Day 2 in Malaysia: Batu Caves
Sunday, June 09, 2013And so Day 2 in Kuala Lumpur. Having slept late the night before, we struggled to wake up early as we planned to go to Batu Caves, about 16 kilometers far from City Centre.
I was thinking of having teh tarik for breakfast but the tom yam place near the hotel was closed so we settled for KFC. I ordered an exciting (but expensive) blueberry pancake meal with eggs and coffee but reality was the meal tasted bland plus the eggs were weird-tasting. If only we had time the night before, we would've known there are plenty of Restoran (restaurant in Malaysia) serving Malaysian/Indian fare nearby.
After that, we walked towards the nearest train station, the Masjid Jamek station. Since it was still early, the streets we walked on to were almost deserted. We arrived at the station after 10 minutes, I think, and paid the train fare of 2+ MYR bound to KL Sentral. The ticket came in a coin-shaped thing, shown below.
We arrived in KL Sentral and the first thing I thought was the place was busy. There were a lot of travelers pulling their luggages and some tourists here and there. We bought tickets to Batu Caves via KTM Komuter - each ticket was only 1 MYR.
Our tickets to Batu Caves
Once we arrived on the platform, there were so few people waiting. Later we found out that the train was so slow that who knows if it take an hour to complete a roundtrip haha. Even though their train is slow, it compensates with the nice interior (read: cushioned seats).
Anyway after 30 minutes or so, we arrived at the Batu Caves station, which is right next to the tourist attraction. The caves are actually part of a Hindu temple, which is the most sacred Hindu shrine in Malaysia. It is also visited by a lot of Indian pilgrims. I felt quite bad being a tourist roaming around their Hindu temple and so I just decided not to look around their shrines.
The view outside the train station
Batu Caves can be reached by climbing the steep 272 steps from the ground. Although 272 steps do not seem like a challenge, the height of the steps was higher compared to normal steps, which will definitely make you sweat. The funny thing was, the Hindu we passed by were all barefoot - from the foot of the steps all the way to the top. There were even Hindu men and women holding babies while climbing the steep steps.
The steps leading to the caves
Just a little bit more... >__<;;;
There were also a lot of monkeys roaming around the steps as well as in the caves. One even threw a coconut, which unfortunately hit my hand and almost damaged my camera. Naughty monkeys. Not one stole any of our food or valuables though.
The entrance of the caves
There are another set of steps to another shrine, which we thought would lead to another passage. But that's the dead end.
There were plenty of monkeys in this area and it's best to ignore them. My sister wanted to have a picture taken beside a monkey and she was hissed at threateningly after she waved her bottled water to distract it. >__<
Next: Foodtripping! I shall separate this post to highlight the yummiest and most enjoyable food I had in Malaysia... :) (plus I feel lazy to write now x__x)
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