Batu Caves (WITH PICTURES)

Apologies for the late post. You'll understand why by the end.

Yesterday morning I got the train to the Batu Caves. It wasn't as busy as yesterday evening and there were plenty of seats, but even so people were so impatient. One dude couldn't wait for people to off and when it got down to the last few people he actually manoeuvred a girl out the way with his arm and charged on. He then changed seats three times during the journey so obviously rushing on didn't serve him well. When I arrived it was raining. Thankfully I was prepared and had my raincoat in my bag. The rain didn't last long.

The first cave I went into was the Ramayan cave, costing 5 ringit.  It had a very picturesque entrance. The cave was lit up with coloured lights and has statues depicting the life of Rama, the seventh avatar of Vishnu. The statues were quite interesting and it was a nicely decorated cave. I walked up some steep steps in the cave to an area at the top that seemed to have nothing in it except a gated off area containing a rock standing straight up.

Next I exited the Ramayan Cave and wandered over towards the steps up to the next one. On the way I passed many monkeys. I saw one steal some food off a lady with a child. They were quite brazen. I needed to repack my bag so I checked there were no monkeys round and sorted it out. Just as I was finishing up I saw a monkey charging towards me and reacted too slowly to sort myself out. The monkey grabbed my parmesan garlic roll and shoved it in its mouth. It stole my lunch and all I could do was sit there and watch the monkey eat it.

After I'd recovered from the tragic loss of my lunch I walked up 272 steps to Temple Cave. There was a waterfall at the side of the steps and monkeys sitting on the railings up the steps. At the bottom of the steps was a giant gold statue of someone,  I don't know who - probably a Hindu figure as these were Hindu temple caves. There some some building work going on and there were bricks and materials everywhere but the cave was pretty cool. There were a few statues and a temple in the first cave and then at the back there were more steps up to an open topped cave area that also had a small temple in it. I had a look around and then started making my way down the steps.

About a third of the way down was the entrance to the Dark Cave, which I didn't go in as you had to pay for a tour and I wasn't that fussed. But from the entrance I got an awesome view over the city skyline with the twin towers and the KL tower in the distance. As usual it doesn't come out as well in the photos.

I went down the steps and went to Cave Villa. This was the weirdest cave by far. You had to walk over a bridge over a pond to get to it. Inside the first section of the cave were painting with sayings on plaques in front of them. The walls and ceilings were painted different colours which was nice. Round the corner in the second section of the cave there were statues. I went up the steps at the back and found the weird bit. The third section had glass cages with mini crocodiles, lizards and snakes in it. It as like a mini reptile shop. And there were like 4 people building things. It was very strange. I have no idea why it was there.

After Cave Villa I got the train back to the Kuala Lumpur and the monorail back to the hostel. I laid on the bed for a while and then went to the shopping centre across the road to the food court.  I had braised pork with rice. It was really nice. And then I went to a chocolate cafe for a milkshake. It was also really nice.

I hung around for a while at the hostel and then at half 8 I went out with the hostel. I didn't get back until 4am and then just crashed in my bed. That's why I didn't get to post my blog. I was so tired I just crashed. But I had a really good night and met lots of people. So I hope you can forgive me, all 3 of you who read my blog.

Twin Towers and Tat Markets

This morning I woke up at 9, got ready, had breakfast and walked to KLCC park. It wasn't very far. Despite being in the middle of the city it was quite a beautiful park. It was quite peaceful. There was a large lake with water fountains in and the noise of the water from the fountains drowned out the traffic sounds. I took some photos and wandered round to the bottom of the twin towers, which were set next to the lake. The KL Petronas twin towers are 452 metres tall,  the tallest twin towers in the world.

At the bottom of the towers was a shopping centre. I had a wander round, looking at all the delicious cakes in the many bakeries, and looking in Marks and Spencer to see if it was the same as UK Marks and Spencers. It was. I bought a ticket for the towers but was told I'd have to wait an hour for the next group as it was a structured visit. So while I waited I went to a cake and got some a sandwich. I had chicken pastrami and cheese on ciabatta with about 5 potatoes wedges. By the time I finished it was time to go and check in for my tower visit.

