Selamat Datang: Day 1: Malaysian FA Cup final

I arrived around 3pm and made my way to the centre of KL, 70km from the airport, to check-in in Chinatown an area full of night life and a big daily market.

First of all the airport my Visa card wouldn't work, even though I called my bank the night before flying to check that it would. So with no cash and a Korean phone that didn't work overseas I turned on the roaming my on English phone which after a couple of attempts I got through to the hsbc...an anxious 30 minutes was over.

After finding the hotel I made my way to Bukit Jalil (the national sports stadium near KL that hosted the 1998 commonwealth games. I went there to watch the Malaysian FA Cup final between Kelantan (a team named representing the state of the same name) and Sime Darby (the underdogs).

I booked a ticket online and collected it at the stadium.

There is huge passion for football in Malaysia and everywhere there are Premier League shirts as well as people sporting the shirts of their own domestic clubs.

The stadium was full to bursting 30 minutes before kick-off with 100,000 fans all most all rooting for Kelantan. Outside the stadium there were hundreds of food and souvenir stalls. Inside the stadium is was a case of sit where every you like, they had a 'free seating' policy.

The quality of the game wasn't great, a 1-0 win for the favourites courtesy of a dubious penalty.

However the atmosphere was amazing.

There is a good video of the fans singing the national anthem below the pictures.

See pics below...

(yes some photos will be a little blurry, but it's not easy staying still when in that environment! :D)

Here is a video of the fans singing the national anthem before the game...quite something.

I have a couple of other videos of the game, including a super long distance one of the goal.

After negotiating the subway back to Chinatown I had some time to kill before the Champions League Final between Chelsea and Bayern Munich started. So time for some street food...