Malaysia is a bit different from Cambodia! So far it has rained extremely heavily every afterno0n and evening since I’ve been here!
I’m staying with Leslie and Geoff and their two children, Sam and Emma. I didn’t do much yesterday, as I was feeling pretty tired after my busy schedule. Just getting to their house from KL International Airport was a mission – I felt like I needed to produce my passport again, it was so far!
Anyway, I needed to get out and about today, so in the morning Leslie took me to the Batu Caves, a bit north of where they live, and then dropped me off at the Bird Park.
The Batu Caves are fascinating. They are a huge limestone feature, surrounded by industrial areas. It’s as though you went to the Waitomo Caves by cutting through the back of Penrose! They are hugely significant as a religious shrine for Hindus in Malaysia, and attract a lot of Indian tourists. I’ll leave you to decide what you think of the decor.
After negotiating your way past several shrines and assorted souvenir sellers, you have to climb up 272 steep steps to enter the cave.
Entrance to the Batu Caves
Inside the caves are numerous other shrines and temples, as well as lots of carvings depicting scenes from Hindu mythology. And around the entire wall runs a large red and yellow stripe! Not sure why!
Inside the main cave
At the shrines inside the main cave, people pay to be blessed by a priest and to be able to stand in the presence of their god for a few moments.
A young Indian man came up and insisted on having his photo taken with me. I guess I’m now world famous in India – mind you that’s over a billion people, so it’s a start.
When we emerged from the cave, carefully walking down the 272 steps, the crowd had built up, and so had the heat. Next stop was the Bird Park.
KL is a beautifully green city, and one of its more lovely spots is the Tasik Perdana. This is a huge park complex a bit like Cornwall Park (without the volcanic cone!), surrounded by urban development. It includes a Deer park, a Butterfly park, Orchid Gardens, a huge lake with lots of interseting walks, a range of monuments and of course the Bird Park – “the world’s largest walk-in free-flight aviary”. It was very impressive.
I spent over two hours in the Bird Park. They have a wide range of species, many of them exotic and very attractive.
If anyone can, the toucan...
After leaving the bird park it became very apparent that this afternoon’s edition of the daily thunderstorm and deluge was about to hit, and I was far from shelter. Trusting my sophisticated geographic map-reading skills I headed off down the hill by a winding road to the lake. When I got there I discovered the shortcut that wasn’t shown on the map! I just made it to the information centre before the heavens opened! There a very helpful man showed me how to duck across the motorway on ramp, up the stairs, cut through the Hilton Hotel carpark and through to the Central Station. I managed to do all that without getting completely saturated, only about 90%. However you dry quickly in the heat!
From there it was a steep learning curve, but let’s just say that with the help of some very kind Malaysians in malls and on public transport, combined with some lucky guesses and more advanced map-reading (I bought a better map!) I managed to make my way by monorail and bus to a shopping centre not too far from home. There I met two taxi drivers who didn’t want to give me a ride.
The first said “I know nothing” in Malay, and the other kindly pointed out that it wasn’t far “you can walk from here”! Apparently the fares are so low it’s not even worth them getting their taxis out of “Park” for short distances. Fortunately it had stopped raining and was quite pleasant, so I walked home. And by the way the public transport was very efficient and tidy and cost me RM3 ie NZ$1.50.
Tomorrow Geoff’s taking me on a school field trip round the urban area. Should be good. As I always say to my students “the worst day on a Geography field trip is better than the best day in a classroom!”
