I hadn't seen everything I wanted to. Getting a decent map was the first step, as those in the guidebook simply didn't offer enough detail.

By cross referencing the book and map I could work out what I wanted to see. With just three and a half days at my disposal I needed to be clever about travelling around KL. So, I decided to divide the city into sections and tackle one at a time, ticking off everything that I wanted to do in one area, before moving onto the next.

This meant that I didn't have to spend ridiculous amounts of time navigating KL's complicated public transport system nor dedicate hours walking to and from various areas of the city multiple times. There was just one place that was an exception to this rule and that was Jalon Alor - I returned to this famous food street on three separate occasions - after all, it would be silly to eat anywhere else.

View from Merdeka Square

Merdeka Square area

My first full day in KL was spent in the Merdeka Square area and I have to admit that it was a good introduction. I walked there, soaking up the atmosphere of the city along the way and stopping off at the Masjid Jemek Mosque. I was furnished with a lilac hijab at the entrance in order to explore the cool white marble structure without causing offence.

This part of the city is full of stunning buildings and the contrast between the old in the foreground with the ultra modern Petronas Towers and KL Tower poking out from behind makes for an interesting comment on development. My best recommendation for this area is the City Gallery, which is free to visit and full of interesting exhibits.

There is also a scale model of Kuala Lumpur, which makes the centrepiece of an impressive light show. In a darkened room a presentation begins and each part of the city is lit up as it is mentioned in the audio. This even goes for the routes the public transport takes. This gave me a greater insight into the place, but also the daunting task at hand - trying to make the most of my time here.

The ARCH workshop housed within the gallery is also worth time pondering. Behind a large glass screen all the craftsmen and women are at work creating intricate models. A few of them have little boards stating their experience and area of expertise. I was particularly taken with a man who had been in the business for 22 years and spent his time making tiny models of the Petronas Towers.

Central Market

Central Market and Petaling Street

Two fantastic shopping opportunities, although totally different from each other, can be found to the south of the Merdeka Square area. These are the Central Market and Petaling Street. The market has been in existence since 1888 and is a fabulous place to buy souvenirs. I purchased a batiked kite for my boyfriend and some placemats, but had to bargain hard to get the price I wanted.

Meanwhile, Petaling Street is the knock-off capital of KL and it took a lot of will power to get through the crowds with everyone trying to flog me watches and bags. I did cave in the end and bought a replica Cath Kidston bag, as these appeared to be everywhere.

Petronas Towers

Central business district and Batu Caves

Getting up at 6am may not appeal to everyone, but it was totally worth it to set off across the city and join the queue for the Petronas Towers. Only a certain number of tickets are available to ascend the mighty structure, so getting in line is a must. I opted to go up as soon as possible and was adopted by a lovely mother and daughter from South Africa, who helped me get some photos from the Skybridge, which links the two towers together, and the 86th floor. Visitors cannot go up the the top floor - number 88 - as this is reserved for the office of the chief executive officer of Petronas, or so I'm told.

Unfortunately it is difficult to get a good shot of the whole structure from below, as you can't get far enough away, because the area is pretty built up. This wasn't too much of a problem for Hector, however, as he can be held up, so I managed to get the tops of both towers in for his photos.

There wasn't much else I had identified I wanted to do in the central business district of KL, so I used the second half of this day to head out of the city to the Batu Caves. For this I managed to get my head around the public transport and traversed the city by monorail, then took a train out to the site. You can tell which platform at KL Sentral the trains to the Batu Caves go from, as it is the one teeming with tourists - this should have been my first clue.

The Batu Caves are a bizarre mixture of stunning natural caverns, traditional Hindu temples and tacky tourist souvenirs for the hordes of visitors. It was certainly an experience, but a strange one at that. The highlight for me was seeing the monkeys stealing the flowers from the temples to eat.

