From Singapore I flew to Kuala Lumpur. When I arrived it was raining and it carried on raining all evening. I was staying in a dorm room in Sunshine Bedz Hostel and was lucky enough to be put in a room with a really nice group of German girls. I joined them for a street food dinner, and then headed out for a drink in the evening.

The next day the weather had cleared up so I could go and explore the city. My first job was to purchase a bus ticket to my next destination. Apparently this is much more tricky in KL than it is in the rest of South East Asia, and involved me going to the actual bus station which was an hour away and involved two train journeys. After purchasing my ticket, I discovered I was only a couple of train stops away from Batu Caves, the site of three Hindu Temples. When I got to the caves I found that there were over 300 steps to climb first, and the stairs were overrun with aggressive monkeys. I watched as the monkeys attacked a ladies shopping bag, ripped it open and found a box of noodles, then I sneaked past while at least some of them were distracted. I wondered around the caves for a bit, took some photos and then took the train back to the city.

I spent the afternoon wondering around the orchid and hibiscus gardens, before stopping at China Town on my way home. In the evening I went to the Sky Bar, which is rumoured to have the best view of the Petronas Towers.

On the second day, I went to an photography exhibition at Petronas, focussing on city photography. It was very interesting and I spent an enjoyable couple of hours there. Then I went out to the park for lunch. While at the park, I decided to check that my bus ticket was still safe, only to find it had disappeared. I suddenly remembered throwing all of the bits of paper from my bag away the evening before, whilst packing. In a panic I ran back to the hostel, to find that the bin had been emptied. I then found the cleaner and eventually located the bag from my room. Every other piece of rubbish was in there, but no bus ticket. Resigned to paying for a second one, I went back to the park and sat in the sun.

In the evening I once again took the trains to the bus station, and got asked out on a date on the way by a Bangladeshi TV producer. I politely declined, with the valid excuse that I had no plans of returning to KL in the near future. I was panicking most of the way that the bus would be sold out by now, and I wouldn’t be allowed to travel. I arrived at the bus station an hour before my bus was due to leave and explained my stupid mistake. The lady quizzed me about when I purchased the ticket, who served me and what my seat number was. I couldn’t really answer her questions and eventually she sent me to sit on a seat. After about 50 stressful minutes she told me to follow her, and we went outside to where the buses were. She still hadn’t explained if I needed to buy another ticket, or if there was even a space on the bus. About ten minutes later she told me to get on the bus and find a seat. Apparently I didn’t even need a new ticket. Some people are amazingly nice!!

I could finally relax, curl up on my seat and sleep through the night. Hurrah!!

• Kuala Lumpur