2 February 2010
Today I got up reasonably early, as I thought I had to check out at 10am, wish I had bothered to check that out before I set my alarm. I didn’t have to check out until 12pm, so I went for a swim and a dip in the Jacuzzi. I had a lie in the sun for about two-hours before I checked out and went to grab some lunch. More fast food, KFC this time, which I was pretty surprised to see was served with rice.
I then went back to the lobby of the hotel and was picked up for my Batu Caves trip. We picked up another couple of people that were on my city tour yesterday, it was just the three of us which was nice.
The guide drove us out of the city and to a pewter factory in the “countryside”, I’m convinced that just means out of the CBD, there really wasn’t any “countryside” to be seen. We were shown how pewter was sculpted, which was quite interesting. We were also told the small pewter crocodiles, dragons and pigs used to be used as currency hundreds of years ago, which fascinated me and I bought a small pewter crocodile for my collection of animals.
We then drove off to the caves, where there was a festival called “Thaipusam” going on, which was really cool. The caves are a sacred Hindu site and there were many Indian pilgrims around. It was 272 steps up to the caves and on the way up we saw monkeys, which I wasn’t really expecting.
On the way back down the treacherous steep stairs, there seemed to be loads of monkeys around, which was both awesome and a bit scary. Although, cute and very cheeky, they can be quite dangerous, as one Dutch woman found out from trying to feed them. Stupid Tourist.
I was standing there filming them and one big one jumped right across me and nearly knocked my camera out of my hands! At the bottom of the caves there were shops and more rituals and festivities going on. The smell of incense was everywhere, for which I was eternally grateful, there were so many chickens and monkeys around, I dreaded to think what this place may have smelt like if there was no pretty incense cover it up. We all met back up and go in the van, and got the guide to drop us in Chinatown. I had a bit of a look around there for a while before deciding to go back to the hotel on the train.
As I no longer had a room, I went to the pool shower blocks and washed up. I had climbed 272 steps in 44 degree humidity and I couldn’t do that to the person who has to sit next to me on the plane for 13 hours tonight. Sat by the pool for a bit and then went for dinner, I tried to have a proper meal but probably should have stuck to fast food, it was pretty awful.
I then went back to the hotel and met up with my transfer, who showed up early, the irony, the only time I didn’t really care if they were late! I am now attempting the kill 4 hours at KL International, fun!