Batu Caves was an interesting experience. It’s a series of limestone caves where people have built temples and other religious sites so quite a lot of people come to visit this place. It was only maybe 60p return on trains with free entry so it was worthwhile to visit. Leading up to the cave entrance there is a series of steps, quite steep but nothing like we had experienced in Nepal so it was easy enough and to the right of the Steps is a huge religious statue, I’ll be honest and say I didn’t know who of. The problem with tourist sites, especially religious sites has to be the monkeys. They are like the pigeons in Liverpool, horrible little shits. You basically have to hide anything inside a bag, because if it looks like food they’ll come after you, like the one eating the candy floss from the monkey temple in Nepal.
The Caves were quite good to see, there was a larger set of caves that you could walk through but because they were in a conservation site there was a price. We had seen enough bats in this cave and Singapore Zoo and we didn’t need to see any more so we didn’t bother. We went back to Chinatown. Toni decided that she wanted a Tablet so she could read her Uni work and get a program for it that could annotate PDF files. We had a look at quite a few but she decided that we would go see the Low Yat Plaza the next night to see if there was any better for the price in there. Not too expensive because you cant really take it back to the shops…
The next day we would see the Petronas Towers. This I did know about KL, but the sky bridge was undergoing renovations whilst we were there for about 3 months so we couldn’t go up but they were still amazing to see. As a first time visitor we got the train to the closest station then made our way up to the exit; a shopping centre. Brilliant. My favourite. We went outside and could see all the banking district buildings; but no Petronas Towers. Strange, I’m sure they are around here somewhere. You then step outside, turn around and they are towering above your head. We spent some time taking photos and messing around planking and owling, no batmanning, too dangerous. They really are just amazing structures and pictures just can’t justify how enormous they are.
Afterwards we went back into the Shopping centre to cool off in their air con and got some food. Toni then got a free makeover from quite an expensive make up brand in Malaysia. We then visited the Kuala Lumpur Art Gallery which wasn’t that impressive. The Singapore Art Museum was much better. We decided that we wanted to get out of the city that night so that night Toni bought herself a 7’’ tablet, made by a Malaysian manufacturer after we visited Low Yat Plaza and realised that everywhere was selling the same thing, and although some of the Samsung Galaxy’s and Ipad 2’s were genuine, we would have no come back or rights if it broke so Toni went for the cheaper and less risk model by HKV.
The next day we got up, had breakfast and checked out of our hotel. We planned to go north, to work our way forward to slowly but surely reach Penang/Langkawi, close to the Thailand border where we both had decided we wanted to spend our Christmas and New Year’s. Walking to the bus station we encountered a huge storm and we were literally soaked right through in 5 seconds.
We got the bus to Ipoh, the capital of Perak and spend a few days there. It’s nice knowing that we are not under pressure; we can come and go as we please and just do what we want. With India being pre planned, and working in Nepal, it was nice to be this free again. Ipoh is a much quieter city, with not a lot going on. We stayed in the Shanghai Inn, an old hostel but the hostel owner made it worthwhile and was very helpful in giving us tips and hints. We visited the Lost world of Tambun hot springs. 15rm entry, about £3 and spent maybe 3 or 4 hours bathing in 40C-45C pools. These made the air temperature feel cool for once. Malaysia is really humid and constantly warm. I forget what it feels like to be cold; with Annapurna and the Himalayan River a fond memory. At night all the pools are lit up, there was music playing with different types of pools including Jacuzzi’s, cave steam rooms and nice pools with water features.
Ipoh was another landmark in Toni and I’s relationship. We went to the Cinema for the first time. We have been together 16.5 months approx. and we have never been to the cinema before. We marked the occasion with popcorn and drinks and we seen Happy Feet 2 “I’m bringing Fluffy back.” Pretty decent cartoon, funny in places but I don’t think it was as good as the first one. We also got stuck in the shopping centre during a really heavy storm and decided to go to the cinema again to see Immortals. We both thought it was a really good film. It is similar to 300 and from the same director but 300 is still a benchmark film for that genre.
Unfortunately Toni started to feel a cold coming on, yes in this heat but we decided that we would move on and travel north again after 3 nights to Taiping. A small city, with beautiful lake gardens and that’s pretty much it, but we would stay for 5 nights until Toni felt better in a nicer hotel, Hotel Furama, with a large room and air conditioning.
Taiping is in a nice location, halfway between Ipoh and Georgetown, Penang, so it seemed like the logical step to stay here before the hustle and bustle of Georgetown. To anybody who has been to Malaysia they will see that we have basically missed out on the east coast, with the tropical islands of Tioman et al, but the East coast is currently undergoing its wet season and we have been told by quite a few people that it is taking quite a battering on a daily basis so we decided that we would leave the Beach holiday until Batu Ferringhi, Penang.
When Toni was feeling fit and healthy again we visited the lake gardens and you can see from the pics below that it is in a beautiful setting and worth staying here and relaxing.
Taiping’s location was ideal for a trip to Laketown Bukit Merah. This is where the Orangutan Island is located. This is an Orangutan Reserve that nurtures and sustains the dwindling Orangutan Population. There is also another in Borneo, on the Malaysian Islands. This was on my to-do list of Malaysia and it was well worth the trip. The Photo’s are poor because they used mirrored glass to prevent any flash getting through but you can see some below. As part of our entry we got to visit the Zoo there as well that had Crocodiles, Cobra’s, Vipers, Iguana’s, Squirrel Monkeys and Gibbons to name a few. The snake room was quite an experience. Being surround by tanks with deadly snakes, which no doubt some kid had been provoking just before I went in because the Common Cobra was in attack mode and the spitting cobra tried to spit at me the minute I came in the door which gave me a fright. It just set my heart racing.
Other than these activities Taiping was just a rest stop. After 5 nights we were off to Butterworth to get the Ferry to Georgetown where the is more happening so il leave it there folks. I hope you as usual enjoy reading this and like the photo’s I’ve uploaded. No doubt they’ve taken some time.
Adios Amigos.
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