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Batu Caves large Murugan statue steps Malaysia

Malaysia 2010: Day 8 — Kuala Lumpur (Batu Caves, Petaling Street/China Town)

By Mithun Divakaran
/
Apr 04, 2011
/
Malaysia, Travel

Date: 2nd October 2010

Today we needed to be out and early as we had to head far out to reach Batu Caves, a famous Hindu temple site — and one of Kuala Lumpur’s must-see sights. Since I was up and ready first, I decided to take a few photos of the place where we were staying.

Irsia, according to the Iranians who run the place, is a fairly new hostel/bed-n-breakfast/budget guesthouse.

Irsia hostel shoes Kuala Lumpur Malaysia — You have to leave your shoes downstairs as no shoes are allowed into rooms

Irsia hostel ground floor rooms Kuala Lumpur Malaysia — The place is quite clean though. These are the rooms downstairs.

Irsia hostel dining room Kuala Lumpur Malaysia — The dining room is downstairs

Irsia hostel kitchen Kuala Lumpur Malaysia — The kitchen is where you can make yourself toast and coffee/tea

As was the norm everywhere we stayed on this trip, once you are done with breakfast, you wash the dishes yourself and keep it back from where you took them.

Irsia hostel bed & breakfast lobby Kuala Lumpur Malaysia — The lobby/reception/living area has books, a TV and two computers with free internet service

Irsia BnB lobby KL Revive Isotonik — They sell bottled water lower than what the 7-Elevens charge

Irsia hostel verandah Kuala Lumpur Malaysia — This is the sit-out area. Smoking is not allowed inside the rooms.

Irsia hostel sit out area Kuala Lumpur Malaysia — This is where we sat yesterday night and had our dinner

Irsia hostel rainbow stairs Kuala Lumpur Malaysia — No elevator. You have take these stairs to go up.

Irsia hostel upstairs rooms Kuala Lumpur Malaysia — Upstairs, where our triple room was (Photograph by Loiyumba, taken yesterday)

Irsia BnB F1 triple room Kuala Lumpur Malaysia — How appropriate our room number was ‘F1’ for this ‘F1 trip’ of ours

Irsia hostel upstairs bathrooms Kuala Lumpur Malaysia — These are the bathrooms upstairs

That concludes our tour of Irsia hostel/Bed-n-Breakfast/guesthouse/budget hotel 🙂

Given that our triple room cost us around Rs. 4300 (RM297/$96/€68) for 3 nights, we couldn’t have been more happier with Irsia, given the location. Yes, the walls are a little thin and ventilation isn’t great, but if you are going to be spending more time inside hotel rooms, you best look at proper hotels. By the way, that is Rs. 4300 for all three of us — Rs. 1400 per person, for 3 nights in KL!

Once all three of us were ready and done with breakfast, we stepped out. We decided to take the monorail to get to KL Sentral.

Imbi station monorail Kuala Lumpur — The monorail station in front of Berjaya Times Square is called Imbi

Imbi monorail station Kuala Lumpur morning — At 9:30am, the station wasn’t all that crowded

KL monorail view city river stream — The ride takes around 15-20 minutes with all the stops

Once at KL Sentral, we asked the information desk how to get to Batu Caves and were instructed to head downstairs to the train platforms. We bought our tickets (RM2/Rs. 30/$0.60) and headed down.

KL Sentral train station Batu Caves — There are frequent trains to Batu Caves

Unfortunately, in the confusion of which train to get on, I accidentally stepped into the wrong train but was too late to step out as the doors closed with Ramesh and Loi still on the platform.

Kuala Lumpur city train station — I got down at the old Kuala Lumpur Railway Station, which was the next stop

But by then, Ramesh and Loiyumba were in the right train and already ahead of me.

Kuala Lumpur train station — I soon got the next train and was on my way

The ride took nearly 30 minutes and by the time I arrived at the station (which by the way is the last stop), Ramesh and Loiyumba were already at the temple.

Getting to Batu Caves Kuala Lumpur Malaysia — There is no entry fee for Batu Caves

Batu Caves Hanuman green statue — Hanumanji’s presence isn’t the biggest here

Batu caves Venkatachalapathi temple Kualu Lumpur — Sri Venkatachalapathi temple

Batu Caves Chinese garden Kuala Lumpur Malaysia — This is a Chinese garden; I believe entry wasn’t free

Batu Caves pigeons kid Malaysia — Pigeons must hate kids

Batu Caves adult scaring pigeons KL Malaysia — Scratch that. Pigeons hate humans.

