The stairs leading up to the caves
My last two nights in KL I was at a couchsurfing hosts place in Petaling Jaya. Ken was his name. Ken is a great person. He is of Chinese descent but his family has been in Malaysia for 600 some-odd years. He gave me a run down of his family history and his perspectives. He was very interesting and knowledgeable. The first night Ken had a number of his friends over, Johan, Yasser, Jasmine, Shawna, and another girl (I don’t know if I spelled all the names correctly) for dinner. Jasmine cooked the meal which was a combination of Chinese, Indian and Malay foods. It was yummy. What a gift.
Yum yum - dinner by Jasmine. The only problem I had is that they served it with fork and spoon so I couldn't figure out how to cut things - the spoon was kind of useless - so fingers it was.
Petaling Jaya is a sort of the other half of KL – the residential half. It was a bit out of town but all accessible by public transport. So the last day I had in KL I decided to visit the renowned Batu Caves. These caves are a sacred place for the Indians of Malaysia. The golden statue at the base of the stairs is the largest of its kind in the world. There are 272 stairs you climb to take you into the caves.
The stairs. They weren't so bad if it wasn't for the fact that it was 35C and 90% humidity.
It was very touristy but the caves were quite interesting. That is also where I got all the shots of the monkeys which are everywhere. They look cute but they can be nasty. The one monkey that snatched a girls bag of herbs was very threatening when anyone tried to get near him to take the bag away. You just had to let him have his way until he was done. There is a reason that you don’t feed the monkeys. But they were fascinating to watch and still cute.
More stairs inside the caves
To try and get a photograph to give you a sense of the sheer size of this caves was difficult and the pictures don’t do them justice. But they were quite fascinating and there was a lot to look at. There are numerous mini-temples/altars throughout where priests chant and bless people. It is a sacred place for the Hindus. If it wasn’t for all the Kitsch trying to be sold, it would be a pretty surreal place. But all the junky souvenirs lessen its value.
Back end of the caves where they open up to the sky
Anyway, that was the last day in KL. The next morning I was up at 6 am to catch a bus, then a shuttle to the airport to fly up to Langkawi, on my birthday no less. Out of the city and into paradise.
Glad you had such an interesting last day in KL. Looks absolutely amazing in the caves.!!
The caves were pretty cool. Kind of all touristy though but cool nonetheless.