Kuala Lumpur - Day 3

We decided to visit the Batu Caves on Saturday. We had read such mixed reviews about the caves, so we went with open minds. The general consensus from the reviews which we had read was that we should get there as early as possible to miss the crowds, the heat and most of all, the pesky monkeys and the pungent smell of urine which accompanies them. The trusty train service (which we were now quite comfortable using) took us right to the caves. As we walked out of the train station, we were met by an enormous statue of a Hindu god.

There was a temple at the top of some stairs, and inside was a crowd of people listening to a sermon, and there were some drums and burning incense scattered around the temple. We then made our way to what we assumed were the Batu Caves. There was a small fee to enter and, before we even reached the entrance to the cave, we were greeted by a bunch of statues. There was a team of builders on site, as the statues and other man made decorations around the entrance weren't finished yet.

We ventured a little further in, and observed even more statues which clearly told a story. There was a huge statue of a man lying on his side, with a bunch of other, smaller people on and around him. The lighting really made the scene come to life.

Further into the cave, things opened up. There were a number of scenes similar to those which we had seen in the earlier stages of the cave. There were also a number of stairs which elevated you above the cave floor, up towards a small waterfall which ran down the back wall of the cave.

At this point our thoughts were "Is this it??" While the cave was pretty (mainly because of all of the man made changes made to it), it wasn't anything spectacular. We decided that there must be more, and we started off, further away from the train station. In no time, it was apparent that we were on the right track. Lining the pathway were stalls selling a variety of dried fruits, spiced fruits, cooking spices and sweet meats. There was also an ever growing crowd of people shuffling along the path.

By now, there were bigger buildings, souvenir shops and even a convenience store. We approached what looked like the start of a large entrance. There were rows of metal railings to separate people into smaller lines. As we got closer, we saw an enormous, gold statue at the base of the mountain. There was a staircase which led halfway up the mountain, into the cave. We were now in the right place.

Before we could start the ascent, Mel had to wrap her scarf around her waist, as it is disrespectful for a lady to show her knees in the caves. Then we were off.

Please climb the million stairs up to the cave, but you BETTER not exercise while doing it!

At the top it was... OK. There were a few more statues and some small temples - and a chicken! There was a resident troop of monkeys but, (while they were a little mischievous) their presence wasn't as imposing as the reviews had suggested. The pungent smell of their urine was! We wandered around for a little while up top before we decided to head back down. The timing was great, because we were then able to observe the most exciting part of the experience: An older man got the fright of his life when a pigeon flew very close to him (almost hitting him). This, however wasn't the amusing part. He proceeded to shout at his wife, because the bird had almost given him a heart attack. As if it was her fault!!

Once back down on the ground floor, we waited for the train so we could go back into the city. Mel wanted to remember the trains, because they are so clean and efficient, so she snapped some photos for our reference. We thought that we would share them for interest sake.

Information panel showing all of the stations on the line, and where the train is along the line.

Inside is very clean - no eating or drinking (not even water).

We had quite a few more landmarks to visit, and luckily many of them were fairly close together. So we got back onto the pavements of KL, map in hand, and headed towards the Saint Mary Cathedral. In the same area, there is the Royal Selangor Club (which is and old sports ground from the colonial times); Independence Square (with a massive flag and a cricket pitch in the middle); and the Sultan Abdul Samad Building (a building designed by a British architect, with influences from Africa and Muslim mosques in India)

An interesting water feature that we came across during our walk.

The huge flag at Independence Square.

Inside the Saint Mary Cathedral.

The Sultan Abdul Samad Building over-looking Independence Square.

The Sultan Abdul Samad Building.

They are busy trying to rejuvenate some of the less aesthetically appealing parts of the city. This meant that we had to take a long walk around to get to the train station instead of following the river. We were happy that this was the case as the new route lead us to walk through The Market Square where we saw the clock tower AND we got to see a gold building!

Cold milo!!! They LOVE milo in KL which suits us just fine.

We went back to our hotel and changed shoes before we headed to our new favourite restaurant to meet up with The Goldstone's friend, Rudi. We were in contact with Rudi before we moved to Vietnam as he was living here at that time. He moved to Malaysia shortly before we arrived in Vietnam so we didn't get to meet him. Luckily he was coming through to Kuala Lumpur on the weekend that we were there so we managed to make a plan to meet up! It was so great to finally meet him and his lovely wife Lien!

A mango frozen juice.

Rudi, Ross and Lien.

The Towers 'view' from our hotel room.

After our visit with Rudi and Lien, we headed back to the KL city gallery as we ran out of time to see it earlier in the day. Unfortunately it was closed but because of that, it meant that there weren't too many people around and we got to have some pictures with the I love KL sculpture! We were also lucky that there was a solo Spanish tourist who was trying to take a selfie but couldn't quite get herself and the sculpture in. We took a photo of her, and in exchange, we got to have a photo together!

Our next stop was to visit KL's very own Times Square. Unfortunately there was a lot of construction around so we did not get to experience the full effect. It was extremely busy and there were just lights everywhere. We can only imagine how overwhelming the real Times Square in New York must be!

We decided to use old faithful trip advisor to decide where to go for dinner. One of the top rated (but reasonably priced) restaurants was a place called Arabesque. The Turkish restaurant was situated in Chinatown which was super close to our hotel. We wandered through the stalls (and Mel bought a few goodies!) and then headed to dinner. We ended up getting there a bit too late to sample some of their signature dishes as all of their lamb was finished! We ordered some falaffels and some other interesting sounding dishes and we weren't disappointed, the food was delicious (a bit garlicy but really good). Of course, as we decided to leave it started to rain. We hadn't had any rain our entire trip and the heavens just opened and the rain poured down on us! We knew that if we tried to dash through the rain we would be soaked in a minute so the only thing to do was to wait it out. When it quietened down, we managed to shuffle back to our hotel very slowly as Mel's slops decided that they didn't like the slippery pavements. We made it back without Mel falling on her bum and turned in for a well deserved rest.