Managed to make it through the night without strangling to death the two Taiwanese girls in my room, who came in late, switched on the lights and babbled incessantly to each other and on the phone for about an hour. The rest of Asia should be dorm-free, so I’m sure I’ll appreciate my privacy even more now.
Since I now had an extra day in KL, I decided to take the bus from Central Market to the Batu Caves. Bus took about half an hour, and as usual I was the only white person on it. Batu Caves is a Hindu Temple, not far from KL. There’s a pilgrimage out to the caves from the centre of the city every year. There’s a giant statue of Murugan, a Hindu diety at the foot of the stairs leading to the caves.
The cave was huge (biggest I’ve ever seen, but I’m not much of a spelunker) with the Hindu temple inside, and people doing some sort of Hindu ritual. I thought I saw some people carrying a dead baby in a sheet hanging from two bamboo poles, but thankfully it was alive.
Perhaps cooler than the caves were the Cynomolgus monkeys that ran up and down the stairs. It was my first interaction with monkeys in the “wild”, and these guys were not as aggressive as I’ve heard some can be. People were feeding them, which probably won’t help, but they were cute.
Took me some unnecessary walking to find the bus stop back (pretty much right in my face, not sure how I missed it), but headed back into the city next. Was beside Central Market, so I headed in there for lunch. Quiet market, which was not what I was expecting. Thought I’d be experiencing the crowded markets of China again.
Thunder claps abound, so I headed to the hostel after that, and hung out there for a while until it was time to catch my train. KL Sentral was busy, and I managed to spend the last of my Malaysian money on deodorant and cookies (essentials of travel?). Sleeper on the train was good. I knew I had top bunk, so I was prepared to cable lock myself in again, as I’d done in Europe – but this wasn’t too high, and there was a railing, so I was pretty safe untethered.
Read for a bit on the train, and then tried to get some sleep. Loud and rocky train, but I managed a bit of sleep. The light was on in the cabin the entire trip, and even though we had a curtain for privacy, it was fairly bright.