Orchid and Hibiscus Garden

Lake Gardens

Not flying out until late in the evening, my third and final day in KL was spent exploring the leafier area of the city to the west of the centre, which is full of interesting parks and gardens. One of the main attractions is the Kuala Lumpur Bird Park, which prides itself on being the biggest free flying aviary in the world. While some of the birds are free to roam, others are in enclosures. No doubt the larger birds would eat the smaller ones if they were all allowed to go where they pleased. As well as flamingoes, peacocks and macaws, the stunning hue of the scarlet ibis really stood out, as did the hornbill.

The Orchid and Hibiscus Garden was beautiful and very extensive, with every variety of these two flowers you could possibly imagine. An interesting display in the centre of the gardens explains the significance of the hibiscus rosa sinensis or the Bunga Raya, as it is known in Malay, which is the national flower.

An extraordinary friendship that spans continents

When I was 16 I had the misfortune of having my appendix removed in Vietnam. The unexpected side effect of the surgery was an unusual friendship that has now lasted longer than a decade and spans continents.

The trip I was on at the time that my appendix decided to stop behaving and earn the attention it had always craved was organised through school. As well as a group of my peers, two teachers accompanied us on the jaunt and one of those was my English teacher, who stayed with me in hospital throughout the surgery and my recovery.

It is amazing how such an experience cements a relationship and at the time we agreed we would have to be friends forever. The days were spent answering quiz questions from the Weakest Link quiz book and drinking juice made from the most exotic fruits imaginable.

So far we have remained true to our promise and despite no longer living in the UK, I consider my former English teacher among my dearest friends. This is why my forthcoming trip to Malaysia is such a special one, as it is an opportunity to spend some quality time with Ms O'Farrell talking at 100-miles-per-hour and keeping that promise alive.

You see Ginnie (we dispensed with the formalities a long time ago) now lives in Penang and I will spend the first week of my holiday staying with her and her family. As well as an opportunity to explore what is said to be a fascinating location and one that is well tipped by the experts at present, it will be a proper catch-up session.

Since those days in the early noughties in the North East of England, Ginnie has lived in El Salvador, Istanbul and now Penang, raising her daughter. Apart from a trip to Turkey to visit her several years ago, our friendship has survived on annual visits that last half a day and the exchange of Christmas cards.

The chance to spend hours talking about books, writing, travel and all the things that mean 12 years down the line we keep in touch is one that I am relishing. And that is why this trip to Malaysia means so much to me.

Preparing to pack

It is something of a Dodd tradition to start packing for a trip well in advance. It usually starts several weeks prior to departure with items being laid out on the spare bed. Over the course of the next few weeks more and more clothes, chargers, suntan cream and the rest get added until eventually everything you can possibly think of is laid out.

My dad did this back in February before he and my mum set off for Vietnam and everything was packed up and in his backpack four days before they were due to leave. They hadn't thought to find out what their Skype password is (having not used it for a year), but that's another story.

While we all mocked my dad at being overly organised, I have to confess that I indulge in the same activity before I go away. So about a week ago I started to lay out all my bits and pieces, slowly adding to it as I thought of things.

I tried to encourage my other half to adopt the same approach when he was preparing to head off to South America a couple of years ago. But alas, Healys are not Dodds and simply do not work in the same way. After a week of encouraging him to put everything he would need on the spare bed I went in two days before departure and there were three pairs of underpants and a toothbrush.

But I digress. So with a week to go until I set off for Malaysia the pile on the sofa bed in the spare room is getting larger. It is a while since I have done a trip such as this one, so I am trying to remember exactly what I will need. I have treated myself to new walking shoes and a lightweight jacket, as well as the usual holiday paraphernalia of flop flips and sun cream.

My sister (once a Dodd, now a Dixon) jokes that I pack so lightly that I don't even take a towel and this is true. Towels are large unwieldy items that are simply not suited for travel. They take up far too much room and too much water, meaning they are never dry by the time you wish to leave. I always take a sarong - big enough to wrap me up in my entirety and tries in a fraction of the time - in my mind it's a no-brainer.

