In a single day we managed to visit 3, count 'em, 3 tourist sites: The Batu Caves, a massive temple set into a mountain, reachable by a 372 step climb; KL Tower, the 4th largest telecommunication tower in the world, standing ~370m tall and boasting some amazing views of the city; lastly; a chinese temple with a garden containing statues of the chinese calendar (monkey, dragon, rat, etc...). To round out the day we also had some lovely food at some of Lena's dads favourite pit stops.
The first stop on the tour was breakfast on the way to Batu Caves, at a venue of the most senior member of our team of 3. Having only been here for a few days every dish was new and interesting, having not found anything I disliked I was trying dishes like a swimmer diving into a pool before checking for the deep end. This time thankfully it was the deep end with all the dishes coming up trumps: curry mee with siew yok was delicious, it was basically spicy noodle soup, I can't fathom how you can screw that up!; fish balls, apparently a staple of most places and fairly edible, wouldn't turn them down but wouldn't ask for them either; and finally, wat kai, also known to the layman (aka Englishman) as smooth chicken, the jury is out as to whether this dish is awesome or whether I was in a generous mood.
Loaded up on food we headed for Batu Caves. Traffic was pretty fierce but even so you could make out the temple, with its huge golden deity and larger than life staircase. Once there I made a discovery, a white person! This may seem a little racially insensitive but I was quite excited at seeing a fellow caucasian for the first time since arriving, sadly they weren't English, too much to ask for I suppose. When getting first sight of the actual attraction I was a little apprehensive, I have dabbled with vertigo before and the very steep and very unsafe set of stairs was setting off something inside me; although the 'don't be a pussy' alarm was the only one I heard.
As I was ascending I noticed that there were a few people going up on their knees or, I shit thee not, a baby slung under a palm tree! I later discovered that the spiritual nature of the caves meant people made wishes that people would overcome sickness, and in exchange they would offer something to the cave, these things took many forms, like: shaving your head once a year, climbing the stairs on your knees 50 times before you die, rough up a nun, climb the stairs with a burden. One of those is embellished, I shall leave it to you to guess which one. As we got nearer to the top the stairs began to get steeper and also the handrails ran out, from the point on I kept picturing I would miraculously fly backwards off the stairs, fairly disconcerting to say the least. Lena's fear of heights was worse than mine so I tried to keep moving at a constant pace without too many sharp movements, it was of course at this time that I saw my first wild monkey; kick ass for me, shit scary for Lena (I think, she will protest/edit this later if I am wrong).
Once at the top we were treated to some lovely temples and some cheap tat which I was about to find it pretty much the norm at every sacred temple. The main highlight was in fact a lot of monkeys, one of whom had a little baby clinging to its underbelly! After getting snap happy with Lena's camera for a while we decided on going back down, as opposed to setting up shop and living among the monkeys. It was then we saw the view, equally terrifying as it was beautiful. The downward journey was conducted heads down for Lena, who decided the time was best spent counting the steps and punching anyone, child or otherwise, who got in her path :)
At the base of the tower we rested for a little while, slogging up a down a massive flight of stairs in the early morning sun worked up quite the sweat. Whilst Lena and her dad sampled fresh coconut I sampled fresh co...ke.
After being sufficiently rested we moved onto KL Tower in the blissful serenity of an air-conditioned car. Having been living in the UK (dude, you live in FLIT-where?) and having a few trips to London the idea of visiting a tall building shouldn't really impress me all that much but I think its the needle like appearance, combined with a lack of tall buildings surrounding it that gave it a much more impressive feel. On the observation deck we were able to look out onto the world... well, KL. The height of the tower is impressive, looking across the landscape we were able to see the Petronas Twin Towers (tallest twin towers in the world) and didn't feel like we were equals in height, if anything I felt like we were dwarfing it! The only downside that I could levy against the place was the haze across the city, so many pictures showed vast expanses but these were sadly too murky to be all that amazing.
After 2 rather, vertical, attractions I was feeling like we were calling it a day, imagine my surprise when we rocked up to a wonderfully technicolor looking temple. Like Batu Caves this temple also came touting a wide array of tat for sale. On the journey around it was apparent the place had seen better days but it was still a nice cultural visit that rounded out the day nicely.
Onto dinner! Peking Duck about sums it up! There was a new restaurant in town with a killer deal on a whole duck, who was I to say no. Having never eaten peeking duck properly I was surprised to find that only the crunchy skin is meant to go into the pancake and not the duck flesh itself, live and learn! The meat itself came later cooked to semi-perfection it was a nice way to round off the pancakes & the day :)
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