The visit had two parts. The first part was the sky bridge, which connects the two towers. Apparently the towers can sway and twist in the wind so the bridge is built with a huge ball bearing on each end to allow for movement. The sky bridge is 170m above street level, weighs 700 tonnes, and is 60m long. We got a lift up to the 41st floor to access it. It was a really quick journey. The lift goes at 5/6m a second. From the bridge you could see out across the city. I got a really good birds eye view of the park and could see all the nearby skyscrapers and out across into the distance.

The second part of the visit was a trip to the observation deck on the 86th floor. The towers have 88 floors in total. The observation deck was 370 metres above the street. From here I could see slightly more as there were windows in more directions that just either side of the bridge. I could see the KL tower just past the other twin tower. I had a look round and took many photos and then it was time to leave. We were only given a certain amount of time at each level and visited in groups.

Once I was back down on the ground, at about half 2 I had some time to kill. I was going to go on a tour of a cultural village that was about a half hour walk from the towers. I got a drink and sat in the park just watching the world go by. I started making my way to the village around 3:45 as the tour started at half 4. When I was about 10 minutes away, it started chucking it down. I had no coat or anything and all my stuff was going to get soaked and if it was anything like yesterday's rainfall, it would not be fun walking round a village for 3 hours in the rain. So I found shelter, hailed a taxi when one went past and went back to the hostel to wait until it stopped.

After the rain stopped, after 6pm I got the monorail to Chinatown,  as I'd heard there was a good market and there was lots of food stalls that I could have dinner at. The monorail was rammed. When I got to the platform there was already a full train there,  just sitting while people who couldn't get on just stood there looking at it, and all the sardines already on the train stood there looking back at them. Eventually this train left. People crowded round the doors on the platform which lined up with arriving trains doors. When the next train turned up, people were pushing to get on before passengers had got off, but I made it onto the train. Then I realised I had got on the wrong train. I stayed on for two stops anyway as I knew the next train going the other way wasn't due straight away, and the second stop was a lot less busy than the first. I got off, changed to the right platform and a minute later a half empty train turned up. I was even able to get a seat.

At the next few stops I'd just come from though people squashed into the trains, shoving others in an attempt to fit on. At any stations a small amount of people would get off and a hundred would try and take their place. I was surprised no one got crushed. Apparently there are normally more carriages per train but are only running 2 carriage trains during Ramadan.

When we got to the stop I wanted, I got off and walked for about 5 minutes to the market. It was a big market but there was about 3 different types of stalls; watches, shoes, or bags. There were about 5 food stalls. It was a bit disappointing. I got some dumplings from a nearby restaurant and got the monorail back. One positive was the the market was decorated with pretty lanterns, which unfortunately don't look as nice in the photo. When I got back I showered and got into bed.

Monkeys, Mosques and Monuments

This morning I woke up at 8am so I could organise my days as I didn't manage to do it yesterday. I had breakfast and left the hostel around half 9 to get the monorail to Masjid Jamek. Masjid Jamek is a mosque and its supposed to be pretty impressive. The small part I saw of it looked quite nice but (presumably because of Ramadan) non-Muslim visitors weren't actually allowed in the mosque. This wasn't the only annoying thing to happen today. As I walked to my next destination I managed to catch my big toe on something and took a chunk of skin off and started bleeding. I had to hobble into the nearest shop for plasters and tissues.

Once I was all bandaged up I carried on to Merdeka Square. At one end of the square is the City Gallery. Out the front is a famous 'I❤KL' sign. Or at least I'm told it's famous. I took a selfie with it and went into the gallery since it was about a quid to go on.  I watched a video of the independence ceremony that took place on 31st August 1957, where the British handed what was then known as Malaya over to the Malayans.  The British flag was lowered and the malayan flag raised in its place. The gallery is also home to a model of Kuala Lumpur city. There was a little video that I watched that gave some facts about the city and light up the relevant parts of the model and was all set to dramatic music. It was actually pretty cool.

After finishing at the gallery I went to actually look at Merdeka square, where the independence ceremony had taken place and saw the all important flag pole. It was actually probably the biggest flag pole I've ever seen. The square looked remarkably like a cricket pitch. Just look at the photo to see why. I walked round the outside, past a fancy building that I don't know the name of, to the other end. There was a whole load of fountains which were pretty nice.

After looking at the fountains I walked alongside a dual carriage way towards the national monument. It was very hot so on the way I stopped at a little area with a plant/tree cover and a nice fountain. It was quite peaceful if you ignored the cars shooting along beside. There was no one else there except me and a couple of men sleeping on shady benches. They seem to do that a lot here.

