What an amazing day we have had!! In the morning I got chatting to Beth and we arranged to go to the Batu caves together as her boyfriend was poorly and it made sense for Hannah, Beth and I all to go together. After breakfast she said that she had gone to college with a Malay guy and that she had arranged for him to meet us all at the Metro station and take us to the caves and also a waterfall. Obviously we said it was more than ok to meet this guy and be taken around by car rather than the train and bus!
So, the afternoon arrived and we put our bikini's on ready for the watherfall and hopped on a couple of trains and Amir met us about 2:30pm. he was absolutely delightful and his English was perfect. We all went to the Batu caves which were just fantastic - held a snake and saw loads of monkeys (one was eating an ice cream!). The gold statue outside was enormous and the entire experience was just fabulous... managed to avaoid the bat cave - phew!
We left the caves and drove all through the mountains seeing a massive man-made lake, little villages and lots of wandering cats and dogs (nobody seems to keep dogs on a lead in malaysia). We arrived at the river and waterfall and sadly we were under a rainy patch (dry either side of where we were, but wet in the middle!) so couldn't swim but was still beautiful.
Amir then asked if we wanted to go to his house for a drink, we all agreed so off we went... On our arrival there was food on the table, tea in the pot and a very warm welcome from his mum and dad. Bearing in mind they are on Ramadam and can't eat or drink, we felt so touched that his mum had prepared so much amazing food for us.
We sat down at the table and helped ourselves to noodles with king prawns and then for pudding we had banana cooked in a banana leaf and chocolate cake - all absolutely delicios! Just as we started to eat, Amir's 4 younger sisters came downstairs and we were introduced and they all shook our hand. They were so polite and just sat on the sofa watching us quietly - we were the first western people ever to visit their home so it was understandable that we were a novelty.
After we had finished eating and drinking we took lots of photo's and had a chat with his sisters who spoke quite good english. We then went to the local market where they were selling all sorts of food and drink, it was just a shame we couldn't try much as we were all full from the meal Amir's mum had given us. We walked back to Amir's house and sat down and chatted for a while - we declined the offer of drinks but a few minutes later one ofthe sisters came in with a tray and glasses "just in case you get thirsty" which was just so sweet!
We were welcomed with such warmth it was very touching and we were amazed at how well behaved Amir's sister's were and how hospitable they had been to 3 westerner girls who had just turned up pretty much unannounced. Since i have been here, all the Malay people have been very kind and hospitable - makes us English look pretty rubbish to be honest.
We kissed all the family goodbye and Amir drove us back to the train station about 7pm. It had been the best day and we all made our way back to the hostel just feeling like we were so lucky to have spent the afternoon with Amir and to have met his family.
