Thursday, February 4, 2010

On the plane again...Stop 3 Part 2

Feeling refreshed after a good long sleep, I awoke ready to explore outside of the city for a little bit by visiting the Batu Caves. It's a mere half hour bus ride from the city centre to the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur to climb 272 steps to the caves that hold a Hindu shrine. I don't really know much about the history, but Phyllisse recommended that I see it and I figured it was a good chance for me to get out and explore on my own a bit.

Entrance to the Batu Caves

Shrine inside caves

Monkey attraction

While finding the right bus was a bit of a challenge, I did eventually find it and made it out to the cave. It was an interesting experience and while I think the monkeys are perhaps the main attraction to the area, I'm told that the attraction is really the shrine and the Thaipusum festival draws quite the crowd (which I thankfully missed by a week as I'd hate to visit anywhere with thousands of other people...).

After seeing the caves, I ventured back into the city centre and enjoyed Chinatown a bit more.

Petaling Street (Chinatown)

In the evening, I met up with Phyllise for dinner and she showed me around Bukit Bintang area, which is part of the Golden Triangle section of the city. This area is known as the main shopping and entertainment area where you might find more of the pubs and tourists.

Chinese New Year decorations inside mall

Food stalls

While I really enjoyed getting to see the city of KL through the eyes of a couple of local ladies, I was happy to be escaping the city for my next destination in hopes of seeing a bit more of a quieter and natural-side of the country.

More to come...

-T

PS More pictures to be found on main website.

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