I'm just travelin', travelin', travelin', I'm just travelin' on

Batu Cave

Lord Murugan

So yesterday Heather and I had quite the day. My Aunty's friend, Pat, who I spoke about earlier was so kind to drive us around to a few sights. We began by going out for some Indian food for breakfast YUM! YUM! Then we headed over to Batu Cave which is a huge cave that also serves as a Hindu Shrine. There are 272 steps leading up to the cave and there is a 140 foot high statue of Lord Murugan (Hindu God) right in front of the cave. Last time I came to Batu Cave, which was 6 years ago, the Statue was only half completed and there were no buildings around and no souvenir vendors. This time was a little different. There were vendors everywhere not only selling souvenirs and Hindu statues, but toys and carpets and everything. The Cave use to be one of my favorite sights in
Malaysia and in the world but now I can confidently say that it has lost its

Death Monkeys

spiritual touch to consumerism, but still remains a fun place to visit. I was telling Heather about how last time I came to Batu Cave with my brother I got chased by a monkey so this time I decided to keep my distance from all of them which is hundreds. I walked up the stairs with confidence and making no eye contact with any of the monkeys. I was doing quite well until I got to the top. There were some Monkeys playing and some stupid Asian man, that I could kill, decided to play with them and get them excited. Then one of them spotted me from across the crowd of people and started to walk towards me. I began to tell myself to stay calm and not to run but then when I noticed he wouldn't stop approaching me and was getting faster I let out a great big scream and started to run. The monkey chased me until I went towards a bunch of people and grabbed on to some random lady. My legs were shaking and at that moment I wanted to die! I followed 5 Indian men down in hopes that if another monkey decided to chase me, that maybe they would protect me. The walk down was probably 15 minutes but to me it seemed like a life time as every time I saw a monkey time seemed to stand still. Besides the monkeys the cave was as beautiful as ever with many Hindu statues to see. When we got back down where there were no Monkeys (thank god) we walked around to all the stands. We saw two ladies giving Hanna tattoos which I never seem to be able to resist. 

Getting Hanna done

They were those beautiful hanna tattoos that Indian people get done on special occasions, not those horrible tribal ones that you see done at Canada's wonderland. After our hanna tattoos we met up with Pat again and sat down for some Coconut water. Coconut water has this very subtle sour flavor and it's sorta like a 2 in 1 snack because after you drink the water you get to eat the flesh. After our delicious Coconuts we headed over to the other side of town to see a very large Chinese temple called Thean Hou
Temple.

Thean Hou Templ

This is a primarily Taoist temple but in the center there was a Buddhist temple so I don't really know what it is.The temple is especially exciting to see right now because it is completely covered in Chinese lanterns for Chinese New Year. So beautiful. On the outside garden they had a display of all the statues for the 12 Animals of the year. This year is the year of the Rabbit which means if you were born in 1987 or January of 1988 then this is your year!!!!!! They say that the qualities of a rabbit are; Compassionate, Loving, Tactful, Well-Mannered, Hospitable, Caring, and Diplomatic. Pretty good. I am a Dragon which will be next year!!! How exciting! The temple also had a Tortoise Pond. I discovered that Tortoises are very boring and sorta gross looking.

Tortoise Pond

Rambutan

On the way home from the temple we stopped by a few fruit stands in hopes to find Mangosteen which is the most delicious fruit in the world!!! Unfortunately we did not find any but we did buy some mangoes and Dragon fruit. We also got to stop for some Tofu fa. Tofu fa is an Asian dessert which is soft tofu with sugar syrup on top. Heather was not the biggest fan but I thought this was actually the best Tofu fa I had ever tried. It was made with brown sugar which I had never had before. Normally I've eaten it with white sugar. After this we headed back home for rest and dinner as the day was very exhausting and at times frightening. So until tomorrow.

Finished product

Tofu fa 

 From Malaysia with love

Karin