Batu Caves

Monday February 3rd

True to form, I didn’t get any sleep at all on the way to Kuala Lumpur.  Our flight had been delayed by twenty minutes but our lead-footed pilot made that up as well as an extra ten minutes so we arrived ten minutes earlier than scheduled.

Getting straight into the culture, we went to Macca’s to have hot cakes and tea for breakfast, then dropped our bags at the Tune Hotel where we will be staying tonight for the grand cost of $42.00.  The hotel is a super-budget hotel which suits our cheapskate natures perfectly.  We’re a ten minute walk from the airport terminal or maybe five minutes by shuttle bus.  All we wanted was a room with air conditioning and a shower, close to the airport and that’s just what we’ve got.

After dropping our backpacks, we caught the bus to the transit railway station, then the train to KL Sentral, the hub of transport within the city.  From there we found a train to take us out to Batu Caves, our first sightseeing venture of the trip.  The caves were amazing!

 

Lord Murugan - God of War and Victory (and maybe of the Muffin Top?)

It's a long way to the top!

Girls in pink dresses with blue satin sashes

The limestone hill in which they are situated has a series of caves and small temples and the whole area is swarming with monkeys.  The monkeys are very bold and are happy to snatch food or drink bottles from the hands of tourists.  The temples had beautiful carvings and were worth the 272 steps it took to reach them.

 

21st century priest 

 

One of the very well-fed monkeys

Trees growing out of the stone

The caves are adorned with beautiful carvings

Before leaving the cave area, we went to a vegetarian restaurant for lunch.  We had chappatis with mango chutney and another flat bread kind of thing with a variety of spicy dips.  It was absolutely delicious and quite a cut above hotcakes at Macca’s.  With two cans of coke, the grand total for lunch was 17 ringgit ($5.79).

This is what holidays are all about

Sharing a coconut

After lunch we retraced our steps back to the airport, collected our bags and checked into the hotel.  I’ve seen bigger walk-in wardrobes, but the shower is great, the bed is comfortable and the air conditioner is doing just what it’s supposed to do.

We're now just waiting for the sun to set so we can amble back over to the airport to find something nice for dinner then it's off to bed for a 4.15am start tomorrow.  This time tomorrow we aim to be blobbing around by the hotel swimming pool in Cambodia.