Eventually after walking for what felt like a year I made it to the national monument. It was quite far out the city centre, set on a hill in a park. It was quite a peaceful setting. The national monument (or the part I saw) comprised of two war memorial statues. In the background of one you could see the city's skyscrapers poking out above the trees. It was quite scenic.

Next I headed to the National Mosque, through one of the city's parks. As I started walking I heard the call to prayer. It probably wasn't the best time to be visiting a mosque but it turned out it wasn't from the mosque I was visiting. On my way I came across some seemingly wild monkeys, just chilling in the trees at the side of the road, playing and messing about. They were pretty cute. When I eventually got the Mosque prayers were over and people were leaving. Non-Muslim visited weren't allowed in here either and I wasn't able to get a decent picture, but this mosque had a slightly different style to traditional mosques. It had a bright blue roof of a different design than usual. I bought a bottle of water at a shop nearby and had to ask some dude to open it as I couldn't.

I completed a circuit and ended up near the monorail stop I got off at this morning. 

Before I returned I had a quick browse round Central Market before heading back to the hostel, arriving around 3:45. I got a shower and slowly got dressed. Sometime around 5ish (maybe) I got ready to go out with the intention of going to KL tower. Then I discovered it had started chucking it down. There was thunder and lightening and it didn't look like it was going to let up. I decided to go anyway and put my rain coat on. I was wearing leggings as I felt it might be more appropriate to cover up and they got absolutely soaked. I stopped on the way to the tower to get some chicken and rice from a stall near the hostel but I had to stop and stand under a shelter to eat it or it would have gotten very soggy.

It turned out to be a lot further than it looked on the map. Or at least it felt like that on the rain. My toe hurt, I was getting soaked and I was walking through streams that were coming down the street. Most people were just sheltering but I wanted to get to the tower before dark so I could see both day and night views over KL. When I arrived they suggested I waited to go up as it was raining and I wouldn't be able to see much but eventually I went up anyway. I wasn't able to see for miles but the views were still pretty good. I took some photos and then sat and watched night fall over the city until the buildings were lit up. Then it started getting mad busy so I left. It was about 19:45 by this point. I walked back to the hostel in the rain, which had lightened up considerably. I stopped in a shop to get a drink and a Nigerian dude started chatting to me and asked if I wanted to go for a drink. I told him maybe tomorrow.  In went back to the hostel and collapsed onto my bed. My back hurts from walking and standing up so much. Tomorrow I will do less walking.

As I've been walking around the city today, I've noticed people tend to do either one of two things when we cross paths; they either stare at me or are really friendly. Do many people have said hello or welcomed me to Malaysia or smiled. But also so many people have sort of stared. I'm wondering if it's because I'm roaming around with shorts and a strap top on in a Muslim country. I haven't seen many other women in shorts...

 

The blue roof of the mosque is visible on the right middle section of the photo 

Moving on to Malaysia

This morning our alarms went off at 4am son we could get up and pack to go our separate ways. Taxis picked us up at 5am, one taking me to one Bangkok airport, and Lauren to the other, as we said goodbye and Lauren headed home. It was time for me to go solo.

I arrived at the airport, checked in and got a toastie for breakfast. I ended up with quite a while to kill before my flight. We eventually boarded around 7:55 and at 8:35 I said goodbye to 6 amazing weeks in Thailand as I took off towards Malaysia. I was sat next to an Indian guy for the flight. They bought round meals for those who had them included in their ticket and both me and the guy the other side of the Indian guy were given chicken pastry pies. I wasn't aware I would be getting one and I had already eaten, so I gave mine to the Indian dude. It must be true what they say,  how the way to a man's heart is through his stomach,  as he later asked for my number to keep in touch.

Before we were due to land the cabin crew went through the aircraft spraying a disinfectant. Apparently it's a requirement for all planes coming in to Malaysia.  It was weird. We landed 20 minutes early, at 11:20 Malaysian time, which is an hour ahead to Thailand. It took an hour to get through immigration and security and then I hopped on the KLIA ekspress (not a typo) to Kuala Lumpur central. I got my first glimpse of the famous KL Petronas towers on the way. It took about half an hour. I then changed onto the monorail and got another train to the nearest stop to my hostel. It was about a 3 minute walk from there. I checked in around 2pm and collapsed on my bed.

