Kuala Lumpur I

Selamat datang! (Welcome in Malay)

We stayed in the Melia hotel on Jalan Imbi  a couple of blocks away from the Park Royal where Heather stayed last year  and right opposite the Times Square shopping mall. The day we arrived (17^th February) was the last day of the Chinese New Year celebrations so all the decorations were being taken down and replaced by lanterns with peony flowers on them and lots of artificial cherry trees or branches of blossom started appearing outside shops and businesses.  Cherry blossoms are symbolic of the Chinese New Year and peony flowers represent riches and honour.

On our first full day we spent an hour or so deciding what we wanted to do. We phoned last night’s taxi driver and arranged that he would pick us up at 12.00. In the meantime we booked a couple of trips and went to have a look at Times Square shopping mall – expensive. At 12.00 our driver picked us up and drove us to the Batu Caves, about half an hour’s drive outside KL. We spent a couple of hours climbing up and down the 272 steps and looking in various temples that make up this large complex. Mercifully the festival of Thaipusam had already taken place the previous month otherwise the place would have been swarming with pilgrims and pierced kavadi bearers, which I would not have particularly wanted to see although I am sure the celebrations would have been very colourful. I’m also not a fan of big crowds.

a young monkey eats a flower at the side of the staircase

other visitors on the staircase

this family asked me to take a photo for them and permitted me to take a photo for myself of them

the shrines are situated in a cathedral-like cave complex, with the rear part being open to the sky

the main shrine

the cave walls behind the shrine

souvenirs on sale at the entrance to the cave, I think these are bracelets

deity figurine souvenirs

peacock feathers feature in many of the Hindu decorations

close-up of the skin of an albino python which lives in the complex

large shrine complex in front of the staircase, a good roosting spot for the local pigeons

some of the deities in this shrine, each one was wrapped in brightly coloured cloth

interior of the shrine

votive offerings on the tree trunk inside the shrine

bowls of dye with which pilgrims daub their foreheads

flowers on sale at the complex entrance

I also went into the Ramayana cave which had brightly painted murals inside.

Our driver picked us up again shortly after 2 and drove us back to the hotel where we had a brief rest before leaving for another trip at 4pm.

Norman, our driver for the evening trip, drove us through the countryside, mostly covered with oil palm and coconut plantations, for about one and half hours to the Kuala Selangor nature park and our first destination of Bukit Malawati. This was a landscaped hill with views over the Selangor coast towards the straits of Malacca. A British-style lighthouse crowned the summit. Silver leaf or silver langur monkey are also found on the hill. There were a number of locals selling food for the monkeys mostly in the form of fruit, green beans and packets of crisps and the monkeys were definitely not shy in coming forwards to help themselves to this free food supply. We were lucky enough to see a baby silver leaf monkey – they are a golden orange colour when born – and we were told that the baby we saw was two days old. They lose their golden colour as they get older and we saw one other that was already losing its golden colour.

note the length of their tails!

this baby is gradually losing its golden colour

mother and 2 day old baby

We were then driven to the riverside at Kampung Kuantan where we had an excellent dinner of chill crab, tuna, fish, prawns, vegetables and rice.

restaurant interior

fish trap silhouetted against sunset sky

raindrops illuminated by the dying sunset

There was a huge thunderstorm while we were eating and we were stuck in the restaurant for another hour until it passed – torrential rain, thunder and forked lightning lit up the sky. Fireflies don’t come out when it rains so there was some doubt as to whether we would be able to see any. The rain finally stopped and we were able to board our little boat for the short trip upriver to the firefly colonies where we could lots of them blinking in the bushes, it looked like Christmas! This is one of the few places left where there are still substantial firefly colonies so it was a real thrill to see them. On the way back we were shown trees full of roosting herons. Unfortunately my camera wouldn’t cooperate and take photos in the dark. When we finally got back to KL and bed at 11.15 we were completely exhausted.