Road trip in a sketchy Proton

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Road trip in a sketchy Proton

 Asia » Malaysia » Ipoh By justwandering
March 28th 2007 Hired a slightly ropey Proton car in KL. At least the air con works well, and, being a Proton, it blends in well with the locals' cars. It's great to step out of this heat into "the fridge". Took a couple of hours to explore KL (that's one way of putting it... thing is that the map was terrible, and road signs woeful) and find the way to the road going north towards Ipoh.

Stopped at the Batu Caves, where I (like a lot of hapless tourists) was attached by a mob of monkeys after the can of fruit juice I was holding. I had to fend them off, deflecting them in mid air with my rucksack. Nasty little things. The Batu caves are the destination for the Thaipusam festival...

Then on to Ipoh for the night, and a visit to Kellie's Castle - a grand house build by a Scottish rubber baron to entertain his ex pat friends. The curator was a super chap and gave me some coconut juice.

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Photos

The entrance to Gua Batu
gua means cave
batu means tombstone, methinks

Kellie's eccentric castle
and a coffee river

These are the culprits
vicious little things bared their teeth, and one grabbed onto my foot - had to shake him off

Inside Batu Caves
terrible photo. I was a bit shaken up by the monkey attack, I must admit. Climbing up those stairs in the heat being pursued by simians really took it out of me.

Ruined colonial house
see the tree growing up from inside it?