I chilled until around 5 and then had a quick Skype with mum. I did a bit of research into things to do while I'm here, and then just as I decided to go out for some food, it started chucking it down. I donned my raincoat and went out anyway. Directly outside the hostel was a row of market stalls all selling food. Ramadan has just started and Malaysia is a Muslim country. There was many people there buying food to break their fasts. I got a kebab and some baklava. I wandered around a little before returning to the hostel to relax and get an early night. From the hostel, when it's dark you can get a good view of the KL tower all lit up and sparkling.

A Tedious Thai Train

Today we spent the whole day travelling. We got up at 6:45, packed our stuff and went down and had breakfast. We got a taxi around 7:35 under the guidance of the hostel reception. They told us it would take about 20 minutes and we needed to be there half an hour before. It took us about 5 minutes to get there. We found a bench and made ourselves comfortable as the train wasn't due to leave until 8:50am and it wasn't there yet. At 8am some chimes starting sounding and then everyone stood up, stood still and went silent for what we assume was the national anthem. We stood up to as we didn't want to offend anyone. Then the song finished and everyone carried on with their business like nothing had happened. The train turned up around 8:10am and we were able to get on board. We had reserved seats in a 2nd class carriage that had air conditioning. Some Thai trains also have a third class although I don't think there was on this train. At 8:50 exactly, right on time,  the train departed.

Soon after leaving the train hostess came round and asked me where we were going. I told her Bangkok and she gave me a free Thai custard filled bun. Lauren was asleep so the hostess gave hers to me too. At half 11 we were brought lunch. I was quite pleased to see it was Panang a curry and rice, but this soon changed when I almost died from how spicy it was. I could only eat about three mouthfuls and then had to stop. It tasted quite nice which was a shame. At some point during the afternoon we were also brought a pastry snack which neither of us ate. We had stocked up on our own snacks before we left.

The train journey was very long. The scenery was nice but nothing special; just fields and trees, the odd temple. I watched 4 episode of a show on Netflix that I'd downloaded to my phone and listened to my ipod to past the time.

We eventually arrived in Bangkok at 19:45, 20 minutes later than scheduled, and walked the very short distance to the hostel we had booked for the night. We had dinner in the hostel cafe and then repacked our bags in preparation for tomorrow.  

Temples and Trauma

At 1:15am this morning I woke up to see one of the receptionists hanging around the room with a torch. I could also hear Lauren's voice so I got up to see what was going on. It turned out that due to the torrential downpour outside, a leak had appeared at the edge of the ceiling and was dripping on Lauren very close to her head. The receptionist dude brought a bucket and then the leak spread so he brought a towel and another bucket, before leaving us to go back to sleep. Soon after the rain stopped and the leak dried up. Later on during the night I went to the toilet and saw multiple over wet patches and buckets. Clearly the leak over Lauren's bed wasn't the only one.

At 10am we got up and got ready, had breakfast and headed out to wander. We wandered past the Three Kings Monument, which I can offer no information about as there was none to see. I could probably google it but I'll leave that up to you if you're interested. It wasn't a particularly impressive monument. We then wandered to Wat Lam Chang, which was very decorative.

Next we crossed over to Wat Chiang Man/Mun, depending on which sign you read. There was two temple buildings on the one site and an impressive elephant decorated structure at the back. One (or maybe both) was/were built in 1296 AD. One of them was also particularly grand.

Next we stopped at a massage shop. It was about £5 for an hour long massage so that's what I opted for, whilst Lauren got a pedicure. We had heard from a girl the day before that Thai massages were painful/uncomfortable and you were forced into multiple different positions, and Lauren and I had been discussing how it probably wasn't particularly comfortable, so I asked for a back, shoulder and head massage. Instead what I received was a traumatic but memorable experience. The masseuse started off with my feet, so I told her I had asked for the back/shoulder/head massage. She said something in Thai which sounded like she understood so I lay back down. But she started kneeling on my feet and then basically crawled up my legs until she was kneeling on my back. What followed was an hour long massage that focused mainly on my back, using her whole weight, her forearms and (painfully) her elbows, with about ten minutes focused on my head. Additionally she pulled my arms into certain positions while sitting on my legs and stretched my back and shoulders and sides. Then she bent my legs up, and with one foot behind each knee, grabbed my feet and pulled my legs up, bending my toes and stretching my quads. She also pulled my arms behind me while pushing on my back with her legs while I was sitting up.  It was an experience to say the least. The majority wasn't too painful, although some moments were, and I feel like I may ache tomorrow. At one point her phone rang and she answered it, holding her phone in one hand and massaging me with the other,  which added to the whole experience in a way. It wasn't the massage I asked for but at least I got to try out a cultural aspect of Thailand...

