The truth this week is that I have fallen off my blogging wheel and need to get writing and posting so that I keep anyone who still reads this entertained. Luckily, I went on another adventure this past weekend so I’ve got something to write about for you besides my feelings!
Saturday morning I was woken abruptly when Ethan was calling my phone…umm who does that at 6am?! The answer is your friend calling to wake you up because you are supposed to be at the MRT going to the airport!! It seemed that I very confidently set my alarm for Saturday morning for 6:30am instead of 5:30am…all I know is that I’m thankful I had packed my bag the night before (plus for an overnight you don’t need too much) and I was able to get out the door in 10 minutes without forgetting anything!
The flight from Singapore to KL (Kuala Lumpur) took about 45 minutes in total. Basically we took off, the seat belt sign went off, they offered drinks (not complimentary on budget flights), the seat belt sign went off, and we landed. If you’re in Singapore, KL is definitely an easy flight to take for a short weekend trip!
We then took a train into downtown KL which let us have views of TONS of palm trees. Once we were in downtown, I was amazed at how much KL felt like Singapore. Riding around in a taxi there were more than a few times I thought to myself, umm this is literally just like Singapore. However the biggest difference I noticed was that KL is much more spread out (having more land being the obvious reason) and that meant more room for green patches in the city. Also, the city was rimmed with beautiful mountains which we could just barely see through the fog. I haven’t seen mountains like that in a while!
Our first stop was to the Batu Caves! We took a taxi for a 45 minute ride outside of the city and came up to a large face of one of the mountains. The most iconic view was once we could see the large, gold Buddha. It was incredible to see it in person. The outside of the caves had lots of temples and people praying. There were plenty of tourists around but thankfully it wasn’t huge crowds, making it more enjoyable. I can only imagine how crazy and congested the area gets around religious holidays and my suggestion would be to wait to go for a more quiet time.
Then it was time to climb the 272 stairs to the entrance of the caves! The stairs were steep, but surprisingly didn’t take too long to climb. Although they come with obstacles…MONKEYS! Now let me say that to many, the idea of monkeys roaming around may seem nice, I mean have you seen Disney’s Aladdin monkey Abu?? Well when you’re face to face with these wild animals your sense of a cute little monkey that will sit on your shoulder quickly vanishes. The monkeys are fast! They were sitting and climbing all over the steps and if you weren’t careful, would snatch any food/water/even your bag that you were carrying! They move so quickly and are not afraid of humans. This of course is only helped by the fact that lots of people feed the monkeys which then makes them more attracted to come up to you to take your food.
Ok back to the caves. Once inside there were a couple large caves to look at. It was beautiful, with little pockets of light shining through. Although I will say they were a bit more dirty than I expected with lots of trash around. Plus there were more monkeys to look out for inside so you have to be sure to have your guard up! I saw a lady feeding a monkey and it then proceeded to climb up her and almost bite her face! Seriously, watch out for these animals and my suggestion is to not feed them! They weren’t the only animals though. For some reason there were also a few roosters that made their way to the cave…I hope they weren’t there for sacrifice or something! On my way out one definitely had it’s eye on me and started running towards me! Luckily I can power walk faster than a rooster can run.
We then made the steep decent down the 272 steps and had a nice cold drink at the bottom. From there we had our hired driver take us back to the hotel for lunch and so we could finally check in.
There was a new pub just across the street from where we were staying and we figured it’d be a nice spot to grab a bite to eat while we waited for our room to be ready. Unfortunately just like Singapore, alcohol in Malaysia is also heavily taxed and so I decided to skip a beer at lunch and chose a fish sandwich to eat. It was good except the fish chosen was either bass or trout or something that had a pretty strong taste that I just couldn’t stomach, so I stopped halfway through. Fish/seafood here in Asia is on a whole different level than what it is in the US. The use of fish and also its preparation is quite different and I think my stomach is realizing I prefer the US way more. (Obviously excluding chili crab and black pepper crab).
During lunch, we observed a surprise 16th birthday party going on in the pub as well…still an odd concept to think of having a 16th birthday at a bar but just the differences from the US!
Once we had filled up on lunch we checked into the hotel and freshened up for the evening. More to come in the next post!
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