Blogs from Batu Caves, Selangor, Malaysia, Asia

Even though I woke up pretty early, I had a leisurely morning drinking coffee, before I decided to venture out. My first stop was more coffee and some breakfast. There is an Old Town White Coffee, a Malaysian chain coffee place, in the mall near where I was staying. It was still quite early, so the coffee shop was pretty empty. I ordered the Kaya and Butter Toast set with eggs, and an iced white coffee. The coffee was nice and sweet, I normally don't drink sweet or milky coffees, but this made a nice change. I tried not to slurp down my coffee as I waited for my breakfast. My toast turned up first, followed a minute or two later by the eggs. My breakfast was good, the kaya toast was a bit too sweet ... read more

BATU CAVES, SALANGOR, MALAYSIA. Friday 24 February, 2012. We made it to Batu Caves this morning. This series of caves is located in a limestone hill, 13 km north of KL in the Selangor district. The limestone is some 400 million years old. The 3 main caves take their name from the Sungai Batu or Batu River which flows past the hill. The cave entrance is reached by 272 concrete steps. At the bottom of the steps is a gold statue of Lord Murugan. At 42.7 m (140 foot) high, it is the world's tallest statue of Murugan - a Hindu Deity. We were exhausted when we got to the top of the steps. As you climb the steps you are constantly hounded by the local troops of Cynomolgus/Macaque Monkeys. They will snatch anything that is ... read more

Geo: 3.23333, 101.667After quite a nice sleep-in we ate breakfast then went straight to the Batu caves. We'd organised to get a taxi last night so it was all ready and waiting. Once there we got out and the taxi driver showed us to the ticket booth. We bought our tickets and went in, little did we know that we'd only brought tickets to an art gallery thing and to see a few snakes. Neither of us were interested in this so we just walked straight past it trying to find the entrance. After walking back and forth many times and asking three different people for help we found the steps.272 steps! After walking ten or so flights of slippery (it was raining) stairs we were both stuffed. We stopped for a minute and looked and ... read more

Estamos muy sorprendidos de lo amables y ordenados que son los malayos. La verdad no esperaba que esta gente (al menos la gente de Sepang, Kuala Lumpur y Batu) fuera tan cosmopolita y con una tolerancia rara vez observada en un pais musulman. Incluso nos parece haber visto mas mujeres policía en KL que en Madrid. Otra cosa bastante loable es la tolerancia religiosa; mas del 10% de la población es hindi. Tambien hay muchos chinos y una colonia importante de expatriados británicos. Tal es el nivel de respeto y flexibilidad que cuando toca la oración de las 7 de la tarde, muchos musulmanes van a la mezquita, pero muchos otros se quedan afuera trabajando, caminando, comiendo o simplemente tomando una cerveza (si, alcohol!!!) con algun indiano o carapálida mochilero de paso. Chapeau por los ... read more

After Wei-Sheng and I have decided just not to mention at USQ administration that we would be abroad for a few days more than officially allowed in our student visa, at short notice we booked a flight with Air Asia for a reasonable price from Colangata to KualaLumpur. At first, arrived at KL airport, I was overwhelmed by the heat and humidity and those friendly bustling people all around the airport in KL. We took the bus to KL city to meet Anthony, with whom we would stay for a few days, - just across "The Pyramids", a huge shopping centre and adventure park. I was very impressed of life on the streets in this mega city. At first I could not cope with this chaotic system, but after 2 weeks I liked it more and ... read more