Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
After a very comfortable nights sleep, we got up and enjoyed our free breakfast, which in itself is a rarity for hostels, even more rare is the quality of breakfast here - buffet style with cereal, toast, fruit, tea and coffee and fruit juice - you wouldn't think we were paying £9 each a night! We filled up on breakfast (hoping to reduce the cost of food for the rest of the day), then ventured our to do our own 'city tour', as the reception desk staff said as we left - 'what are your plans for today? Own city tour?'. The hostel offer a daily tour around the main sights, which we were interested in, before we realised we could do it ourselves and save a lot of money.
We decided to visit the Batu Caves today, as we were already too late to get tickets for the Petronus towers (you have to queue up from 8:30am). First we had to catch a train back to Sentral, and then get another type of train to Batu Caves which is 13km north of the city. The whole journey cost us less than £1 each and was very easy and comfortable. There were a few other western couples on the train, all obviously going to the caves. On the way, we passed a giant Tesco Extra store - first Tesco we've seen in 8 months! As we approached the caves, we caught sight of the 43m-high gold Murga statue - the biggest in the world, which guards the 272 steps up to the main cave called Temple cave. It was quite an amazing sight - you don't see things like that on your average English train journey!
At the station, it was a short walk to the first of the caves, Ramayana Cave, which we think only opened recently. Guarding this cave was another huge green statue of one of the Gods. We paid our 25p entrance fee to a little old man at the entrance to the cave, then followed the bright lights inside. We heard him shout to some more tourists outside 'Come to my cave, it's very nice!'. For some reason, they've decided to model the inside of this cave on Disneyland's 'It's a small world' ride - it's filled with disco lights and models (which are very good) depicting scenes from Hindu stories. The models were very well made and interesting to look at, but it sort of detracts from the 400million year old cave that they're surrounded by. It's a bit different to other caves that we've visited, such as the Naracoorte caves in South Australia, where you couldn't touch the walls because of the harmful oils in our skin; here they have painted backdrops for the models directly onto the walls!
Next stop was the main Temple Cave, where we took some photos of the enormous gold statue before starting the long climb up to the entrance of the cave. I think I must be getting fitter as it didn't feel as hard as the 199 steps at Whitby normally does! When we got to the top it was a bit of an anticlimax. The inside was quite messy and smelly with a lot of rubbish everywhere. We think this is because there's just been a big festival called Thaipusam, where around a million pilgrims visit each year. There are also a lot of monkeys in and around the cave, so maybe they contribute to the smell too! There were some shrines inside, along with a Hindu Temple (hence the came Temple Cave), and of course some hawker stalls selling essential cheap souvenirs! We were very hot and had seen everything we wanted to see, so we headed back to the station to go back to the city.
Once back in KL, we got the train to KLCC, the area where the Petronus Towers are. We ate lunch in a food court in a shopping centre, at a stall where you picked your own food. We didn't know what anything was, so with the help of the stall holder got ourselves some chicken curry and rice. We were the only Western people in the whole place so we knew the food must be good (guide books always tell you to eat where the locals eat!)…and it was! Very cheap too - just over £2 altogether.
Outside, we got our first glimpse of the famous Petronus Towers, the world's largest twin towers. We took a few photos, but it was impossible to fit it all in one picture. We were trying to find the Malaysian Tourism Centre which we'd read was on the same road. We eventually found it after asking at a nearby hotel and risking our lives to cross a busy 4-land road (KL is not very pedestrian friendly!). We picked up a few maps and leaflets, and used the complimentary internet to look up how we're going to get to our next stops in Malaysia. We hopped on the monorail at Bukit Nanas stop around the corner (the name made us laugh) and rode it back to Sentral. Looking out of the front made me feel a bit sick though, it felt like a rollercoaster! We were going to walk to the National Museum, but decided against it as it was quite a long walk and it was closing in an hour. So instead we headed back to the hostel for a rest before heading out to Chinatown to find some food!
One of the ladies we'd met in Sydney recommended a restaurant to us, so we looked it up online and thought we'd try to find it. But first we had to fight our way through the stalls at the market. They were selling all the usual stuff - bags, watches, Tshirts, but I also spotted lots of Cath Kidston bags!! They all looked lovely but I didn't even ask how much they were as we couldn't afford to buy anything! We searched the streets of Chinatown for the restaurant we'd been recommended but couldn't find it anywhere, so settled for a big place on one of the streets. We enjoyed a Chinese meal along with a few Tiger beers, while watching the goings on in the busy street. The meal wasn't as cheap as we would have liked, but still quite cheap!
We managed to fight our way back through the market and got back to the hostel in one piece! A very busy first day in Malaysia!
- comments
Dawn Williams did you see Batman & Robin?
Laura Wrong batcave apparently :(