During the week, we began to find a rhythm with our new routine. We were both still working, so to coincide with UK hours, we started our workday at 4 pm. This meant that, provided we didn’t get up too late, we would have a day to explore before we began work.
On Monday, after our weekend of travelling and a 12-hour discovery tour of Kuala Lumpur, we awoke with just enough time to find food, and to book and have a wonderful full-body massage at a blind massage parlour Miki had found during his pre-travel research.
Day two involved a little more activity. Having recovered a little the previous day, we were up and out early to see the Batu Caves, an important temple for the Hindi population in Malaysia. Though I’d been on my previous visit to Malaysia, I found that many of my memories of this country are a little hazy after just a quick visit six years ago, and I was happy to go again. I’d forgotten, for example, that the temple grounds are inhabited by a large troop of monkeys. Most of them were long-tailed macaques. We saw some monkey mums carrying their young, the babies clinging to the front of their mums’ bodies as their parents moved around constantly scavenging for food.
After we passed an immensely tall golden statue, we accessed the caves by a very large number of stairs, an archway at the bottom marking the beginning of the trek upwards. Here I saw three or four monkeys that were a different breed. They had distinctive googly eyes and big lips, like no monkey I’d ever seen. A Google search of that exact description later that day gave me the name of the dusky leaf monkey straight away, so I feel my choice of words must be very apt.
We began our way up just as rain began to pour. Luckily we’d brought an umbrella from the flat, though it made it a little more difficult to climb the stairs whilst trying to stay protected from the downpour. We stopped halfway and looked down to see the square, which had been a bustle of activity just moments before, was now empty. How quickly a downpour makes people disperse!
Once inside the cave, we saw a large temple in the lower area, with another temple in the distance up another set of stairs. I noticed many peacock statues on the wall surrounding the nearest temple, discovering later after some research that the peacock is a sacred bird in the Hindi religion and is the national bird of India. I always find Hindi temples so striking, the buildings awash with colour and stories among the statues.
As we reached the higher temple we watched from a distance as a man performing a ceremony put bindis on the heads of Hindus who had come to worship. We then witnessed what to me was an incredibly beautiful moment of acceptance as the (I assume) Hindu priest also put bindis on the heads of some Western people standing within the temple. Even though they were brazenly stood inside with shorts above the knees, one man even stood filming from his phone on a stick. It seemed to us quite disrespectful of the religion, and so I was touched to see that despite this, the Hindu priest still accepted them into the moment instead of judging or scorning them.
On our way out of the cave, as we headed down the steep steps, I looked up at one point to see a monkey perched on the bannister right next to me. We made eye contact and I kept the contact a second too long, momentarily imagining creating a connection with this creature. The monkey didn’t agree! Instead, they bared their teeth and hissed, making me jump with fright and worry that my rabies jab had recently run out!
We decided to stop for lunch at the base caves picking one from a line of restaurants. It was Indian food again but at a great price, 19 Malaysian Ringgit (the equivalent of about £3.40) for us both!
Back in town, we’d gone to an area near our accommodation called Little India to grab a few things. The streets were vibrant with colour – a mixture of clothes shops and food. Miki was looking for some lighter trousers so we had a quick look in some of the clothes shops. He didn’t find what he was looking for, but it was great to get the chance to explore the colourful wonders within, clothes racks and walls covered in so many intricate, vivid colours.
We arrived back at the accommodation just in time to grab some lemon juice from a small cafe on the ground level and begin our workday. We felt quite satisfied having enjoyed such a full day before work.
Our last full day in Kuala Lumpur was a little more relaxed. After running some errands to find a few things we wanted before leaving the city, we planned to head across town to have lunch at a Buddhist monastery Miki had found online. Our search for insect repellent, poncho, and computer charging cable meant we looked for (and found) shops and nooks often missed by tourists. The task of finding some more day-to-day items meant we looked at the streets in a way you wouldn’t when there to see the sights.
We stopped along the way to order mango and dragonfruit juice, the cup arriving half full of brilliant orange, the other half bright pink. The almost syrupy sweetness of the mango was diluted by the softer, more watery taste of the dragonfruit as we mixed the drink.
We took a metro across the centre to the monastery and found the temple just a short walk from the station, nestled neatly among high-rise buildings somehow almost hidden in plain sight. We were unsure at first whether we’d reached the right place, but followed a few people around the corner and saw our way to the food centre.
Inside we found a delightful veggie buffet. Lines of silver tables, full to begin with, were emptying by the time we were ready to leave. We’d also found some sweet treats to take away on our way to the cashier. One choice found a special place in our hearts (and stomachs) – a flaky pastry biscuit with a pineapple jam inside. Something we thought was a rare find but would discover (luckily for us) that it was a common type of biscuit in Malaysia, other fillings included pandan and (unexpectedly) chicken.
