Monday, December 22, 2014

Road Trip: Batu Caves and Beyond!

The day after the Christmas party we packed up again and headed for Kuantan on the East Coast of Malaysia. We did not see the East side of the peninsula on our last trip because December is the rainy season on that side, but the forecast looked decent so we decided to risk it. We stopped at the Batu Caves on our way out of KL. But just getting there was an adventure. Tiffany braved the front seat while I rode in the back with the kids. Chris was our fearless driver, navigating criss-crossing highways, unintelligible signage, and other wild drivers and mopeds. Cars also drive on the other side of the street and the steering wheel is on the left, which took a little getting used to. Besides trying to use the windshield wipers as a blinker (the levers were also switched), he adjusted rather quickly.
The Batu Caves are amazing. Inside is the most popular Hindu shrine outside of India, and many people still come to worship in the shrines. A huge statue of Lord Murugan stands at the bottom of the 272 steps that lead up to the main cave, and the limestone around the caves is 400 million years old.
Tiffany and I came dressed to climb the numerous stairs in the humid heat, but our running shorts were too short to wear in a temple so we had to rent sarongs to tie over our legs. We began the climb up the 272 steps, and discovered many monkeys along the way. Toi had warned us not to carry any food with us, as the monkeys are pretty bold so we didn't have anything that they would want, but other people were feeding them along the stairs.
Levi was the most cautious of the monkeys - he said "That little one looks like a wrinkled old man". I don't blame him - I wasn't getting too close either. We made it to the top and explored the caves. There were lots of small shrines inside the caves, as well as temples for Hindu worship. The colors and contrast inside the caves were beautiful.
The kids were hot and ready to hike back down the stairs after exploring a bit.
At the bottom we let the kids choose an ice cream bar at a little stand and tried to cool off. There were little shops and a guy selling refreshing coconuts.
The scene was a bit chaotic at the bottom, with monkeys mixed in with the crowd, and people feeding a huge flock of pigeons. Chris walked with Tilly to a nearby garbage can a couple steps away and in that short time a monkey moved in and stole Levi's ice cream bar right out of his hands. Levi was pretty upset about his ice cream, and probably a little shaken up by the monkey's quick approach so after an interesting potty break (see photo below) we got ice cream cups to eat in the safety of the car. Later that night I was trying to explain the idea of karma to Levi - I told him that he had good karma for giving his ice cream to the monkey and that something would happen that would make him feel good. He said "Well I don't really feel good at all, cuz I just really want that ice cream." I guess ice cream trumps good karma when you are 4.
We had to use the restroom before continuing our road trip. Tiffany snapped this photo of a typical Malaysian squat toilet. Bring your own tp to these potties!
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