andrew weir: Batu Caves

Yesterday, Jose and I adventured out to Batu Caves.

So says Wikipedia:

Batu Caves is a limestone hill, which has a series of caves and cave temples, located in Gombak district, 13 km north of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. It takes its name from the Sungai Batu or Batu River, which flows past the hill. Batu Caves is also the name of the nearby village.

The cave is one of the most popular Hindu shrines outside India, dedicated to god Murugan. It is the focal point of the annual Thaipusam festival in Malaysia and attracts over more than 1.5 million pilgrims, making it one of the largest gatherings in history.

Getting there was pretty much an epic adventure.
Well, it wasn't the actual journey itself that was epic, but rather the process of figuring out how to get there. Our problem was that we had two guide books giving two contradictory pieces of advice, and four people chosen at random told us different things (though the trend ended up being "Just take a cab there, la." ). After about a week of trying to figure out, we finally settled on taking bus 11 from Chow Kit. The bus was a classic experience -- It as only 2 Ringett, crowded, and it tended to open its doors as it slowed down, once or twice not even coming to a full stop. I think it was an effort in being dramatic, but since all the seats were taken, I headed to the back of the bus, sat on this dirty ledge, next to a broom and traffic cone, and listened to some music. To be honest, I pulled out my laptop and tried playing a bit of Pokemon but gave up due to general bumpy/swerve-ness. As seats freed up, and the bus got less crowded, the novelty of sitting alone in the dirty area in the back used for storage wore off, and I re-joined Jose and the general populace. Batu Caves are about 15 km out of KL, so the ride was about 45 minutes, but interesting and painless (albeit a bit dirty... but that was my fault). The caves were awesome – I find it interesting that while a lot of foreigners see it as a typical “touristy” thing to do, it is very much a place of pilgrimage for some Malaysians. So that having been said, there wasn’t much information there about what was there. In any case, on the way out, the steps were covered in monkeys looking for bananas and coconuts. Needless to say, I snapped a whole bunch of photos. These are my favorite: