Malaysia is the land of religious diversity. Let it be Chinese temples, Hindu temples or Muslim mosques, you’ll never run out of religious sites to visit. One of the most spectacular and most famous Hindu temples in Kuala Lumpur is the Batu caves temple.
How to get there:
Batu caves isn’t near any LRT (metro) stations but it is near a KTM station, I personally always hopped on a cab for going to Batu caves but the KTM is also pretty straightforward. You must first go to KL central station which you can use the LRT to go to. From there you must head towards the KTM komuter train ticket counter to purchase your ticket which is about 2 RM. You then proceed to the entrance and head towards the platform called "perlabuhan klang". After arriving at the Batu caves station, walk across the car park to get to the main entrance.
In my case as I mentioned before the most convenient way to get there is by a taxi. I used this taxi application called “Grab” which is very famous in Kuala Lumpur for booking rides. The prices are cheaper than normal taxis and they can pick you up where ever you are.
Description and experience:
I think the most majestic thing about Batu caves is the 140 ft. tall, golden statue at the entrance, called the "muruga statute", which is the symbol of the temple. Thaipusam, which is a religious ceremony that takes places every year around January/February in Batu Caves is the main reason many tourists visit this place every year. In our case though we visited this place in March and after a long photo taking session with the giant statue we headed up the stairs. I honestly lost count of how many stairs there were but there were a lot, I guess I didn’t know I was going to have a leg day after all.
There were a lot of monkeys on sight as we were going up; I wish someone warmed me about their interest in tourist’s food and drinks, if not mobiles or wallets. I guess what I’m trying to say is that, please beware of them or this might happen to you too.
Yes that’s my energy drink that the monkey snatched from my hands. Although I gotta admit we did get a good laugh out of it.
The cave's entrance, after about a billion stairs.
Finally towards the end of the steps, you enter a cave, now here in addition to monkeys, you can see bats too, although don’t worry they don’t steal anything. There inside of the cave, there is a small platform and temple area where the Hindu monks were performing their religious ceremonies. Such ceremonies like applying “kumkuma” to people’s foreheads and whispering a prayer for them. Such a beautiful place, full of good energies.
On the way down we bought some fresh coconuts and savored every drop of it with sweat running down our backs from the humidity.
(Side note: try and visit Batu caves either early in the morning or the afternoons, as it is too hot mid-day and you’ll simply get exhausted under the hot sun).
Cheers!