You see I like to have all the bases covered, but hate carrying a huge bag. Over the years I have found that the most annoying thing when travelling is to have too much luggage. It makes it difficult when moving on, tires you out in the heat and impedes your flexibility. Instead of being able to jump on a local bus with a little backpack, you need to get a taxi or another form of transport.

It is unusual to feel the same level of frustration at not having an item as the one I get when I am carrying around something that I haven't used. If I take a backpack that is too big, there are simply items at the bottom that never see the light of day.

This is why the stage of my packing process before putting everything into my backpack is whittling down what I need. After a week and a half of gathering things together I can look at them on the bed and systematically work through them deciding what is truly necessary. I can also cross reference items of clothing, working out which ones can multitask and therefore make others superfluous to requirements.

It is in this way that I will whittle down my luggage to the minimum and hopefully achieve my aim of taking only hand baggage on my trip to Malaysia. This will cut down on the time spent hanging around at the airport and that agonising moment when you are stood next to the luggage carousel and there are no more bags coming and you still haven't got yours.

This feeling of unease is only heightened when you are travelling on your own and therefore have no companion with whom to share clothes while the airline attempt to track yours down. For the first three days of my solo adventure in Croatia some years ago, I had only the emergency essentials the airline deigned to give me and the clothes I stood up in.

The essentials pack from Alitalia included a one-size-fits-all tent - sorry I mean T-shirt - some slippers and an interesting selection of cosmetics and feminine hygiene products. I now know that if I do check a bag in, then a change of clothes strategically placed in the hand luggage is an absolute necessity. Nobody wants to be wearing bargain basement Croatian multipack pants for the first three days of their holiday!

So the question is this - will I have struck the perfect balance of bringing just what I need and no more? Or will I find myself desperately missing something I should have packed while another item languishes at the bottom of my backpack? Fingers cross it's not the latter!

A day at Destinations: The Holiday and Travel Show 2014

Travelling to London from the North East in the middle of a Tube strike may not seem like the most sensible idea in the world, but it was worth it for the Destinations travel show, which ran from February 6th to 9th. My journey from King's Cross to Earl's Court involved waiting 45 minutes at Victoria for a very packed Tube and being spewed out at an unexpected station, due to mine being closed, but I still managed to make it on time.

Thursday February 6th started well with a press breakfast hosted by No 1 Traveller, which has airport lounges at Heathrow, Gatwick and Manchester, among others. As well as complimentary bucks fizz, pain au chocolat and a relaxing massage, this also gave me the chance to chat to some fellow travel journalists.

The show itself was a useful opportunity to meander among the stands and soak in all things travel-related. I stopped by the Malaysia tourism stand to get inspiration for my upcoming trip in March and chatted about the possibilities for trekking to hill stations on a jaunt from Kuala Lumpur.

An impressive array of photographs were also on display for the Wanderlust Travel Photographer of the Year award. It is amazing to see the incredible skill with which people can capture the world around us.

While the stands are nice to wander around and it is great to get freebies, such as Mundy the penguin, the real draw of the show is the lectures given by specialists in their respective fields. It is these sessions that really fire the imagination and get you thinking about all the destinations yet to explore.

The definite highlight of this year's event was listening to Simon Reeve live in conversation with Paul Goldstein of Exodus. The TV presenter and author has an impressive back catalogue of experience and programmes that have taken him across the globe. So popular was this event that people crowded into the area, standing and sitting on the floor to hear what he had to say.

He spoke every day at the show, but the great thing about formatting such an appearance as an interview means each time will have been different. Questions from the audience also helped to move the conversation in new directions, keeping it interesting for him as much as anyone else.

It is not surprising that proceedings began by talking about Reeve's most recent project, entitled Pilgrimage, in which he visited some of the most important religious sites in the world. He confessed that his favourite part of filming the series was arriving at Santiago de Compostela, which marks the end of the famous Camino route through Spain.

