Batu Caves, Gombak

Batu Caves is always famous among the Hindus for a ritual and sacred worship place. While for the tourists are here for the magnificent 272 steep steps to the top and the 42.7-metre (140 ft) high statue of Lord Murugan which was unveiled in January 2006, having taken 3 years to construct. It is the tallest Lord Murugan statue in the world . So here I am to bring you to a cave which is just 13 km away from the busy city of Kuala Lumpur. The car park charges is RM2.00/entry. If you walk-in, it is free.

There are a lot of pigeons around here which creates a lot of poos around the area and also an unpleasant stink smell too.

Monkeys have already blended in with the human community here. You are advised not to feed them or scare them because you might attacked by a group of monkeys. 

This monkey is enjoying the final drip of Gatorade energy drink from the bottle. I think he enjoyed it a lot. Got energy?

This baby monkey was trying to have a close contact with human here.

Here we go climbing up almost 100m high. Compare with Wat Arun's stairs, this stair is not that steep at all.

I can walk up the stairs and texting at the same time which just took me 10 minutes without having hard breathing. So for me this stairs is just like any ordinary stairs.

This is the whole outlook of the cave. During Thaipusam celebration, this place is crowded! FYI, Thaipusam is a Hindu festival celebrated mostly by the Tamil community on the full moon in the Tamil month of Thai (January/February).

More stairs to another smaller temple.

Everyday, they have 2 prayer times which you can observed how do they performed it. Abisekam is at 8.00am and 4.00pm.  While another one is called Pooja is at 8.30am and 4.30pm. As you can see from the picture now is Pooja.

The nature of this cave is somehow well preserved even though there are constructions in this cave to build all these temples.

After a cultural experience, now it is time for nature experience at the Dark Cave. Dark Cave is located at the halfway of the 272 steep steps to the top.

The above is the highlights of this cave for you to anticipate. The opening hours is 10.00am - 5.00pm (weekdays) and 10.30am - 5.30pm (weekends & public holidays). Monday is closed.

They have 2 types of tours which are Educational Tour and Adventure Tour. The price stated is for foreigners. As for myKad holders, you will entitled for a RM10 off from the normal price. However there is an extra condition for myKad holders who wish to participate for the Adventure Tour, the minimum pax is 10 persons instead of 8.

What is the difference between Educational Tour and Adventure Tour? Let the picture above explain everything. One thing about the Adventure tour is you need to book one week in advance. No walk in is allowed and the tour usually starts at 9.00am unless you are notified otherwise.

Here is the map of the cave. 

You will smell something unpleasant when you are here which is caused by Fruit Eating Bats. There are Insect-eating Bats inside too and thanks to them you are not feeding mosquitoes. Above are their specimen.

After 20 minutes of waiting, here we are guided by a girl guide to explain and take us through this cave. Same like Gua Tempurung, you are not allowed to explore the cave yourself just to avoid vandalism in the cave.

I said there are no mosquitoes but I did not said there are no cockroaches. So ladies, don't scream...pleaseeeeee!

Sorry that the torchlight provided by the management is just too dim to shine on anything. So the lighting source is highly depending on the tour guide's torchlight. Unfortunately, the light is too harsh to make a good picture. Should have bring my flash.

There are waters in the cave but there are not safe for drinking.

We are lucky enough that day to see a real Snake Runner in the cave.

This is a python type which eats bats. A python does not carries poison so usually they will strangle or swallow their prey.

Another smaller one spotted not far away. What a lucky day on the year of snake! =)

That's the end of the tour which is quite expensive to me. However, they said that the money is used for doing research in the cave. So I have to treat it as a donation instead of paying a service.

This marks the end of our Batu Caves trip. Before that, please be careful with the steps when going down because if you trip, you will fall like a humty dumpty. 

Total Damage: RM52.00
Freakout Level: 3/5
Service: 4/5
Recommended?: Yes

Note: You can take KTM Komuter to Batu Caves station and take a 5-10 minutes walk to here.