Week 2 - The Batu caves and Tourist Experience

My second week at work was rather uneventful. By now I was fully settled in with offers flowing in for visits to various places that I asked to go. Sunday I would be paying a visit to Batu caves and Thursday night I would get my first taste of Malaysia 5 a side also known in these parts as Futsal. Wednesday night brought some laughter for the team for the week. Those who know me, know I like to trim the own sides off my hair and not trusting the Malaysia hair dressers I once again took on this task myself. Only this time was with some rather funny consequences. I slipped and took a large chuck of my hair off with a blade 0! There was nothing I could do but shave the other side, but not a stripe! Just really short and hope the other side would grow out in a week. So a number one all round. Turning up to work the next day looking like the 52nd member of solid crew I gave the team a good laugh. I'm supposed to be managing these guys, if my manager did that I would not be able to take him seriously but oh we'll, I think they found it funny and work went on.

Audition for Malaysia So Solid Crew was a hit

 

Thursday I played Footsal for the first time. I needed to do some exercise as all the cake and sweets I was being fed at work were taking the toll on once quite toned stomach. These Malaysians gave me a run for there money. Not being the most skilful of footballers it took me some time to settle in but I enjoyed every minute. It also turns out football is quite difficult when you can’t communicate. We played from 10 till 1 in sweltering humidity. I was dead by the end of it and was probably lost 2 stone in water.
 
Friday was a rather uneventful night but I went to meet my good friend Ginny and Zoe who were staying in KL for 2 nights. After I went out in Changkat with a lad from work for a relatively quiet night as I had made plans to get up early to meet Ginny.

Donkey Ride round KL Tower

The next day I took them to KLCC and showed them round. A stark contrast to Thailand where they were a few nights ago with huge shopping malls and the Petronas towers. To be honest I'm still not sure how all these Malaysians shopping malls survive as there doesn't seem that much money here maybe there is a big divide between the rich and the poor. They have more designer shops then London and the clothes are more expensive and there are 2 of these multiple £million shopping centres within a mile of each other. I'll give them one thing though; they do have a trendy fashion sense over here not far off London's Shoreditch areas. Possibly due to the influence of a few top shops. If an All Saints springs up somewhere before I leave I wouldn’t be surprised. After we had a look round the KL communication tower but refused to pay the expensive price to go to the top. We then headed to the bird park only to get stopped on the way by a thunderstorm. Luckily thier hotel was nearby so we managed to take shelter for an hour. We decided to go our separate ways and meet later after a change of clothes for some food and some drink. We went the Pavillion, the other shopping mall for food where we had an amazing meal of BBQ chicken and duck. So I know sounds like and every day meal but it tasted amazing and all for £3 a head. We then had a few beers, watched the football, while they told me all about their amazing travels for the year and some things I have to look forward to. It makes me rather excited for my few little travels round Asia. I also enjoyed watching Spurs lose to Wigan and Man Utd beating arsenal. Then it was home time to get some sleep ready for the early start for Batu Caves.

Monkey at Batu Caves Chilling

 

To be honest I didn't really know much about the place apart from it was good to look at and was a historical ground for Buddhists. We got there about 9 to climbs the 300+ steps before the midday heat. I'm glad we did. Before we descended on the stair way to Batu caves we chilled at the bottom waiting for a couple of others where an old wise Chinese man preceded to tell me that Malaysians refuse to come here because they were lazy and obese whilst looking at my friend who took offence. I just found it rather funny. We then took on the tiring task of climbing to the top and boy was this tiring. When we got to the top we were greeted with an impressive sight of limestone caves with the sunlight beaming through. Other than this, a few tourist stools with handmade items and a temple prayer building there wasn't much else to do so after 10 minutes we made our way back to the bottom.

The Stairs to the top, one day ill have a statue like this

 

 

After we went for breakfast and then off to the national monument. This was then followed to a trip to the old palace where I got a Royal Malaysian history lesson. I found this quite interesting with Malaysia being under British rule all those years ago. After the history lesson came my favourite part of the day. Believe it or not this came in the form of the trip to a good supermarket. I went crazy and bought enough food from 2 weeks and they even had a non halal section. Hello Mr bacon sandwich!!! Now I had enough food to cook for 2 weeks and make my much lived chilli. Superhot with the Chilli’s here so I headed home and cooked one up. By the time I had finished it was quite late so I headed for bed so I was ready for my third week at work!

Stair way to ..........

 

Caves view

 



 

Palace History