Batu Caves, Malaysia!

I love when (good) unplanned things happen while I travel, for e.g. visiting a place that wasn't on the list. After staying in the clouds at Genting Highlands, we headed to Kuala Lumpur. During our stay at Genting Highlands, our local guide got the news that a huge protest is happening at Dataran Merdeka Square in Kuala Lumpur. The plan was to visit Dataran Merdeka Square, National Mosque, Cricket Field and High Court Building. The route to all these places went through the city center, where the protest was taking place. Our guide decided to let the protest cool down in some days and visit these places later. Unfortunately, by the evening, we were told, that the protest will go on for next three days. This meant we were not going to visit any of the above-mentioned places during our stay in the country.

So, to compensate the change in the plan, we decided to go to Batu Caves. I had seen a lot of beautiful pictures of Batu caves on Instagram. And I was extremely happy that I am going to visit the beautiful caves and click a picture of the giant statue of Lord Murugan.

On arrival at Batu caves, I was disappointed that the giant statue of Lord Murugan was scaffolded. We saw a long staircase going to the temple of Lord Murugan. However, I decided to climb the stairs to temple. And man-o-man, it was a great workout. There are 272 stairs, which I thought wasn't much, but those were the steepest stairs I climbed in my entire life. My heart was beating so fast, that at a point; I felt it would pop out of my chest. (Bad decision to not to take rest in between).

TIPS:

• If you are planning to climb those stairs and go up to the temple, make sure you take rest in between. It would be highly recommended to breathe properly. Continuously talking while you climb, will tire you quickly. Wear comfortable footwear.
•  One more very very important thing that you must take care of is the monkeys. There are a lot of monkeys up there, who are not much afraid of humans. Take care of your cameras and other belongings. Avoid feeding the monkeys, chances are, too many monkeys would gather around you.
• If you plan to go inside the temple, you will have to take off your shoes. Make your family member/ friend take care of your shoes when you go inside. You don’t want the monkeys to take your footwear with them, do you?
• Thaipusam is a Hindu festival celebrated at Batu caves in  January/ February (Depends on which month the full moon day falls). This place is overcrowded with devotees on these days. (Check the dates and information on Wikipedia Plan your visits accordingly to avoid the crowd.

When I was returning from the temple, I saw another cave which is called as Dark Caves. You can buy tickets for 35 ringgits (that’s what I remember). Those caves have some special species of animals like spiders and bats. These caves are ecologically very rich. However, you cannot go unattended. There are guided tours to these dark caves. I totally missed the tour in the Dark caves, they were closed when we reached there. I am going to provide a link to this gentleman’s blog post HERE, make sure to check out before you go. You also might want to check THIS link to know more before you decide to visit the Dark caves.

Batu caves are made up of Lime stone.

Inside Batu Caves

Enjoy the Beauty Inside the Caves!

Beautiful Cityscape outside Batu Caves

So, that’s it for this post, guys! I hope you enjoyed reading this post and found it helpful to plan your trip. Make sure to press that G+1 button below. And don’t forget to share it with someone you love, because Sharing is Caring! Chao!

Much Love,

Chitra XOXO