Batu Caves

Matthew and I decided to go on a little adventure in Kuala Lumpur; we wanted to check out Batu Caves. So, we headed into the city and stayed at a hostel (where my brother's girlfriend, Joyce, works as the manager). The hostel is in a great central location just across the street from a major mall and an MRT station - plus, she gave us a good deal on a nicer room. She had recently gotten a couple new pets - two sugar gliders. What are these animals? Yeah, Matthew and I had never heard of them either. They look like little squirrels, don't you think?

We spent the evening hanging out with Joyce and her two sugar gliders. The next day she brought us to a great Indian restaurant for some delicious food. It was spicy!

After having our insides cleaned out, we headed to Batu Caves. Batu Caves is a limestone hill that has numerous caves and cave temples. It is one of the most popular Hindu shrines outside of India that is dedicated to Lord Murugan, and it is flocked by thousands of people every year during the Hindu festival of Thaipusam. In order to reach the caves, you must first climb 272 steps which will bring you 100 meters above the ground.

Before you get to the base of the staircase you will be greeted by this 42.7m (140ft) tall statue of Murugan; it is the world's tallest statue of Murugan. It took three years to build and was completed in January 2006.

When you make your way up the staircase, you will be watched and/or followed by monkeys - and although they may seem cute, they are in fact quite devious, so beware. The monkeys will steal from you and I am not kidding. These monkeys are so used to all the visitors that they have no fear of coming right up to you and yanking bags right out of your hands. This monkey got away will a man's leftover lunch.

Once you get to the top of the stairs, you enter a massive cave complex that has been built up. There were vendors, temples, monks, everything. It seemed like it was supposed to be a place of worship that had been taken over by tourist vendors. The caves are interesting but to be honest, it wasn't what I was expecting. I would still suggest going to see it if you're in the area - it's free (but you do have to climb those stairs)! While we were there, there was some monks performing a ceremony of washing a statue of a god. While they were washing the statue two men nearby were playing music. It was neat to see what they were doing but it went on forever - we didn't stay for the entire thing. We had to walk down all those stairs still and we had to be back in Bentong that evening, which meant that we couldn't linger long. On our way out of Batu Caves, we caught sight of this peculiar statue. I don't have a clue what it's supposed to be but I liked it.


We got back into Bentong and it was time for me to start packing as I was leaving Matthew behind for a short 3-day guided tour of the capital city Phnom Penh in Cambodia.