Batu Caves

Lonely Planet placed the bus stop for the Intrakota #11D to Batu Caves at a place called "Medan Pasar." It's clearly labeled on the Chinatown map as point #88. Twenty minutes of pacing back and forth found me a few blocks away at the real bus stop. For future reference, Intrakota buses don't actually have Intrakota markings. They are instead painted with a "Metrobus" logo.

The half hour bus ride took me from Kuala Lumpur's city center all the way to the outskirts of town, allowing me to see a good portion of the city and a couple of outlying kampungs (rural villages).

This was one of the sights along the way:

At the top of a 272 step climb (each one is numbered for your convenience), the Batu Caves are home to a Hindu temple, a gift shop some chickens, a cute but shy kitten and an unruly group of monkeys (they don't like Korean tourists). The climb wasn't nearly as bad as I had feared although my legs turned to jelly near the end. Further up in the temple, one can opt to go through a ceremony with a Hindu holy man (a blessing?). At the end of it, you get a nice dab of red paint on your forehead. Forgive my ignorance but I don't know what this signifies. I didn't go through with the motions though a couple of people from a Korean tour group did.

A few random shots from the caves:






I apologize for my cultural insensitivity but this is either one attractive cow or a not so attractive lady:

Anybody care to enlighten me on this one?