Batu Caves and Zoo Negara

Today Carol, Amy,Dustin, Jamee and I went to Batu Caves;  a limestone hill with a number of caves and Hindu cave temples.

The main cave is one of the most popular Hindu shrines outside India and is dedicated to Lord Murugan, the Hindu god of war and victory who is particularly popular among Tamil Hindus.  The Tamil people are an ethnic group native to south India and Sri Lanka and most Indians in Malaysia are Tamil.

It is about 275 steps up to the entrance of the main cave and Carol wisely chose not to attempt it.  Not only are there a lot of steps, they are higher znd narrower than usual and there is no hand rail to hold onto.  I had to stop several times on the way up to rest and I was hyper-vigilant on the way down to keep from falling.

 On the way up there are some little monkey friends who scamper around on the steps and the balustrade.

This is the entrance to the main chamber at the top of the steps.

This is the main chamber of the cave.

 This is the main temple in the cave with people praying.

More monkeys were on the way to the upper level of the cave.

This is a monkey eating a chunk of coconut.

There was a Shiva Nataraj in the upper level of the cave.

There was also a temple at the base of the cave that we visited after we came back down.

There were a couple of Buddhist monks who visited the Hindu Temple.  I followed them in and one of the Hindu priests offered to put an ash mark between their eyes but they declined in a friendly fashion.  The priest then asked me over and I accepted the marking and we had a brief conversation about where I was from.

Inside the temple there were a number of images and statues.  In my view, you've just got to like a religion that celebrates guys with big bellies!

Another Shiva Nataraj, gorgeous and dressed in clothes.

After we left the Batu Caves we went to the Origin, a vegetarian restaurant that we all thought was amazing;  and this from a confirmed meat eater.  The sauces and spices were incredible.  If I could get vegetarian food like that all the time I could be tempted to forego meat entirely.

Then we picked up Macy after her pre-school at Buzzy Bees and then went to Zoo Negara, the Malaysian National Zoo.

There were giraffes.

You could buy sugar cane to feed the elephants.  This is Dustin and Macy feeding one of the elephants.

Once they know you may feed them they can be pretty insistent.

This one decided to reward us with some tricks after we finished giving her some sugarcane.

This is Amy and Macy, just being cute.

There were monkeys.

And Lions.

Another fun day!