Batu Caves

Brooksie and I went to Batu Caves last Saturday. Batu Caves is north of Kuala Lumpur. Kuala Lumpur is located in what is called the Klang Valley and is surrounded by mountains. Batu Caves is a Hindu Temple buillt into one of the mountains. It is absolutely amazing. The structures and statues are ornate and beautiful, and the cave itself is just awe-inspiring. Enough of the background info.

My grand plan had been to take the train to KL Sentral where we would switch to the Monorail and ride it to the end to Lake Titiwangsa. The monorail is fun to ride, and it gives you a great tour of the city. According to my trusty tourist map, Batu Caves was only 3 or 4 km from the Lake Titiwangsa monorail stop. I figured we would take a cab to the caves because no trains, lightrails, or monorails go the temple, only buses. We hailed a taxi for our 4 km ride actually turned out to be about 15 km. Needless to say, Brooksie and I were both relieved that I hadn't suggested walking from the monorail station.

You walk through the big gates at Batu Caves, and the first thing you see is an enormous gold statue. When I say enormous, I mean it is probably about 5 stories tall. It stands to the right of the 272 step staircase. There are also Hindu buildings around the entry. The colors and design are really amazing. There is an entry way built at the base of the stairs with colorful, beautiful, detailed sculptures.

While all of this is lovely, my interest in the beauty, spirituality, and uniqueness flies completely out the window when I see...A MONKEY! It was the coolest thing ever! There were monkeys running around all over the place! They would run up to people who held out food for them, snatch up the food, and run away. They were so much fun to watch. After standing near the entry to the staircase watching all of the monkeys for about five minutes, I finally tore myself away to walk up to the cave.

As we walked up the staircase, I was still fascinated by the monkeys who were still running up and down the steps. They would perch on top of the beautiful, decorative posts along the stair rail. I was filming them with my camcorder as I walked up the stairs (quite amazed with myself that I could do both at the same time). There were a couple of mommy monkeys carrying their babies. It was so neat. When I got to the top of the staircase, I turned around with my camcorder to film the view and the flight of incredibly treacherous steps (actually very well made) when I heard this low voice very close behind me say something in Malay. I turned around and screamed. So much for the crazy American being low-key. The man behind me was carrying a HUGE snake around his neck. The snake's face was literally inches from me. I am terrified of snakes. So like any rational person would do, I screamed and ran away knocking over a few innocent Hindis and small children who were standing in the way of my escape. Don't worry. I'm kidding. There were no small children. Kidding again. I just screamed and jumped back, but no innocent people or monkeys were injured. Then I felt really badly because I'm sure I offended the poor man. Not badly enough to get any closer to him though.

So now we are in the cave which is such a wonder of nature. I had never been in a cave that large. Brooksie had been to Carlsbad Caverns, and he said it was similar. I was just in awe of the size of the cave. You walked through a section that is about the length of 1.5 football fields to another set of steps which takes you to a smaller cavern with a large opening at the top. It is really an extraordinary thing to see. You are in a large dark cave and walk towards this smaller cavern where the light is shining through the top and illuminating the temple. Quite a beautiful scene. When we went up the steps to the smaller cavern, I was delighted to see more monkeys since I hadn't seen any in the larger cavern. They were all over the place. Running and begging just like before. I looked up on the cavern walls which were covered with the textures of rocks and moss and various other foliage. As I looked at the wall, I wondered if the Hindis used some sort of hallucinogenic in their worship because it looked like the wall was moving. It had monkeys all over it! They blended into the terrain.

Again the temple was beautifully constructed with colorful, ornate sculptures and tilework. And again, I was much more fascinated with the monkeys. Somebody had given one of the monkeys a Sprite, and the sucker was chugging it! Of course, I was concerned that it wasn't good for the monkey, but Brooksie pointed out that it probably is used to being fed a bunch of crap from tourists and has been fine thus far.

As we headed back down the steps, I gained a true appreciation of the importance of the temple to the Hindis and came to appreciate the spirituality of the location. We passed an elderly Hindu woman crawling up the 272 steps. She wasn't on her knees, but she would put her hands down on a couple of steps ahead, then move her feet up a step. It takes true belief and conviction to do that all the way up to the cave so you can pray. We saw another woman walking up the steps with her husband. She was carrying a jug on her shoulder and was obviously in pain. I read somewhere that women carry the jugs filled with something as an offering to the gods. These two women reminded me that I was not just at a beautiful temple inside a cave with lots of monkeys. I was not just at a tourist attraction. I was at a holy place. I was at their holy place. I am glad they reminded me of this.

We got to the bottom, soaking wet with sweat, where I got a mango from a food stall. Then we got in a taxi and went home. It was a great experience.