Reeve also spoke of the fact that Jerusalem is much smaller than you would imagine for a place of such huge significance for people all over the world. He joked about those who know him poking fun at the overuse of words such as 'amazing' during his programmes, but highlighted the importance of presenters just saying 'wow' and allowing the cameraman to span out and take in the beauty of the place, as this is what the viewers really want to see.

Another area that Reeve spoke about during the session was the protection he feels when filming due to a highly competent team surrounding him. This is something that it is important not to become complacent about, as he went on to explain.

On an occasion when he was filming with a scientist who collects the venom from box jellyfish in Australia, there was another danger present - crocodiles. An expert was on hand to ensure that the creatures did not get too close, but nobody should stay in the water too long, as the crocodiles become aware of their presence and start to circle.

Reeve was intent on getting the shots with the scientist when the expert said he should get out of the water. The presenter protested and said he just wanted to get a bit more footage. He was manhandled by the crocodile watcher and pushed to safety, at which point Reeve was reminded of the fact that "the crocs don't know we're from the BBC" - a vital thing to remember.

Another fascinating series that Reeve presented was called the Places That Don't Exist, which explored nations that are not recognised by the UN. These include Somaliland and Transnistria, which lies on the border between Moldova and the Ukraine.

His comments about this unofficial country really sparked my interest, especially as I had not seen the series myself. On returning home I looked further into Transnestria and popped what I found on Twitter, putting both Reeve and one of my colleagues into the tweet. To my great surprise, Reeve retweeted me with a little reply, which made my week. Safe to say, all the retweets and favourites made the post the most well publicised I have ever had!

Fans of Reeve's work will be interested to know that his next project is to be on sacred rivers. Another fascinating subject, I'm sure you will agree and one that has already taken him to the Ganges and will see him visit other waterways, such as the Nile.

I went on to attend talks about the Galapagos by Richard Furlong of Furlongs Travel and Namibia by Wilderness Safaris. Both were inspirational and made me want to grab my passport and set off right away. The Galapagos is somewhere that has been on my wish list for a long time, although that is where it may stay for a while, looking at the prices.

Namibia is one of the destinations that I was lucky enough to visit as a child with my family. The images of Fish River Canyon and the Namib desert brought back so many memories. As the representative said: "Go to Namibia and if you have already been, go again." Sounds like a good idea to me.

Bullfighting and the Ban.

Ecuador have just finalised the questions for a referendum due to be held later in the year, which include the issues of cockfighting and bullfighting.
Bullfighting in many forms takes place in nine countries across Europe and Latin America. Its future is uncertain, however, as more and more countries are starting to look at their laws and whether animal cruelty issues should take precedent over tradition.

A major blow has been dealt to the blood sport's fans, as Spain, the home of bullfighting has now ruled live fights cannot be broadcast on state television before 10pm. This is the time of the watershed and it has been decided children should not be able to watch such animal cruelty.

The running of the bulls, such as that of San Fermin in Pamplona, can still be shown, but not the fights, which generally start at six or seven o'clock in the evening. So is it possible to moderate some aspects of the practice and allow others to continue?

In Costa Rica bull fights take place, but it is illegal to kill the bull. This could be considered more humane, but does make it less of a spectacle. The issue of drugging the bulls and shaving their horns has also come to light in recent years.

In a watered down version of the famous Pamplona running of the bulls in Granada, Nicaragua I saw people running through the streets ahead of a tired old bull. In an attempt to keep with tradition the community staged the event, with a bull more inclined to sit down in the street and have a rest, than make headlines by goring a participant to death.

Bullfighting is inherently bloody and gory - something it is hard to get away from. And this is why more and more societies are questioning whether to allow its practice to continue.

Every town in Spain has its own bull ring and it has always been an important part of the country's cultural identity. Huge cut outs of bulls populate Spain's landscape and famous matadors are household names.

