The air is heavy with just spent rain steaming up through 30 degree heat while we wait for a grab car then take the hours’ drive to the city centre.

Back at The Robbertson Residence again, a fantastic building, we manage the self check in but find ourselves in an apartment that stinks of smoke, in fairness our host organises another place in minutes but we’ll need to move again tomorrow. By the time we’re settled it’s 8pm and with a days travelling and flying we’re too knackered to do anything but go downstairs to the Tandoor place outside. A great tandoor oven on the sidewalk, glowing with heat, the guy kneads our naans (oh-er!!), slaps them to the oven walls with two skewers of marinade chicken, two plates of Dhals and mint sauce, 4 quid the lot, plus a beer from the 7-11 next door which the guys very nicely (They’re Muslim and this is an hal-al establishment) allow us to tuck under our table and supply a couple of cups. Luxuriating in the balmy KL heat, tums full of tandoor chicken and freshly made naan bread, life is good, it’s not Bali, but it’s good.

We lurch, suffering from extreme heat exhaustion, into the Kuala Lumpur Sentral Mall and station. In typical Malay style a huge station complex linking airport shuttles, mono rail, LRT and intercity train network is mixed in with a shopping Mall spread over 6 floors, three of which seem dedicated to serving food. It’s a great place to people watch and we can reconnoitre as we need to leave from here for Penang in a few days time.

Most evenings we head for Jalan Alor, the food street where we can tuck into spicy La-las (Clams) to finish the day via the “Pub Street” as we’ve come to call it. The cricket world cup is in full swing and the atmosphere here is fantastic as most games are kicking of around 5:30 pm our time, so by 7:30 things are usually “kicking Off” and we have something like 2 dozen sports bars to choose from, all of which vie for our attention with a variety of ever more complex happy hour offers .... 3 beers all the same before 7pm 40 ringgit, after 7pm 42 ringgits, 3 beers mix and match between 7:45 and 8:30 45 ringgits, 2 wines 35 ringgits, 2 wines 1 beer and a packet of salt and vinegar provided you’re wearing red underpants 51 ringgits, take the price of 3 beers (all the same) or two beers (mix and match) add two wines (any colour) or 3 wines (one colour) divide it by the number of wickets Australia take in the first 4 overs and get a free pizza (any flavour except marinara) for marinara add 3 ringgits.

Although a Muslim country by and large, some larger supermarkets have a non halal section where we can buy a pack of bacon. Our Saturday treat here in KL? a bacon and brown sauce sandwich with freshly made sourdough bread from the bakery downstairs, I mean, where does your day go from there?

A week in KL goes very fast indeed and pretty soon we’re barrelling across the Kuala Lumpur traffic in a grabcab to KL Sentral to pick up our train to Penang.

The station is baffling, signs for The “Klia Ekspres” seem to point in every direction. Eventually a police officer takes mercy and points us to the one platform that appears to definitely not serve the “Ekspres” to Butterworth.... nonetheless there it is. We make our way to our seats. It’s another high 30° day in KL and the aircon on the train is comfortingly efficient..... for the first half hour, however, we have another 4 hours to go, it’s fucking freezing! We rummage through the rucksacks for scarves, towels, anything to cover extremities. Our pal Robyn-Lyn Wood had told us to expect cold but you could use this train to train polar explorers. Every time the thing stops we run for the exit and luxuriate in the heat roaring in through the train doors with the passengers.

Arctic temperatures notwithstanding it’s a pretty good trip and we arrive at Butterworth pretty much dead on time and make our way down two floors by escalator, up two floors by stairs, down two floors in an elevator, up 2 flights of stairs, cross a road, down into and up out of a subway, up a flight of stairs to a bridge across a road, down some steps to a covered walkway, to a ferry terminal where we’re charged 20 pence for the trip across the strait from mainland Malaysia to George Town, ancient capital of Penang, pearl of the orient. (We've now warmed up!)