The day I landed in KL, Malaysia after almost 12 hours of travel time, I was crazy enough to take up the invitation to visit the Batu Caves. Me and my family, along with a few cousins and my favourite Khala (aunt), were visiting Malaysia in March 2014 for my brother's wedding. How exotic? Yea sure.
My cousins and aunt had already arrived a few days prior to us and had planned a trip to Batu Caves which was one of the places on my MUST VISIT list. After my brother and sister-in-law picked us up from the airport they mentioned that everyone might visit the caves and I tagged along. Dead tired or not, I was not going to give up this opportunity.
Batu Caves is a Limestone hill (felt more like a mountain though!) with a series of caves as well as a shrine dedicated to the Hindu deity MURUGAN.
The Golden statue of Murugan in the front of the shrine entrance, welcoming everyone, is the tallest one (140 ft) of this deity in the world. It was truly majestic.
The caves get their name from a nearby river and there is a village of the same name around the area. My brother told me that the shrine is in full fling during the Hindu festival of Thaipusam in Malaysia
The entrance and several parts of the shrine as well as caves have beautiful, intricate carvings depicting Hindu deities and their stories. The main series of whooping 272 steps reach the main Cathedral Cave which has several small Hindu shrines. The roof is really high and hats off to me for reaching there first despite feeling (or maybe nearly being) like a zombie!
The main temple cave is further up and the open ceiling is a breathtaking sight! I did forget to mention I felt like there were more monkeys than humans there :/ We had to tread carefully, the buggers were very territorial.
The total steps that we took till the very end were 380. I felt like a gold medalist, a big achievement and a natural high for me! :p
The Limestone forming the Batu Caves are said to about 400 years old! It was mesmerizing looking at these beautiful formations. A sense of peace was apparent (unless I mistook it for my need for sleep?)
There are various undeveloped caves that contain a diverse range of cave fauna, including some unique species of spiders, snakes and fruit bats. My family took a tour of the Dark Caves but I was too sleepy to be tempted by anything dark. I didn't want to get left behind, snoring in some corner of those dark caves :p
Feel free to ask me anything regarding my experience and I will fill you in wherever possible <3
My cousins and aunt had already arrived a few days prior to us and had planned a trip to Batu Caves which was one of the places on my MUST VISIT list. After my brother and sister-in-law picked us up from the airport they mentioned that everyone might visit the caves and I tagged along. Dead tired or not, I was not going to give up this opportunity.
The Golden statue of Murugan in the front of the shrine entrance, welcoming everyone, is the tallest one (140 ft) of this deity in the world. It was truly majestic.
The caves get their name from a nearby river and there is a village of the same name around the area. My brother told me that the shrine is in full fling during the Hindu festival of Thaipusam in Malaysia
The total steps that we took till the very end were 380. I felt like a gold medalist, a big achievement and a natural high for me! :p
There are various undeveloped caves that contain a diverse range of cave fauna, including some unique species of spiders, snakes and fruit bats. My family took a tour of the Dark Caves but I was too sleepy to be tempted by anything dark. I didn't want to get left behind, snoring in some corner of those dark caves :p
The overall experience was exhilarating and I recommend EVERYONE visiting KL, Malaysia to visit Batu Caves. Its an absolute treat!
Feel free to ask me anything regarding my experience and I will fill you in wherever possible <3
4 Comments
this reminded me of ny Langkawi post I did long ago!I love Malaysia :)
ReplyDeleteHaina? I am sooo going back again :) Specially Penang!
DeleteThanks for this beautiful sharing.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoy visiting Batu Caves, but discovered that I have some kind of phobia with Monkey. Hahahaha
Since that you've made this article for Malaysia, can you do the same here in the Philippines? Please? Haha, Great post :)
ReplyDeleteThank you for commenting, have a nice day!