Batu Caves Murugan statue steps Malaysia — It was time for me go up, Ramesh and Loi were already in the cave

Batu Caves steps Murugan statue height — This statue of Lord Murugan is the biggest of its kind in the world

Batu Caves 272 steps hill climb KL Malaysia — 272 steps to climb

Batu Caves monkey stair pillar KL Malaysia — Along the way (as was the norm on this trip), you’ll encounter plenty of monkeys

Batu Caves monkey grabbing banana from tourist — And as usual, monkeys will try and grab stuff from you

Batu Caves monkey silent KL Malaysia — But they are generally well behaved here

Once I reached the top, I met up with Ramesh and Loiyumba who were done and were ready to head back down. They said they would wait for me down below and so, I went in for my photography.

Batu Caves inside main cave area — It only got better once inside

Batu Caves roof gaps in rocks — There were gaps in the ceiling through which water was dripping down

Batu Caves inside steps to second temple — There are two temples in side the cave

Batu Caves inside main temple Swami Sannathi — This. apparently, is the ‘main temple’

Batu Caves inside monkey begging food — This monkey was a spoilt one. When this Indian couple gave hims some food, he dropped it and picked up a burger instead.

Batu Caves inside temple vertical shot — I was glad I had my wide angle lens with me

Batu Caves inside temple writings on wall — Apparently they should have also mentioned ‘No Scribbling’

Batu Caves inside temple rock colours — I liked the photos I clicked in here

But even with a wide-angle lens, trying to capture the scale of the caves from the inside (without distortion) was near impossible, so I took a few multiple shots and merged them into one using Photoshop.

Batu Caves vertical panorama — Vertical panorama comprised of 10 shots

Batu Caves steps dark inside vertical panorama — Vertical panorama comprised of 11 shots

Batu Caves stairs inside lighting panorama — Vertical panorama comprised of 8 shots

Batu Caves water dropping on steps — I was trying to capture water dropping on to the steps

Batu Caves steps way out — After nearly 20 minutes inside the cave, it was time for me head down

Batu Caves view of Kuala Lumpur — It was a cloudy day, so I couldn’t see the Petronas Towers from here. Actually, I’m not even sure if they are visible from up here.

Batu Caves large Lord Murugan statue Kuala Lumpur Malaysia — Vertical panorama comprised of 5 shots

Once down, I caught up with Loi and Ramesh and we decided to have lunch from here itself.

Batu Caves Dhivya's Cafe jain food Kuala Lumpur Malaysia — This is where we ate. There aren’t too many options actually.

Post lunch, we just sat outside for a while and observed the crowds. We were even approached by some PR team for Sony, and asked to pretend we were using Sony camcorders. In return for doing so, we asked them if we could keep them — but they said no. 🙂

Batu Caves wedding couple photography — Not sure if this couple were shooting for their wedding album or not

Batu Caves train Komuter station — This is the Batu Caves train station

Batu Caves inside station — (Photograph by Loiyumba)

Batu Caves train station public sign Malaysia — In case you wanted to know the Malay words for public signs (Photograph by Loiyumba)

Batu Caves Tandas Lelaki — Tandas = toilet (Photograph by Loiyumba)

We bought our tickets (RM2) and boarded our train.

Kuala Lumpur Petronas Towers from far Malaysia — It was a cloudy day, but we could still see the Petronas Towers from afar

Dynasty Hotel Kuala Lumpur Malaysia — If you were looking for nasty hotel in KL. (J/k, it’s quite fancy: http://www.dynasty.com.my/)

Ramesh Mithun train Kuala Lumpur — (Photograph taken by Loi)

Once we got back to KL Sentral, we decided to head to the IKEA store as Ramesh was keen on picking up some stuff from there. The outlet was located in the area called Mutiara Damansara and we asked around on how to get there by bus. We waited at bus stop outside KL Sentral and hopped on to one that went that way.

The journey took us through a lot of residential areas in Kuala Lumpur.

(These were taken on my Nokia E72)

An hour long journey later, we were in Petaling Jaya. Even though it was a long journey, it was quite a relaxing one for me as I got to see residential areas outside of the CBD (Central Business District), something I wouldn’t have seen given where we were staying.

Ikano Power Centre mall Kuala Lumpur Malaysia — The IKEA store is right adjacent to this

Once we entered the IKEA store, we were hooked! There was soooooo much that we felt like picking up, but just couldn’t, because figuring out how to carry them home was something we couldn’t comprehend.

