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Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

This prize I remember winning like it was yesterday, it all started on a Friday night with a telephone call, similar to the New Zealand holiday I won as well. I got a call at six in the evening from a promotions company informing me I had won a holiday with Kellogg's Rice Crispie Squares to anywhere, from their chosen supplier up to the value of £2500. As you can imagine I was over the moon and Trish and I looked at the chosen supplier's website for somewhere to go, but everywhere was too expensive and would mean losing out on a great experience. The best place we could go was Cuba for seven nights, don't get me wrong this is still a great prize, but with £2500 you can see a lot of the world. So I contacted them and said I don't really fancy going to any of their chosen places is it possible to pick my own and they pay for it? After much deliberation they called me back and said they don't usually do it, but seeing that it was a large amount and Kellogg's were fine with it I could do it.

No I began to search the net and found Travelbag, who do mutli-centre holidays to anywhere in the world, and great value, happy days. I found an Asian holiday that had 3 days in Kuala Lumpur, 3 days in Cambodia and 9 days in Penang for £1250 each, the magical figure. So I called the promotions company and they kindly arranged payment and Travelbag got in touch to ask us our dates. We wanted to go for my birthday so we said anytime that had October 20th in it would be ideal. They got back and gave us the dates and we thought smashing all done, until they phoned back again and said there was a problem. Here we go we thought, but it was a good problem because they couldn't get us on the plane going home at the scheduled time and had to "make us stay an extra night", they apologised but we weren't bothered an extra night in paradise, 16 nights now instead of 7 in Cuba.

We did all the our research on the internet about what to take and as usual ended up taking too many clothes that we didn't wear; so now we have decided next time we go to Asia we are only going to take minimal luggage and buy our clothes there. We flew with Etihad and had to stop in Abu Dhabi so this broke up the journey, but it also meant changing some money into dirhams to get a drink and something to eat at the airport. We were told we could leave the airport and go and have a look around the city, but we didn't fancy visiting somewhere late at night just to kill an hour or so. After our stop it was back onto the plane for the short hop to Kuala Lumpur and the waiting taxi driver with a sign that sort of resembled my name and on to the hotel.

The Hotel Istana Kuala Lumpur was a high rise building, we were on the 14th floor and like most buildings nearby were overlooked by the "Petronas Towers" but had great views at night. We decided to go back out and have a look around for an hour or so, as soon as we left the lovely air conditioned hotel we were met by a wall of heat that suddenly made beads of sweat run down most parts of your body. We decided to walk down one of the many main roads always taking note which way the towers where as a point of reference in case we got lost. After about 200 metres we saw the night markets starting to arrive and set up, we decided to come back later and see what was on offer.

After returning to the hotel and getting changed we decided to have a better look at this night market and the many other ones dotted around the sprawling capital. The one thing that seemed to be abundant in the market was watches and designer bags, I treated myself to a Tag Heur, longines and Patek Phillipe all for the princely sum of £20 and I think I was over charged. Trish got a lovely Cartier and another funky watch that worked for ages after we got home, mine went through more batteries than the bunny the Duracell bunny takes on. After something to eat we had another stroll around the stalls near the hotel, then decided to go back to the hotel and get some rest as we were tired from the flight.

Next day we wanted to go up the towers but you had to queue early in the morning to get tickets and only so many were allocated, so someone in the hotel put us in touch with someone who would do this for us for a price. We thought it was a great idea, no getting up at 6 and standing around, although it did cost us about £40 and then he was a bit miffed because we didn't give him a tip on top for the £40 he has just made on the "Free tickets".

So we decide to go up the other major tower in KL (Kuala Lumpur) "The Menara Kuala Lumpur Tower" which was just around the corner so to speak from the hotel. You wouldn't have guessed it was that near by the time we arrived, it was baking hot and we seemed to be walking in treacle because it took ages to get there. Once there it was worth it, the views were spectacular 360 degrees showing all of KL sprawling out and best of all you can see the Petronas Towers from another point of view.

Once we had seen everything we walked to the local air conditioned Mall, five minutes away to have some lunch and get out of this fierce heat. On entering the mall they were giving out free samples of ice cream, I don't usually like ice cream but seemed a good idea in the heat of the moment, pardon the pun. So I gratefully took the ice cream and took a lick and immediately spat it out on the floor in front of the ice cream lady, I couldn't help myself, Trish was laughing while scoffing down her ice cream, it was the dreaded Durian fruit. It took ages to get this horrible taste out my mouth, but beer seemed a good way to do it over a light lunch while watching the good people of KL go about their way.

In the evening we went for a stroll and about 100 metres away from the hotel we stumbled across an area that was full of restaurants and packed with people all searching for some wonderful Asian food. We eventually settled on a place to eat and sat down outside and the owner came out and asked us what we wanted, we just pointed at the menu and in the time it took us to marvel at all the superheroes someone had stuck to the wall, the food arrived piping hot and delicious. After a couple of more beers we decided to have a stroll round to see what was going on, the market was in full flow selling anything to anyone, the traffic was still as bad as ever and the heat was bearable now . We returned to the hotel to get a good night sleep so we could enjoy visiting the Petronas Towers which were now lit up and visible from ours and every other hotel room in the city.

The next day we went to the Petronas Towers and took in the great views it had of the whole city and walked across the bridge that links the two towers. After an hour or so we decided to go and explore the city more and take in a few sites, after all the towers were worth a visit but there is only so much you can see and do stuck up in the air. We thought it was best to go back to the hotel and freshen up before we went back out, and what could be better than getting the overhead train that stopped right outside the hotel, wrong move. As we were standing on the platform more and more people would arrive till there was no space at all, and everyone jockeying for position to get by the trains doors when it arrived. There was a mad scramble to get on with everyone pushing each other out the way, Trish and I managed to finally get on to the now packed out train. Four stops later, we had to fight to get off it now, with only seconds before the door closes, it was a close thing but we got off and vowed never to use it again.

After freshening up from the train ordeal and the sweltering heat, we went out to get something to eat, one thing about KL there is plenty of restaurants to eat at. After having another nice meal we decided to go and look through the market again and face the watch and bag sellers once more, it's like street theatre and all good fun.

We decided we would visit the butterfly park the next day, which was on the other side of town, so we called for a taxi. The taxi driver was as racist as you can get, he loved everything British but hated all the immigrants that were coming into "his" country. He told us many stories like taxi drivers the world over, but with racist undertones for which he was proud of saying.

After pointing out many of the places he didn't like and the English cricket field which he did, we eventually reached the butterfly park and after being in an air-conditioned car, it was like Dante's Inferno outside. The park was quite small but worth a look, and it doesn't take long to go round it, which is a bonus because next to it about 5-10 minutes away is the bird park.

The bird park is the largest free flight walk in aviary in the world and is massive, 20 acres so there is plenty to see here. There are other animals there too, like monkeys and reptiles and they do shows during the day with the birds, the land on you and you get to have your picture taken. After we had walked around the scorching hot park, (make sure you wear a hat) we went to visit the reptile house, as we were walking up the stairs there was a giant stationary lizard that wasn't moving for anyone. After stepping over the lizard we went in to see the snakes, some were beautiful and one we saw was the most bad tempered creature you are likely to see. We were staring at it through the glass and all the time it was hissing and spitting constantly that we made a sharp exit through the gift shop.

Next day it was the short flight over to Cambodia and the grandeur that is Angkor Wat.