Kuala Lumpur Day 3 – Danae’s Birthday, Monkeys, and Brits

We woke up early today (Danae’s 26th Birthday!) and we both were feeling great. Neither of us had any remaining side effects from the previous day’s food poisoning. 

For today’s activity, we decided to visit the Batu Caves on the outskirts of KL. Batu Caves is a limestone hill, which has a series of caves and cave temples, located in Gombak district, 13 kilometres (8 mi) north of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.  Rising almost 100 m above the ground, the Batu Caves temple complex consists of three main caves and a few smaller ones. The biggest, referred to as Cathedral Cave or Temple Cave, has a 100 m-high ceiling and features ornate Hindu shrines. To reach it, visitors must climb a steep flight of 272 steps. Below are some pictures. At the bottom of the stairs is a huge statute of Murugan, a Hindu deity. Its 140 feet tall. Getting there was easy because the site was a 5 minute walk from the metro station.

Random Statute

Statute of Murugan, with steps to caves in background

Danae on the Steps

The main reason why we decided to visit the caves was to see monkeys. Lots and lots of monkeys. Every source on the subject mentioned that there were numerous monkeys abound. Upon arriving there, we were a little disappointed at the scant monkey population. We only spotted two monkeys during our 272 step trek up to the caves.

We fed the first monkey we saw a banana I had brought from breakfast that morning. I was nervous feeding the monkey from my hand, so I threw it on the ground like a little girl. The monkey grabbed it, and climbed atop one of the handrail pillars. It was funny watching the monkey peel the banana with surgical precision. (see video). He then discarded the peel onto the stairs. Somebody could have seriously gotten hurt if they slipped on it like they do in cartoons. The second monkey we saw was near the top of the stairs. It was drinking from some pipe sticking out from the mountain. Some Australian guy we had befriended on the climb up the stairs leaned in to take a picture of the monkey. The monkey charged at the guy with its teeth showing but stopped about 10 feet away. Apparently they only like people that feed them.

Monkey Drinking from the pipe getting ready to charge

Once inside the caves, there were mini-temples and monks (I think) chanting and doing whatever monks do. Of course there were also a few gift shops. There were not any monkeys in the caves, but there were chickens, some of which were dead. We did not know why their dead bodies were left on the ground.  We walked around for a bit. Below are some photos. While up here, we met a group of people from Ft. Lauderdale. 

Walking down the stairs was actually more difficult than going up them. The stairs were very narrow and slippery and we both almost fell several times. Also, the view on the way down was spectacular. 

But better than that was the fact that were lots and lots of monkeys! There were probably over 40 in total. We had no idea where they came from. They were all over the place, on the stairs, statutes, and swinging from wires.

Baby Monkey

Baby Monkey

We watched several people feeding the monkeys from their hands. We decided to go to the bottom of the stairs and buy a bag of food and feed them ourselves. Quick aside, there were also thousands of pigeons at the bottoms of the stairs. The tourists were doing one of two weird things with the pigeons. They were either feeding them (why, when there are monkeys abound) or they were charging at them to make them fly away so they could photograph it. Anyways, we fed the monkeys for about 25 minutes. Below are videos of the monkeys and us feeding them.

Later that night, we went to the Traders’ Lounge to get our free snacks and drinks. While there, we met another couple who was on their honeymoon. Domic and Lizzy were from England (the first Brits we’ve met on our trip). They guy was a lawyer, so he and I clicked.  The girl and Danae got along well, so the four of us decided to go out and celebrate Danae’s birthday. We were out for about four hours, and did not return home until after 1. The problem with being out so late was we had a 330AM wakeup call to catch our 7AM flight! Danae said she had a blast and that it was worth it.

For our flight to Chiang Mai, Thailand, we bought upgraded seats on the plane for $10 apiece. All the upgraded seats means is that you sit in rows 1-5, and you get to board first. Fortunately for us we purchased these tickets because our row and the row behind us were empty. Danae and I lifted the armrests, and slept the entire 3 hour flight to Chiang Mai.