Our Trip to Malaysia - Batu Caves

After Genting Highlands which had left everyone in the group complaining about the food, we started for KL, the capital of Malaysia.
Mr. Tanwar, my fellow Rajasthani from Jodhpur, delayed the departure by 30 minutes as he attended to some last minute requirements (not sure what it was - maybe his kids had to go to the toilet)
Amarjeet, our local guide informed us that we would stopping at Batu caves. These caves are situated about 15 -20 kms away from KL and houses the temple of Muruga, a Hindu Deity.
The temple is more than 100 years old. The limestone caves they say are more than 400 million years old and the temple attracts 1.5 million pilgrims annually.
Once again when we compare it with the cave temples in India and if any one has been to the Elephanta Caves outside Mumbai, the attraction is nothing much to talk about. I am not even talking about the Ajanta and Ellora attractions.
The pic alongside is the tallest Muraga statues in the world that stands on the foot of the caves. 272 steps alongside lead to the cave. Mayank and I made it in one go and at a fast pace.

Two special things about the place:

• We had coconut water. The coconuts are full of water and one coconut provides a belly full. Needless to add it was costly. At RM 3 for a coconut it came to Rs. 42/=. But it was worth it.
  
• Mayank took a picture with a python around his neck. I will upload the pic once I have scanned it. But this will always remind us of Batu caves and Mayank looks cool. He had wanted to take the pic at Genting Highlands but had backed off. Although Amarjeet had managed to let him get the snake around his neck there as well (without paying a penny). We paid RM 15 for the pic at Batu Caves.
  

Till then we had thought that the tour was highly professional. There was no commercial strings attached. But just before we reached Batu Caves we had the first taste of commercialization. We had a stop outside a watch shop. Just like in India the tour guide told us that the shop prices are attractive. I wonder why only tour operators find such shops attractive? Why don't the locals shop there?

Anyway this was a small irritant and as I did not buy anything I have nothing to complain about.

By six in the evening we had reached our hotel in Malaysia.

The rooms were good and the location was central.

We meet Homi, our Cox & Kings guide from India. The guide who was supposed to part of the tour had failed to report and Homi was sent as a replacement. He was a couple of days late but he made his presence felt immediately.

If Amarjeet's spoke in a modulated tone, Homi was an out of tune African drum. If Amarjeet brought humor in every sentence, Homi killed it with his long drawn narration. If Amarjeet was relaxed, Homi was time bound. We now had a guide who took his job as the tour leader seriously.

To be continued....