After the weekend I thought I would head out to the tourist site of Batu Caves. You can get to these caves by a short $1 ringgit train ride but with a huge bus parking area it is obviously part of the tour route.
There are three main caves in the limestone cliffs and it has been a site for Hindu worship since the 1890s. The biggest, referred to as Cathedral Cave or Temple Cave, has a 100 m-high ceiling and to get to it you climb 272 steps. Not something I recommend doing in the middle of the day which is when I was there. At the top you walk through to a space open to the sky.
The view from the top of the steps was pretty good and before heading down I thought I would have an ice block to cool off. I had to practically fight off several macaque monkeys who obviously also like ice blocks.
At the bottom of the stairs there is a 42.7m statue of a Hindu deity that is made of masses of steel, concrete and gold paint. Two other cave temples, Art Gallery Cave and the Museum Cave, were full of very colourful Hindu statues and paintings. Connected to one of these caves was a display of reptiles and they did not look too happy being in that cold, soggy, dark environment. I was also in time for a performance of traditional Hindu dance with ear blasting music and performers in old satin outfits. The guy in blue was so coy with his lovely peacock tail shimmer (check out the photos).
