Kuala Lumpur - Part 2

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After an overpriced (the man in the Travel Post Shop in Cherating added a massive 12RM each onto our bus tickets) and a 5 and a half hour bus journey from Cherating back to KL, we headed back to the Original Backpackers Hostel in Chinatown and dumped our bags before heading out for some much needed food, G naturally went back to the Monkee Inn and had her much awaited pizza while Tony sipped on an ice cold one waiting for his chicken and rice. A few more beers later we were back in our rather hot cell for an early night.

The next day and our second time in the city was full of novelty things, firstly we had roti for breakfast, something we have been enjoying all the way through Malaysia, still shocked how we have finally started to enjoy curry for breakfast, something we thought would never happen. Next was an hour bus ride 13km out of town to the Batu Caves a worshipping place for local Indian Hindus, we were unfortunately unlucky to miss the main day of the Thaipusam Festival but at the caves were still many devotees.

The Thaipusam Festival is an important Malaysian Hindu festival that honours the Hindu deity Lord Subramaniam, it’s a day of penance and celebration, it is held during the full moon in the month of “Thai” (normally mid Jan to mid Feb). Around this time huge crowds arrive at the Batu Caves. The start of the festival begins at dawn from KL’s Sri Maha Mariamman Temple where a golden chariot bearing a statue of Subaramaniam is taken from the temple to the caves. Thousands of devotees follow on foot in a 7 hour procession. As part of their penance, they carry numerous types of Kavadi (“bundles” in Tamil) the most popular being milk jugs decorated with peacock feathers placed on top of the head, which are connected to the penitents flesh by hooks. Some people place the hooks trough their cheeks or tongues. The procession has origins from India were most Lord Subramaniam Temples are sited on high ridges which pilgrims would walk to carrying heavy pitchers or pots to honour the deity, the 300 steps at the Batu Caves gives the idea that you cannot reach God without a bit of effort. Once at the caves the devotees perform ceremonies by spilling the milk, lighting incense and unloading their burdens.

As we had missed the main event we still went along to find many devotees climbing the steps but none with hooks through them. We did meet someone in our hostel who went the day before and said he only saw about 6 with hooks through them and he wasn’t really that overwhelmed so that made us feel better.

Once back from the caves we decided to venture to the Little India part of town past Merdeka Square where we were greeted by some weird and wonderful sights, firstly there was loud music, the source of which we will come to in a bit, secondly there were loads of weird tig type games being played, secondly there was a stick beating game played by younger children, both games being played by the Indian Malay people, maybe it was something to do with the festival, we are not entirely sure though. The grand finale was where the music was coming from, it was what we can only describe as a sooped up car competition, these cars were amazing, the sound systems, engines, accessories were out of this world, not being massive car lovers we have to say that we were impressed, G especially with the Hello Kitty car which even had Hello Kitty in its headlights!!!

After a good look at these cars we headed into little India and the Coliseum Hotel Bar a antiquated bar rich in history where the British owners of the rubber plantations once met to sink a few whiskeys and eat steak. Dating back from the 1920s, it’s a lovely untouched bar that G’s dad recommended to us, he always makes sure he has a beer there whenever he’s in KL.

After this we went to find the above mentioned Hindu Temple where the golden statue is normally kept but unfortunately it had scaffolding all around it. So we ended up back in Chinatown for dinner and a few more beers.

Our last day in KL and Malaysia was spent firstly heading back to the Central Market for a yummy lunch of Chicken and rice and one final potter around, where we stumbled upon a place that did the fish feet massage. Having seen this since Vietnam we decided that enough was enough and we had to have a go, for 5RM for 10 minutes we thought it was a bargain. It was the strangest feeling ever putting your feet into a pool filled with fish, G was immediately took back to her scary moment being chased by a sucker fish back on the Perhentian Islands as the feeling was the same when the fish sucked on your feet. It really tickled at first but that soon went and you were left with a load of fish sucking on your feet and nibbling at your dead skin. There were 4 people using the pool when we were using is, us and two others, the two others must have had well manicured feet, because they hardly had any fish on their feet while we had 100s.

After 10 minutes of this we dried our feet and headed to the wonderful big shopping mall of the Surai KLCC Centre for a wonder and a coffee (hot chocolate for G). We spent the rest of our time wondering around the mall and outside in the park waiting for it to get dark so G could get some snaps of the Petronas Towers in the dark. Once satisfied we had enough photos of said towers in the dark we headed to the train station where we boarded our last train of the trip to Singapore.

Our round up of Malaysia is that we loved it, it is well up there in our favourite countries. Its diversity and multicultural communities gripped us, along with the vast selection of different types of food and the most wonderful places to go and see amazing scenery or beaches. Most importantly the friendliness of the Malays, these people are amazing, they will stop and chat to you, help you with whatever you need, even chase after you if you have left something on the table, they really are amazing people the best we have met on this trip by far. Malaysia really does have something to teach the rest of the world when it comes to building successful multicultural societies. We loved it.

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