Day 5: Kuala Lumpur,🌤️, 30°

Batu Caves!

Today was always going to be about a morning visit to the Batu Caves.

Last night instead of wandering into the city centre to see the lights, we made the smart decision to figure out how the KL metro system works.

We walked to a local metro station and after descending into the bowels of the earth we spoke with the information guy. We actually spoke with him 3 times.🙄 He was very patient and explained things well, perhaps we just listened a bit poorly! He directed us to a different line (red) to connect with the main blue line which would run us out to the caves more efficiently than our original plan. Perfect. Mission accomplished we stopped at a convenience store on the way back to our apartment to pick up a cold drink. A cool shower and it was off to bed!

This morning, as per our plan, we were up and into breakfast fairly early. We had read that the Caves were better explored in the morning because of the crowds. The breakfast was immense and super varied. It felt like we were staying at a resort! I tried more of the Malaysian food and discovered a few winners. The loser was the tea service which was served in a massive unheated urn. Not very good, and I was informed that I’d have to pay more for a small pot of tea which I stubbornly declined. The whole thing was odd. Huge amounts of coffee, no tea in a tea producing country no less. Tomorrow I will splurge for tea!😂

Breakfast behind us, we were eagerly out the door and heading for the metro. It was a glorious sunny morning.

Arriving at the metro station we used our small bills to purchase two tokens from the machine (no credit cards permitted), and went deeper into system to find our train.

Once at the central metro station we tried to purchase tickets for the blue line, but their visa payment system was so slow that tapping from my phone timed out and we couldn’t complete the transaction. This happened at two different ticket windows. We tried a ticket machine, but that too ended in utter failure. Not prepared to give up quite yet, we spoke with the information desk and the woman actually came out from behind the counter, and using her own credit card, she purchased our return tickets. We gave her cash and thanked her. We find when travelling that someone often steps up to help out in most places if one just asks nicely. Not always, but generally.

Finally on the blue line the train crawled out to the Batu Cave site in seemingly slow motion. However, we finally make it and we set off into what we think are the main caves. They aren’t.

A little bit about the Batu Caves before I continue. I copied this from a Lonely Planet article;

Guarded by a monumental statue of Hindu deity Lord Murugan, the Batu Caves are a Malaysian national treasure and an unmissable day trip from Kuala Lumpur. These limestone caves harbour Hindu temples where dioramas of mythic scenes glow beneath stalactites, bats flutter in the shadows, and monkeys prey on tourists hiking the 272 stairs to Temple Cave.

I couldn’t have said it better myself, except to say that, as will become evident, we climbed many more steps!

As I was saying, we thought that we were entering the main caves, but it turned out that we were first going to witness the Mystical beauty of Ramayana Cave. That’s right off the brochure!😅 We had to pay a small amount for this experience which should have been our first hint that we were not yet at the right place.

I’ve climbed through some stunning cave systems over the years, and this wasn’t really one of them because it has been so heavily modified for human use. That said, from a cultural and religious perspective, these caves were very interesting!

It was all a bit crazy.

We eventually found our way out of the Mystical Caves and across to the main event. On the way there were the usual hawkers and stalls selling stuff to the believers that one finds at many major religious sites. It adds to the flavour.

We knew that we would have to climb these stairs to enter the main chamber. It was definitely warm today.

Very soon the expected monkeys began to show up. Having dealt with them in Gibraltar and on Bali we knew they would be after just about anything that wasn’t tied down!😅 However, I had been looking forward to seeing them as they are loads of fun to watch, particularly the youngsters.

Moments later a monkey ripped an orange drink out of the hands of a young woman just in front of me. A fight erupted, but monkeys are pretty strong and in the end it was a short contest.

It’s a very impressive site when entering the first main chamber. There is a major temple on the left side and passage on the right for visitors to move on towards the last set of stairs.

This was quite the interesting experience! Well worth the time to travel out and back. Even on a hot day it was manageable. Lots of people resting on the climbs. I figured that after all the good food I’ve enjoyed that I could use the exercise!

Speaking of food, when we returned to the city we had a few things to do, including finding a late lunch. We ended up at a place in a huge mall. Lunch was shared spring rolls and a chicken and noodle bowl filled with spicy broth. All washed down with some tasty fruit juices.

While I’ve been writing, AM has been going through a painful process of trying to book our bus online for the day after tomorrow. Payments were repeatedly rejected on several online sites. I finally logged into my Wise cash account to find that the problem was. Turns out that they claim that they didn’t know we were in Malaysia!! I’ve been using their stupid card ever since arriving. Another lesson learned. No matter how silly it seems, I need to sign in to my online account each time I enter a new country.

We will shortly be going out to find dinner and to try to see the 8pm light show behind the Petrona Towers. Given that most of you are asleep in Canada, I might add a few photos before I go to bed. I like this date line thing!

Oh. I just looked out our 12th story window and it’s raining heavily. The weather apps are very sketchy here and often wrong, but they say that this will continue tonight and be fine in the morning. So I guess the light show will happen tomorrow night. Maybe room service tonight?

Thanks for following along. Hope you enjoyed this particular adventure Louise!

Geoff🕌🐲🌇