Another day, another Chinatown

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Well we are getting in the habit of locating ourselves in Chinatown, so much so that Nathan despairs of eating Malaysian food anytime soon! However, the potential for interior decorating tips is pretty high. When we get back we may end up with a house resembling a daoist temple crossed with Chinese New Year. There are red lanterns and red and gold good luck banners everywhere, plus giant artificial chrysanthemums and peonies and even fake cherry trees complete with blossoms. If certain people (you know who you are) don't manage to stage a chinese banquet wedding, then this could be the next best thing.

Acitivities have involved mostly wandering around looking at things to buy and eating. Have been tempted by so many fake watches, but I think I might wait until China to buy - may as well go to the source! Plus shoes - dont know if they are fake but they look pretty real to me! There are also blocks of tea for sale, which are awesome.

We managed to drag ourselves as far as Batu Caves, which is a very impressive limestone cave temple just north of here. Despite the fact that there is a very good airconditioned train all the way there, this is not mentioned on the tourist map we have, in either guidebook or on the website. However, we did manage to find it! We clearly arrived in the aftermath of a giant party - it is Thaipusam so there would have been lots of pilgrims, including those impaling themselves with things. We missed them though, so just saw the American tourists threading their way through piles of rubbish covered in monkeys eating leftovers.

For those in Sydney, you might be interested to know that the train ran through a bunch of lovely new stations, allowed for one touch swipe tickets and had air conditioning (not to mention the ladies only carriage).

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Photos

when it rains it rains!
Luckily we had our $3 umbrellas from Singapore, although we should also have been wearing wellies

claypot noodles
Very good! Big fat homemade noodles served in a hot clay bowl, with pork mince, egg, pickled chilli and stuff. From the hawker market in Chinatown, which is great

yes it is pretty big
and there are 272 steps to go up

inside the cave
luckily, there is no smell included on this picture

milky lure
is the name of the drink on the left.. no kidding! Lovely though - coconut and pineapple