After struggling to find decent accomodation near our climbing spot we decided to look elsewhere and found Natashmn, a local Malay living beside the Batu Caves to Couchsurf with. She lived in this incredible brand new apartment towering 23 floors high overlooking the city of Kuala Lumpur. She welcomed us in like old friends, and we spent our first night with her and her friends discovering the local cuisine and discussing the stark contrasts in our cultures. The next morning we went climbing at Damai Wall, a beautiful limestone outcrop on the north side of Batu Caves. It was really well set up, and all kinds of ages and abilities climbed the towering cliff. We spent the day struggling up the rock, with muscles screaming after not being used for a number of months. That night we joined Nathasmn for dinner with her friends, this time a French/Malay couple and it turned out the French husband was also called Hugo. So the two Hugos (who also looked strangely alike!) jabbered away in French while we tried a muktitude of new foods in the local Indian restaurant.

Malaysia is a plethora of different cultures with the main being Malay, Indian and Chinese. Which in turn results in the most diverse food scene I've ever come across. We had the opportunity to eat in local Indian 'mama' restaurants, Chinese pop up restaurants, Malaysian food stalls, and markets showcasing everything together. It's an abundance of different flavours, spices and textures, and we often had our heads blown off us with the overpowering chili hidden in our dishes.

We spent the next week climbing at different crags in the area, meeting locals and the odd tourist passing through. It was a true local experience, climbing while the Muslim prayer powered out through loudspeakers five times a day. Local people gave us different foods and fruits to try and markets often handed us free foods watching in amusement as we tasted the new flavours.

In conversations between Malaysians, it was common to hear two or more languages to be used in a normal conversation, regardless of the speakers’ mother tongue. Quite often, phrases from other languages are mixed, especially when people from different cultural heritages converse. With exposure to the national language Malay and the necessity of learning English, almost every Malaysian is naturally bilingual or even trilingual. While the local Chinese have a minimum of five languages under their belt.

As a break from the climbing one day we headed to hike a ridge on the edge of the city - Bukit Tabur West. It's unique in that the ridge divides the city from the jungle. With sheer drops on either side, the metropolis of KL to our left and the untouched jungle on our right. We were warned by some people that a few had died attempting the hike and you can understand how carelessness or inexperience would have you tumbling down the cliffs. But it was fine, we had no big issues, and loved the challenging scramble over the ridge.

With tired bodies we took a break from climbing and headed to the city centre for the weekend. We stayed in a little guesthouse in Chinatown and spent our first evening experiencing the buzz of Chinatowns famous street market. We met up climbers that we had made friends with during the week for a drink in Sky Bar that night. Possibly the fanciest bar we've been to, with glass windows overlooking the Petronas Towers, a swimming pool in the centre and fancy cocktails.

The next morning we continued with our extravagant lifestyle and headed for lunch in a restaurant in KL Tower. The restaurant stands at 400m and revolves while you eat so you can have a 360° view of the entire city. The food was delicious although we definitely ate too much, always too eager when it's an all you can eat buffet. To bring us back down to earth we visited the Federal Territory Mosque - the biggest mosque in Malaysia. We had a tour of the exquisite building, and learnt about the teachings and ceremonies of Islam. That night we headed out again and wandered upon a little bar called Pisco Bar which had great music, great people and a brilliant atmosphere. By the end of the night we knew the entire bar, a mixture of locals, expats and the odd tourist. Sunday was spent visiting Central Market and we also treated ourselves to a massage in Manjakaki Spa. Although it was torturous at the time, our muscles needed it after climbing all week.