Standing on the Monte Gibralfaro in Malaga I remember looking down on the town and seeing the distinctive shape of the bullring. I young matador was practicing with a cast iron representation of a bull on wheels. He elegantly swooped and moved around the arena practicing his moves.

But Catalonia have already decided to ban the sport from 2012 and it is hard to believe it will survive in the rest of the country for much longer. Now the questions are starting to be asked, action will surely follow.

Has this bull had its day?

A World of Trains

It's ironic that I read about Spain's new high speed rail link between Madrid and Andalucia on a delayed service to Manchester. The new service, which was officially opened in December puts Spain at the top of high speed rail services in Europe. Even so, France is not far behind it and in fact, I have always had very good experiences of rail travel all over Europe.

As train travel is set to get even more expensive in this country it's embarrassing to think just how unreliable it is. In 2007 I embarked on five weeks of rail travel around Eastern Europe. The trip was great and travelling by train really makes you feel like you've travelled. My friend Rebecca and I flew to Prague and undertook a huge loop taking in Hungary, Romania, Russia, Latvia and Poland to name but a few of the countries we visited. When we got back to the airport in Prague to fly home we looked at the departure board and saw many of the destinations we'd visited. "Oh," said Rebecca, "we could have just flown." But the truth of the matter is that in going overland we saw much more of the countries we visited, met some very interesting people and had a real sense of achievement from our travels.

By the time we got to Russia, the signs on the trains were translated into three languages, none of which were even vaguely recognisable t0 us and not even in Roman script. Nothing else makes you feel quite so far away from home. Standing in front of the iconic St Basil's Cathedral in Red Square almost exactly midway through our trip I felt like a great adventurer - after all it had taken numerous train journeys to get there, some of which lasting over ten hours.

Having been to Africa and the Americas this wasn't the furthest away from home I'd ever been geographically, but it certainly felt like it was. Sitting telling ghost stories on a night train through Transylvania; cramped in a carriage full of farmers who spoke no English, but offered to share their food with us in Northern Romania; and nursing Rebecca through a bout of food poisoning in the Ukraine all added to the experience.

And the truth of the matter was this: not a single train on our trip was delayed. Never did we experience technical problems, crew shortages or the like. In fact, the only time I was delayed the whole summer was when I was taking the train from Newcastle back to Wales. There were delays, I missed connections and the air conditioning broke down. Maybe this country could learn a thing or two from trains on the continent. Some high speed rail services in countries like Spain offer a money back guarantee which means passengers delayed for more than five minutes get a full refund. That sounds pretty impressive to us in a country where being delayed for only five minutes is considered a rare good journey.

All over the world high speed rail is being invested in with Japan and the United States enjoying reliable services. When train travel is that good, there is less need for people to fly. Surely a great thing in a time when the world should be looking to cut its carbon emissions. I love to travel by train, I just wish it wasn't such an epic hassle in this country. And perhaps there is hope for the future as public consultation about a high speed rail route between London and Birmingham is due to start in February. The line would then be extended north to Manchester and Leeds. It's about time Britain came into line with the rest of Europe.

Two to Tango

When you get to the end of the world there's only one way you can go and that's north. (Technically, there is Antarctica, but that requires a sturdier bank balance than I've ever had.) After a second unscheduled stop in Rio Gallegos, where we arrived at one o'clock in the morning to find large groups of people exiting a very popular concert and thus having to stay in an expensive room, we journeyed to El Calafate. The town is pleasant and situated on one shore of Lake Argentina, but its main function for tourists is as a place from which to visit the spectacular Glaciar Perito Moreno.

Why name a glacier Small Brown Dog(?) my Spanish speaking friends may ask. Well, Perito Moreno was in fact the nickname of great Argentinian explorer Pedro Moreno. He did not discover it however, that was a friend of his, who named the glacier after him and the aforemention Moreno never even saw the collosal ice mass. Moreno must have been a pretty popular guy, as the glacier was the first of three Perito Morenos we came across as we headed north, the other two being a town and a railway station.

