DAY SIXTEEN

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My second to last day in Malaysia—I wanted to make the most of it. I got up a bit earlier than I have been and hit the ground running. My first stop was to FRIM (Forest Research Institute of Malaysia). This was in a town about 10 miles north of Kuala Lumpur. To get there I had to get on monorail downtown, then transfer to the commuter train and then take a 15 minute taxi ride to the place (to put in perspective though—this only cost $5 USD but probably would have cost at least $30 in DC). This place is just what it says it is a place where they study trees. They have arboretums, traditional Malay houses, a waterfall, and hiking. I went for the main draw—the canopy walk.

I hadn’t eaten breakfast so I first headed over to their eating area for a Malaysian breakfast. Like most eating options here it was buffest style and had about 20 different choices. I chose items that looked the safest and tastiest and they all turned out to be deep-fried and sweet. It was good though.

The hike to the canopy walkway was quite strenuous. I was literally dripping with sweat. When I got there, there were two classes worth, so about 60, ten year old Malaysians waiting to go on the canopy walk. I was disappointed because I thought that there would be a long wait. After about ten minutes one of the workers poked her head out of the tower (wasn’t too far up) and started giving instructions to the second class of kids. Well, one of these things did not look like the other and she pointed to me, held up one finger, I nodded, and she let me go ahead of all the kids. I felt bad because none of the other tourists got to, but relieved I didn’t have to wait for all of the kids. It pays to be me sometimes!

The canopy is made of planks, with an aluminum ladder to support the bottom, steel cables and polyester ropes on the sides, and then a Polyethylene netting on the sides and bottom as well. It is about 200m long and suspended between trees about 30m above the ground. This was a lot of fun. There were magnificent views of the forest/jungle and great views of the skyline of Kuala Lumpur as well. All in all the hike and canopy walk took about two hours—so it was definitely a physical morning.

This next part is a stroke of logistical genius, I specifically pared this activity with my next stop and only paid $10 for a taxi to get from the forest to the Batu Caves. Trust me, logistical genius.

Batu caves are a natural cave structure that has been built into a Hindu shrine. The caves are believed to be over 400 million years old and some of the ancient Malaysian people lived in them. Today, you walk up over 270 steps to get into the wide opening of the cave and there are different ornate, and rather beautiful, Hindu shrines. Well I arrive and my arch nemeses’ are there.
I hate monkeys now. I really do. Close your eyes and picture yourself soundly sleeping in bed. Then picture that there are dozen of rats crawling around in your bed, under your covers, and on top of you. That is how I feel when I see a monkey. The problem is that people feed these monkeys, they are used to human interaction, lose their fear and become more aggressive. Additionally the food messes up there bodies and they produce larger families. Mark my word: it is just a matter of time when this monkey problem gets out of hand. Even while I was at the cave I saw a monkey scratch a poor Japanese lady. Anyways, I came away unscathed—physically.

After walking around the caves I decided it would be fitting to have lunch at one of the nearby Indian restaurants. The highlight was the fresh coconut water. They hacked open the top of a coconut, put a straw in it and that was the drink!

I rode the train back, relaxed in my hotel room for an hour or two and then headed out for some dinner. Tonight was the first night that it did not rain since I have been here! The downtown shopping area was packed. Malaysians really do like to shop and they have some great venues. Imagine four or five good sized shopping malls in a 3 block radius. It is warm all year long so this makes for a culture of people heading out to this area in the evenings and especially on weekends. I ended my night with some gelato, just because I could, hazelnut flavored and chocolate with hazelnuts.

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Photos

Monkey
This is actually a sweet photo--the mom is nursing her baby. But a mother monkey is probably the most vicious