Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
Thursday 12 March - First day off!
Got up quite early today as we were meeting a Uni student Lucy had met through some of the UTAR students, (Wai Keat). He had kindly offered to take us sightseeing so we got a taxi to a local shopping Mall to meet with him.
Our first stop was the Lake Gardens, a well known tourist attraction. We had intended to visit the Bird Park, but as they wanted to charge Lucy and I double just for being 'foreign visitors' we didn't go in - just on principle! So we started at the Orchid gardens - I have never been that fond of Orchids but to see so many colours and so many varieties was breathtaking! The gardens were well tended and the gardeners were working hard to keep it immaculate, water features were everywhere and it was great having Wai Keat with us to explain about some of the plants.
We then moved on to the Buttefly house - now, I love Butteflies, as anyone who knows me will tell you - so this was a treat for me! Lucy however wasn't so keen - and I must admit some of them were pretty big - the size of sparrows... and when they all started fluttering around together I could tell she was a bit unnerved! One of them seemed to take a liking to me and landed on my hand - it had a wing span of perhaps 5 inches - it was beautiful and I could hardly feel it settle, it really didn't want to go away so I ended up wandering around the rest of the park with it firmly attached!
Wai Keat promised us a good lunch - we had to be back at Ti-Ratana to collect one of the boys who had been given permission to come out with us for the afternoon. We stopped at a road side cafe/restaurant, by its appearnace as a tourist you would never stop at somewhere like this, it was very basic and a bit ramshackle, but the lady who served us was charming and we had some good food, inlcuding fried tofu and stuffed aubergine - was tres good! It was strange that when I paid - I insisted as Wai Keat was driving us around - the waitress picked Wai Keat up on this - as the host it is customary for you to pay... a bit harsh if you are always the entertainer!
To be continued.......
Ok, so then we quickly stopped to have a look around a beautiful Chinese Temple, the decoration, particularly on the roof was beautiful and extremely detailed, apparently some of the mythical creatures are there as protection and to ward of evil spirits. inside it was equally as beautiful with ornate pillars and wall decorations and a shrine at the front covered in gold. I love the temples here! There are some times dragons and phoenix - dragons are considered male and the phoenix is a more female symbol - there is always balance in the Chinese way of thinking - ying and yang.
I had been hearing about a Malaysian fruit called Durian, it is considered a real delicacy here and is named the King of Fruits, but I had also been informed that it is very smelly, I was intrigued and Wai Keat said he had a uncle not far from where we were that sold this fruit so we made our way there. As soon as I got out of the car I could smell it! It truly is revolting, not sure how to describe it but it has a musty, very overpowering smell that seems to get stronger the more you are exposed to it. The outside is covered in prickles - sharp enough that if you cut them open it is normal to wear tough gardening gloves. inside there were four quarters, orange in colour and I swear they looked just like chicken breast - he deftly cut them out and put them into a plastic container for us to take away. in the car the smell was so bad that I had to start breathing through my mouth and avoid smelling it all!!
When we gor back to Ti-Ratana Lucy went to call for one of the children - Maran, he had been attending every lesson and working really hard, he also never gets to elave the home unless he goes to school, so we had promised to take him out as a reward. Meanwhile I took the Durian fruit to the library where the UTAR students were working, I finally took the plunge and tried a piece of the fruit, initially I was pleasantly surprised as it didn't taste as bad as it smelled - but let's remember, it smelt pretty bloody awful! It was the texture of boiled chicken though and the taste was just too weird to describe, so I passed it on to the students who munched into it... it is obviously an acquired taste!
Anyway - made it to the Batu caves and couldn't believe the sight of the golden buddah standing at the bottom of the stairs. It is at least 250 feet high and towers over the immedaite area, guarding the entrance to the caves but also looking over benignly over anyone who is around. We stopped quickly to grab a drink each and watched the monkeys climbing over the elaborate entrance gate, we started our walk up the 272 steps and got about 30 steps into our journey when a large monkey appeared and jumped, snarling, teeth showing, up at Lucy, Lucy then sensibly dropped her can of drink whilst myself and Wai Keat saved her from falling backwards down the steps! The monkeys are notorious for stealing any food and drinks and have been known to steal cameras as well! So - be warned if you ever visit here don't take anything up the steps with you!
We made it up the steps and one of the first things I saw was a small tourist kiosk - which was a bit disappointing but normal nowadays I suppose, however, the caves themselves are pretty amazing, there are two and you need to go up a further set of stpes to reach the second cave, it is open to the sky and the sound of water dripping and sunlight playing over the sides of the caves makes it a very peaceful place.
Around the sides of the caves there were beautifully carved statues depicting various scenes about the birth of Buddah and the other dieties and animals that are either sacred or significant in the Hindu religion. Maran, being of Indian descent, knew quite a bit about the stories so he was telling us about each statue as we walked. I now undetrstand why peacocks feature in dances and as decoration - as they were kept as pets by one of the gods. I also love the idea that Buddah was born able to walk and for each step he took a lotus flowere blossomed - I could so get into this stuff!!!
I think we were all happy to just take in the atmosphere and tranquility of the caves, although when there is a festival to celebrate 1000's of people gather here so I imagine it is very different then!
There is a separate, smaller cave that you have to pay for, we went to ahve a look - but if you go, save your money and spend longer in the main caves - which you don't have to pay for. There were some rather sad looking reptiles, snakes and spiders in very small cages and some half hearted dancing going on - like I said, save your money!
Wai Keat had to leave earlier so we decided to brave public transport to get home - took 2 hours and involved a bus, two trains and a taxi!! Maran loved it though!
A good day out with some fascinating stuff to look at and talk about!!
- comments