We took a boat on the lake and had great views of the intricate blue peaks and crevices, but it wasn't until we walked in the National Park that we could hear the mighty glacier creak and groan as it calved massive blocks of ice from its perimeter with the lake. The glacier is immense and seeing those bergs come away makes you feel very small. I really enjoyed Perito Moreno, but it is a tourist attraction with bus loads of people going to see it. Several days later when walking in the mountains around El Chalten we climbed up to another, smaller glacier, I was reminded that it is a natural phonomenon, created by nature, and not just something put there for tourists to goggle at and Argentinians to make money from. Seeing the smaller glacier, surrounded by mountains, almost tucked away and with only half a dozen other people there, I was reminded how awestruck I was when I first saw Perito Moreno.

El Chalten is a tiny city, nestled amongst the mountains in the Fitzroy range, which mainly just caters to the number of tourists that come to climb the surrounding peaks. It is Argentina's youngest city with only 800 occupants and was only made official in order to secure the claim on the land over Chile. On our first evening there we walked around, getting our bearings and went to take a look at the school in an attempt to see how many children go there. As we stood outside the caretaker came and asked if we were there for the tango lesson? We said we weren't, but he invited us in to take photos. Before we knew it we were ingratiated into the group and taking our first tango steps. For some reason in Latin America I am always picked upon to demonstrate dancing, in Cuba and Costa Rica it was the same, and I was chosen to demonstrate some tango! After the lesson we spent the evening in the company of the tango teacher and some of his pupils at a local bar, where a friend was singing tango. As is common in Argentina the evening ended late and we found ourselves heading back to our hostel in the early hours of the morning, only to find the door locked. After much knocking, the tango teacher set off his car alarm and someone else called the police. This did not rouse anyone and in the end we woke up a fellow guest by knocking on a dormitory window. Luckily she wasn't too surprised and let us in.

We really enjoyed our stay in El Chalten, drinking homemade bitter hot chocolate in the Chocolateria that looks deserted from the outside, but is a haven inside and getting lots of walking done. I found a great walking partner in Manon, a Dutch girl who was travelling solo and walked at the same pace as me. On our trek up to Laguna de la Torre I gave her a Spanish lesson and tested her all the way down. She learnt really well. At the time I didn't realise that I would later see her put it to good use when we travelled together in Chile. One morning I got up early to join Kevin, a American guy to see the sunrise. He has travelled extensively in South America and was travelling back to the places he has loved before. He had been getting up early every moring to try and get a perfect shot of the sun making the Fitzroy mountains pink. Because of the weather it only happens once or twice a month. He was convinced that that morning was going to produce the results he was waiting for. We waited and waited and nothing happened. As we walked away and I was taking a photo of the rather standard, but nice sunrise he suddenly noticed that a tiny piece of the mountain range had turned pink. As we ran back to our viewing spot the mountains grew pinker and pinker - truly beautiful and after five minutes they were back to the brown they were earlier, as if the morning light had never transformed them into such a spectacle.

Travelling up the West side of Argentina is no easy task, due to the famous Ruta 40. Ruta 40 is famous due to its huge distances, bad surface and few buses. Travel must be planned well in advance and takes a lot of time to get anywhere. We travelled from El Chalten up to El Bolson over two days, stopping at the aforementioned town of Perito Moreno overnight and spending a total of twenty four hours on that bumpy road. As we boarded the bus in El Chalten, I reached up and put our bag of food that we carry around with us on the luggage rack above my head. It slipped onto its side and a pile of dried spaghetti rained down onto my head, much to the amusement of my fellow passengers. Before we had even started our two day epic trip north with these people I had already gained a reputation! But none of them seem to have held it against me, as several of them met up with us a few days later in Bariloche to celebrate my birthday.