Choosing a Honeymoon destination is not easy. You need to think of places undiscovered, places you will probably never go again, romantic places, interesting places, exotic places. Then there’s the other options to consider – budget, time, tsunamis…

Our original Honeymoon choice was Kenya, but after hearing the prices we quickly forgot that plan. Islands such as the Maldives and Mauritius, although beautiful, just didn’t appeal to us – we wanted sea and sun and sand yes, but we also wanted food and photos and adventure and culture. It was only after my parents suggested it, that Malaysia became an option, and then the only option.

Choosing the country was where my involvement ended, and Barry’s took over. He planned the entire thing from start to finish and, if I may say, did a bloody good job!

The itinerary was a surprise until the day we left, and because we managed to fit so much in I thought it best to break #therankinhoneymoon blog series up into bite size chunks.

So here goes; the first installment. Kuala Lampur.

‘I don’t sleep well in pla…’ was about all I managed to get out before I passed out and slept literally all the way from Joburg to Dubai. They will tell you planning a wedding is exhausting and they will tell you, you will sleep. They were right. From Dubai we caught another flight to Kuala Lampur and apart from sleeping most of the time as well we still managed to fit in copious amounts of GnTs – Emirates are not stingy with their cocktails.

Landing in Kuala Lampur you are greeted by…well, nothing. Its 9pm and you’re exhausted so apart from fruit stands selling dessert in egg shells and the striking humidity of the place, it all looks very ‘Joburg’. That is until you see it in the day.

Our first night was a on-event. By the time we managed to get to the hotel, check in and shower it was well after midnight Malaysia time and because we had been flying for around 23 hours we quickly fell into bed. Into a King sized 1000 thread bed at the Majestic nonetheless, but fall we did.

Breakfast at this hotel, and all the others, looked like something out of an all you can eat Malay buffet. Delicious!

Cue day 1 – the official start of Honeymoon and trying to impress me Barry suggests we go shopping. Our hotel transfer takes us to a shopping mall in a district called ‘Bukit Bintang’.

Sadly for me the cheapest shop was a Louis Vuitton, and apart from browsing and silently weeping at the things I could never afford (apart from a coveted Urban Decay ‘Naked’ eye shadow palette from Sephora, of course) we left and explored the city.

The comparison between that side of the mall and a few kilometers away is incredible. Not far from the skywalks and air-conditioned malls lies the place we had been dreaming of leading up to the trip. Malaysia’s version of China Town is a heaving, sweating, steaming, foodgasmic mess of people, sights, sounds, cars and energy. Street food markets and massage parlors litter the streets and even though its frenetic and overwhelming, its also incredible to watch as each and every person, shop and stand has its place.

The well known street food market only opens up after 6 pm, so we grabbed lunch and explored some more before heading back to the Pavillion to get ready for our 7 pm Petronas Towers Tour.

A definite tourist trap but a must see – The Petrona Towers are an iconic landmark in Kuala Lampur and the price was semi-worth it to get to the top and get a birds eye vie of this vibrant city.

We made our way back to China Town – now having established that we had walked at least 15-20 kilometers that day – and wandered around. I found a luggage store to buy a backpack in and I’m so glad we popped in – there in his dog crate was the sweetest bulldog we had ever seen. His name was Tiger, and Barry and I spent 20 minutes playing with him in the back room much to the shop owners surprised delight.

Dinner in China Town is still one of our favourite meals from the trip. I based everything I ate from there on out on the Tom Yum soup I had and Barry’s word of the holiday became ‘Nasi Goreng meaning ‘mixed fried rice’. We also grew very fond (read fat) of the local beer ‘Tiger’. Alcohol in Malaysia is eye wateringly expensive (as we would soon discover at our next stop) and even a beer at a street market worked out to be R60.

Feet aching and bellys bursting we returned back to our hotels satiated, sweaty and sleep deprived.