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Published: November 14th 2006
Today has been an absolutely awesome day. We had booked on some trips yesterday with the Tourist Office but as this week is really quiet here in Malaysia (Asian schools break for half term next week) we ended up being the only people who had booked in all of KL! They therefore sent us a chauffeur and he drove us all over the place to check out some sights.
This morning he took us to Batu Caves. The Batu Caves are situated thirteen kilometers north of Kuala Lumpur. They are the sacred place for the Hindu's in Malaysia. They consist of three main caves and a number of smaller ones. The caves are made of limestone and are home to loads of small cynomolgus monkeys. Annoyingly the entrance to the caves involves climbing 276 steps - there are only 2 things I hate more than steps - ironing and being hungry. Even though it was only 10a.m the heat wiped me out going up the steps - Clare took it all in her stride. Her Dad will be so proud of her continued study in the art of subterranean geography. I understand going in Caves was the highlight of the
majority of Barbary holidays.
The Caves are quite cool, but the Hindu monuments and artifacts could really do with a coat of paint - for such a revered place it was a bit tatty.
We moved on to the Orang Asli Museum North of KL, and learnt more about the indigenous tribe for 30 mins. It was only a simple museum, but did show the reality of how some people do still manage to live in this high tech world. To them Blow Pipes, Fish traps and Carved Wood implements are high tech!
Our Driver then took us on the scenic route (a la my Dad) to a town en route to Kuala Gandah, where we had a roadside Chinese meal - Wild Boar Curry, Roast Chicken and Beansprout Rice. It was really good - especially the quality of the curry sauce.
Malaysia has loads of Chinese folk. The majority of the country is made up of Chinese people, Indians, Malays and Thai's. The Chinese love the gambling here in the Genting Highlands - Malaysia's equivalent of Vegas. Many apparently come back on foot having gambled their cars away.
Following lunch we headed through the
Palm Forests, Highlands and Rubber Plantations to Kuala Gandah in the Krau Game Reserve. Our destination for the majority of the day was the Malaysian Elephant Sanctuary & Orphanage. The whole afternoon was magical. We fed the elephants fruits by hand directly into their mouths, watched as they were jet washed (!), went for a ride on the big mumma round a field and ultimately bathed in the river with the elephants. Being the enthusiastic pair, we grabbed the chance to ride the elephant across the field, down into the river before it threw us off and rolled in the water with us! It is truly a majestic and humbling experience to be carried by and then chucked in a river by a 2.5 tonne beast! At this point we were obviously totally drenched - albeit it was raining like mad anyway and didn't really make much difference!
Enjoy the pictures.
Dan
www.myelephants.org
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tim
non-member comment
feeding time at the zoo
So who has the bigger apetite, Dan or the elephant? I am glad to see the camera is now working, well someone or something had to on this trip! The pictures are great. I am really envious. I had a tuna and tomato roll for lunch!!