Wow, I’m 30! was my first thought when I was woken at 9am this morning by Merv jumping on me and wishing me a Happy Birthday and tossing me a present wrapped from the middle pages from his Zoo Magazine!

Hmmm half naked ladies is not exactly what I wanted to see while half asleep and wanting to go back to sleep BUT I wasn’t expecting anything at all so I had to laugh at his efforts as being on this trip with him was gift enough for me, so I opened my present to find a pink stylus pen for my iPad and iPhone (so I could draw better in DrawSomething – an app Nikky got me addicted too).

So I used my new stylus and do my usual thing and logged onto Facebook to read all the lovely birthday messages from my friends and family and one from my mum that was so beautiful it brought tears to my eyes and made me miss her more.

I decided for a lazy lazy day as we were planning to go on the Hop on Hop Off Bus and just take an easy trip around the City to see all the sights from an air conditioned coach so we got ready and left and had a yummy local coffee at a local cafe.

While drinking our coffees we watched hundreds of people walking by in protest on there way to Meleka Square where the were holding some demonstration for some political government thing about what, we have no idea. So we decided to walk in the opposite direction to the tourism centre after a taxi driver we hailed refused to take us to the Tourism Centre to get the Hop On Bus.

Upon getting there we find out that due to the Protest and roads being blocked the Bus was not running for the day so we decided to get out of the city and headed to the zoo.

It was about a 25 minute taxi ride to the National Zoo of Kuala Lumpur and we paid 35 RM for the entrance to the Zoo. We decided to get something to eat as we hadn’t had breakfast yet so while Merv went and got a cup of hot buttered corn, I went to the little food stop and ordered some local Thai Fried Rice and had to laugh when the lady handed me a bag of French Fries! (I guess my Engrish isn’t very good). So I went and got a cup of corn too. (She got my order correct this time)

After the fiasco with Merv and his bag of fruit at the Batu Caves I decided to eat my corn before leaving the food area just in case there were those horrible wild monkeys.

First up were Giraffes and then Indian Elephants which I got to feed him a Sugar Cane stick that he gulped in one loud crunch, which is really cool and we made our way around the huge Zoo seeing the lion, tiger, bears, birds, cows, deers and everything in between until we made our way to the primates and found THE cutest and smallest little Macaque Monkey that we both fell in love with and stayed to watch for about 20 minutes.

This little thing was almost too small and surreal he (we could tell it was a HE because his little boy bit was almost as big as him and you couldn’t miss it) didn’t look real, he was bald and was maybe only a few weeks old but was flinging himself around and jumping and climbing like he had been doing it forever but we couldn’t stay forever and had to leave and head home and rest before heading out for my birthday dinner.

We both had headaches by the time we got back to the room from the heat and the walking and probably the lack of food and water for the day so we rested (Merv napped) and then got ready to head out for the night.

We started our night at the Traders Hotel Sky Bar, that I heard from a friend and read in a guide book has a fantastic night view of the city and the Petronas Twin Towers.

The hotel was amazing and modern and the Sky Bar was on the roof set around a pool with jacuzzis on the side and the view was Magnificent so we ordered a couple Mai Thais, garlic bread and some really scrumptious curry puffs.

A couple drinks later and I noticed that the bar staff had turned down the fan that was above us and I was really hot and was about to ask them to turn it back up when from around the corner the bar staff guy walks holding a chocolate brownie with a candle lit singing happy birthday! I was so shocked and had no idea how Merv had managed to organize it and it was the best chocolate brownie ever that I didn’t want to share it!

After we polished off the brownie had another drink and made our way to Bukit Bintang (passing a big huge shopping district which was called Times Square and had a shopping Mall on each corner – I’ll be back I promised it as we whizzed by) which is just a street full of bars and clubs and stopped for a meal first and Merv had another Chocolate Ganache Brownie because he claimed the menu said it was not to be missed.

Then we went to another bar where we sat on the street and watched all the people go by and got abit drunk. (Drunk enough for Merv to buy a laser light for 80 RM which is about $25 before we realized we got ripped off) and stumbled our way up the street to a hail a cab and stumble into the hotel and into our room sooooo tired we couldn’t keep our eyes open.

I couldn’t have asked for a better birthday and thank Merv from the bottom of my heart for giving it to me!