A Trip to Batu Caves

Once upon a time, there lived two very curious creatures. They were at the moment curious on Thaipusam, an Indian event that occurs once a year and is significant as it is a day for one to wash away one's sins through various means. Such means are carrying heavy kavadis and bring milk for the Gods. My my...i sound so formal.. Haha.. Okay, basically Visha and I wanted to check out Thaipusam because we're curious aight? So, we set off to go. I was to meet Visha at the KTM station at 10am...which i succeeded. Hehe.. Bangga la...and from there, we went to KL Sentral and got off and took another train to Sentul. From Sentul we got off again and got to ANOTHER freakin train to get our butt to Batu Caves. As you can see from the elevated vulgarity in the speech, it suggests that my nerves was too at the time...except it didn't became vulgar..just that it uh..the journey got onto my nerves and poked it around.









Waiting for the KTM at KL Sentral / Visha buying tickets to Batu Caves from Sentul (she's the one in pink)

The Journey ladies and gentlemen was horrendous. Its like being a pack of sardines in a small can... and BTW, a guy with ridiculously thick boots stepped on my toe...for quite some time.. Ouch. couldn't say anything coz i was holding my breath..the odour, phew.. Nonetheless, Visha and I prevailed. Haha!
So, once we got out of the KTM station, Hanuman greeted us.. Well, not exactly. He was the first statue we saw.

Hanuman
(I understand he's the greatest devotee to Rama..i think.. and his wife. If you notice, he had his hands "rip" his chest and there reveals the two Gods he is devoted to.. I'm just guessing it based on my limited knowledge. If i'm wrong, do correct me.:))
There were lots and lots of people...and there were stall selling food, clothes...and even hiphop music...(which i find weird). The place where i stood to take Hanuman's picture was a temple on my right.

and candles were lit just in front of the temple front..(nice picture eh? Hehe..kembang hidung)


So..we walk and walk trough various stalls and came across an entrance to a portion of Batu Caves' attraction grounds. Its an entrance to the smaller caves and animal captivity place thingy. So, Visha and I paid about RM5 for out admission and they gave use nice little paper bracelet. :D
First thing we saw was..a rooster(who has taken the liberty to pose for a snap).



then i took more pictures of the animals there...







Then, i moved on to the cage of monkeys and was about to snap a picture when the male monkey just went up the female monkey and do his thing...he was trying to start a family if you catch my drift. :)
So, we went then to the first cave. There were a lot of statues of gods/goddesses...and it was surprisingly cooling. There were breeze coming from between the shafts of stone...it was better than air-cond. It felt natural... hehe..
These are the few pictures of statues i took.. i had more but its too troublesome to upload everything..









After all those snapshots of the gods, i went to the next cave. They call it, Cave of Reptiles.. lame.. :D..
Anyhow, there were a lot of reptilians. I even poke one big ass snake and it flinched..and guess what, Visha flinched too! My, she can really jump....







So, when we got out of the cave, we saw Lord Murugan... His biggest statue in Malaysia? Or was it the world?.. Hehe..but the point is, he's huge. If I'm not mistaken, he's the God of War..?



Visha and i wanted to go up the stairs but there were a lot of people going up and we were too beat to go... so, we decided to exit the place for a while, get some food, refresh ourselves... On our way out, we saw men carrying the kavadis..





aiyoo.. so many things to write.. okay okay... Ganbatte!!! Man, the uploading is really killing me..

Right...where was i? Yes, after we saw the kavadis, we went out of the area right and saw a guy, maybe in his early twenties.. He was preparing for the whole shebang.



and next to him was the river where people cleanse themselves and give offerings....but it was dirty.. filled with trash and i was thinking..its a place for one to cleanse himself/herself...and to give offerings to their gods..isn't something sacred should be done with much respect? Hygiene? ..??

the river


After that, we went in a temple nearby where another ritual was carried out. This guy, instead of carrying kavadis, had a lot of hooks on his back. I saw the whole thing and did take some videos...Which i will edit and post it here later...when i eventually get it done.. ;D
SO, after bowing to the gods..he was hooked, starts shivering, and screams (it might be just me but he sounded girlish when he screamed..you know, those high pitched screams..) and began dancing, then posed like the gods...and then while a guys pulls the ropes (the ropes were attached to the hook which is hooked onto his back) and he moves forward. The guy at the back had a hard time...he was really strong. Then it stopped for a while..and another guy placed one of those tied flowers around his neck.. I hate commentating on events. Suck at it...





So, after all that. We ate at the nearest shop and then decided to do palm reading.. Hilarious. Hey, i was just curious alright? And no, i do not believe palm reading..or any types of readings for that matter but i do enjoy knowing what they have to say about mua.. We paid Rm7 for one reading..and he (the palm reader you call him?) took my left hand and says:
1. i come from a rich family
2. i have strong body and mind
3. moey comes easily to me...(yeah rite)
4. I will travel a lot
5.currently, there's two guys who likes me.. *chuckles*
6. will marry at the age of 25 *rotfl*
7. i will have 6 kids *just died*
So, thats basically what he told me... of course Visha's is the most interesting one but who am i to reveal her destiny.. (hey Visha! Dun believe 100%)

So...did i miss anything else? ah, the journey back.. The KTM was packed and there was this boy who keeps saying "excuse me..excuse me.." *shut up!* Urgh..he was shoving up and down...doing it so many time dunno where he's heading too. and he's pushing me and i barely have space to stand.. so, i decided to trip him..and planned to have my foot to "accidentally" be in his way so as to trip the boy... fortunately for him (or maybe i was thinking aloud) he didn't come back. So, thats how my day went by..and of course i did leave out some things.. :D Malas laa want to be so detailed...and pardon the grammar mistakes.. i didn't read it through... i just published..

BTW: Many thanks to my guide-cum-companion-cum-umbrella holder-cum-ticket buyer.

Visha