After leaving the massage parlour we walked along the river that ran along side ruined sections of the old city walls. We walked past a fancy temple that had a large Buddha statue next to it. We reached a shopping centre and stopped for some icecream. Then we wandered back along a different route. It was very hot. We arrived back at the hostel sometime between 5 and half past and relaxed on our beds.

Around 7pm we went out to the food section of the night bazaar to get dinner. I had dumplings and chicken wings. Lauren had chicken satay, sweetcorn and potato. We sat for a while listening to the band play classics such as 'Celebration', 'Ladies Night' and 'Funky Town' before heading back around half 8, showering and packing, as tomorrow we leave Chiang Mai.

Elephant Jungle Sanctuary

I had such an awesome day today! We were picked up around 8am and drove for over an hour to the Sanctuary. It was not a comfortable journey on a bench in the back of a pickup truck but thankfully the journeys there and back were the worst part. We arrived at 10:10 and walked a shirt distance to the base camp which was basically a wooden structure on the hillside, overlooking rice fields. We changed into karen shirts which are traditionally warn by the tribe of the village the Sanctuary is associated with. Our guide for the day, Tim, told us about the elephants, their names and ages. The oldest was 45, the youngest 15. There was six elephants in total, all female, and one was pregnant. We then went on a short walk to see the elephants.

When we arrived at the elephants, which were just wandering round in a clearing in the jungle we fed them bananas and stroked them. We took many photos. They were so docile. They loved the bananas and slobbered all over our hands as we gave them the bananas.

Next we (sort of) walked with  the elephants down to the river where they splashed about. Some of them sprayed themselves with mud from a nearby puddle. Apparently it helps keep them cool. They weren't forced in the river at any point but all just wandered in at various stages and plonked themselves down to splash around. We were sitting around the river just watching. I could have sat there a long time just watching they were so amazing. After a while we walked along a very thin path with a river on one side and a drop on the other back to the base camp.  We walked along side some beautiful terraced fields.

Back at base around 12pm we had lunch which was chicken wings, rice, some kind of vegetables stir fried in a sauce, and curried potatoes. We sat around relaxing for quite a while. Once lunch was done with we were shown how to make elephant 'medicine'. It was basically tamarin fruit, which is apparently good for the elephants intestines, mixed with banana and sugar cane to cover the taste.  The banana was squished (by hand) and then mixed with the other ingredients and shaped into balls. It was then fed to the elephants which had made their way down past the base camp to what Tim was calling 'the swimming pool'. I have included a photo of the pool for you to see.

The elephants came in 3 by 3 (as opposed to two by two) into the pool.  We has changed into our swimwear by this point and we got into the pool and chucked buckets of water over the elephants and gave them a good brush. After the pool the elephants want into the mud bath next door. Why they did it this was round I have no idea as it doesn't seem to make much sense.  We got very muddy as we threw mud over the elephants and they sprayed themselves with the muddy water. I made the mistake of getting too near one that was spraying itself and got covered in mud. It was all over my face and in my hair. After a while the first three left and we repeated the procedure with the other three. Then the elephants headed off back up the hill. They were guided the whole time by some dudes who seemed to be in control of the elephants.

After the elephants were gone we washed ourselves in the pool, or attempted to at least. The mud didn't really come off that easily. We got changed and then went from a walk around the village at half 2. Tim showed us many different fruits that were growing round the place including lychee, Jack fruit, mangoes, avacados and passionfruits. He also showed us his house and the many animals hanging round it. It was about 50 minutes the walk and it was very hot and sweaty. We ended at the place we were dropped off at. Tim thanked us all, gave us a free bag and said goodbye. Then we drove back to the hostel at 15:15.

We arrived back at the hostel some time around half 5 and immediately jumped straight in the showers to scrub off the rest of the mud. Then we went out for food before coming back to the hostel to chill. 

The swimming pool set among the rice fields