Visiting Batu Caves Hindu Temple for the Very First Time Like a Malaysian, not a Tourist

The first thing that pops up in my mind when someone mentions Batu Caves is it is a place you will go if you are a Hindu and you would like to perform your prayers. But in reality, it is more than just a temple or a Hindu shrine located in a limestone cave. It is one of the top tourist hot spot and a highly recommened place to visit if you are a tourist visiting Kuala Lumpur. I had lived in Kuala Lumpur for a good 5 years or so but I had only been there for the first time last year. To be exact, I was visitng Batu Caves temple on a Christmas day.:)

I do not know what took me so long to get here but that's not the point and no longer an issue. I was there at Batu Caves mainly for these few reasons.

Why did I finally decide to visit Batu Caves?

1. To count exactly how many steps it takes to climb up the stairs of Batu Caves temple


2. To check out the caves and the humongous, gold plated Lord Murugan statue which is visible from far away as you pass the MRR2 highway.


3. To cross “Visiting Batu Caves” out of the list of places that I wanted to go and finally surrender with the fact that I'm just yet another tourist in my own beloved country. Yes I am. :)

I was there with my old friend and we were both first timers, Batu Caves visitors. We weren't the only first timers for the day. I find that Batu Caves is a well developed tourist spot or for the other half of those visitor it will be a well developed and maintained temple complex.

What to expect at Batu Caves?

The list can go on and on but these are the major things you can expect out of Batu Caves :

• Loads of tourists and when I was there, there were more tourists than worshippers. Tourists varies from the Arabs with their hijabs, Japanese, Indonesians, Indians and of course the local Malaysian tourists; that will be people like me.

[caption id="attachment_2664" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="Batu Caves temple at the top"][/caption]

• Loads of photographers too and I think a lot of photography clubs in Malaysia do organize photograpy trips in Batu Caves and I personally think Batu Caves is an excellent and unique place to capture beautiful photos.


• There will be monkeys and people who are either scared of them ( like me) and people who are mesmerized by the smart monkeys who are happily waiting to grap or rather snatch whatever food you toss their way. I don't quite fancy monkeys and I do my level best to avoid them especially those male ones.


• You will get to see some chickens roaming around the temple. I don't know how and why they are there but these animals are there. I wonder if the chickens got anything to do with any of the prayer rituals. I'm not sure on that.


• If my calculation and observations are correct, there should be about two temples in the huge cave. You can stand and watch how the rituals are done and at one of the temples, there is a big enough flat screen TV and you can view the prayer rituals from there without having to go farther inside the little temple compound.


• While you are there in the temple, do look above you and spend sometime there to have a good look of the structure of the caves and snap away on your camera. And don't spend too much time trying to feed the monkeys or the chickens. The main attractions here are obviously the limestone caves and the temple okay people!


• On your way back, you can visit the Dark Cave Tour which you can see on your left side as you are climbing up the stairs. I would have taken a quick peek over at the Cave Tours but of course I did not get to that that thanks to the jumping monkeys right at the entrance of it.

[caption id="attachment_2663" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="Dark Cave Tour at Batu Caves"][/caption]

• As we were making our way down the stairs, we came across this really old woman. I couldn't resist myself. I had to stop, really have a good look at her and snapped a picture of her. Haha. Hey, you don't get to see this view everyday you know.

[caption id="attachment_2662" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="Old woman at Batu Caves with super long hair"][/caption]

• There will be a lot of souvenir shops and even vegetarian restaurants aorund the temple complex as you make your way in and out of the temple's entrance. I wouldn't recommend you to get your souvenirs there but then again it's you choice. We didn't make our way to the vegetarian restaurants although it was really tempting and it was just about lunch hour time because I know the best place to get your North Indian Banana Leaf rice fix is at Nirwana Maju, Bangsar or some other restaurants around Petaling Jaya (PJ) area.

At the end of the day, I was pretty happy and contented with my short trip up and down the stairs of Batu Caves. It was a good workout, the day was hot and that place was jam packed with people aka tourists.

Oh yes, you may be wondering how many stairs exactly are there to climb to the top of Batu Caves? The answer to that question is I have no idea how many there are. Haha. I lost count after steps number 4 because you really need to watch out for your steps and not going around bumping people while you are going up those somewhat steep and not so wide stairs. I had checked with my Indian friends though on the exact number and it is confirmed and even Wike-ed that the total number of stairs at Batu Caves is 272 steps.

Batu Caves is definitely crossed out from my list of places to visit around KL and if you haven't already been there, I think you really should to experience a wonderfully new cultural experience altogether.