Regardless, we still picked up quite a bit of stuff and by the time were out, it was well past sunset.

Ikea store Kuala Lumpur Malaysia — Technically, the IKEA store is not in Kuala Lumpur, it’s in neighbouring district

Since we had quite a lot of stuff with us to carry, we decided to just take a cab.

Kuala Lumpur tunnel underpass Malaysia — Though bus only cost us RM2.60 for 3, taxi was much required to save time

And save time it did, the taxi took the highway from the IKEA store into KL and we were back in our rooms in just half-an-hour. (IKEA store directions)

For dinner, we decided to head to Kuala Lumpur’s China Town, which was also accessible via monorail.

From Imbi, the monorail stop for getting to China Town was only two stops away, at Maharajalela.

Jalan Petaling street China town entrance Kuala Lumpur — If you ask locals around for “Chinatown” and they don’t get it, just ask for Petaling street

Once inside, it was a just one street (probably covering two blocks) with a lot of stores and street shops. No vehicles allowed.

KL Petaling Street shopping handbags — You have the usual gamut of fake goods, pirated CD/DVDs and clothes

Petaling Street Chinatown crowds Kuala Lumpur — But I didn’t really find anything particularly interesting about this ‘Chinatown’

Petaling Street shops Chinatown KL Malaysia — Plus, the prices were quite high considering the stuff they sold weren’t what you would call “genuine”

A lot of the t-shirts were from Thailand and so, cost a lot more than what I saw them for in Bangkok. Yes, you have to haggle, but even when Loi did so for a backpack, the price they came down to was still too high. We soon left Petaling Street.

And just as we left, it began to rain all of a sudden.

Plaza Warisan bricked streets rain night Kuala Lumpur — Fortunately we had umbrellas

We saw an Malay Indian restaurant and jumped in for a quick dinner.

Roti parota beef curry Kuala Lumpur — The place was run by Malay Tamilians; food was simple and decent enough taste-wise

Ramesh didn’t find anything on the menu that was pure veg, so it was just myself & Loi. Once we were done, we headed back to Berjaya Times Square by taxi (cost RM5) as it was still raining.

Berjaya Times Square Krispy Kreme Kuala Lumpur Malaysia — It was dinner at Krispy Kreme for Ramesh

Loiyumba penchant pose Kuala Lumpur night — It stopped raining by midnight

We headed back to Irsia, calculated our daily expenses, sorted out who paid for what, and who owes whom how much — pretty much a daily routine for us on this trip, before hitting the sack.

I was quite happy with some of the photos I took inside Batu Caves and rate the caves highly as one of the “must see” sights in Kuala Lumpur. It only costs RM 2 for the one way journey to Batu Caves by train and is a nice break from the city.

Tomorrow morning, we planned to get up early (again) and head to Petronas Towers to try and get a ticket to visit the observation deck. We only had one more day left in the capital.

Other posts in this series:

Singapore & Malaysia 2010: Planning and preparing for the trip

Singapore 2010: Day 1 – Little India, CBD, Clarke Quay, China Town… and a lot of walking

Singapore 2010: Day 2 – Orchard Road, mall-hopping… and already shopping

Singapore 2010: Day 3 – Singapore Zoo, Marina Bay Sands; leaving Singapore for Penang

Malaysia 2010: Day 5 — Langkawi (Ferry ride from Penang, Cable car & Sky Bridge)

Malaysia 2010: Day 6 — Langkawi (Island hopping tour, Pantai Tengah beach, Night market)

Malaysia 2010: Day 7 — Kuala Lumpur (Low Yat Plaza, Petronas Towers, Jalan Alor)

Malaysia 2010: Day 9 — Kuala Lumpur (KLCC Aquaria, Merdeka Square, KL Tower observation deck)

Malaysia 2010: Leaving Kuala Lumpur… and about going back

Malaysia 2010: Day 7 — Kuala Lumpur (Low Yat Plaza, Petronas Towers, Jalan Alor)

By Mithun Divakaran
/
Mar 27, 2011
/
Malaysia, Travel

Date: 1st October 2010

After two wonderful days in beautiful Langkawi, it was now time for the last leg of our journey. We reached Langkawi airport for our morning flight to Kuala Lumpur. After having our breakfast at Kenny Rogers Roasters (not a whole lot of options at the airport), we checked in and waited for our 11:45am flight.

Langkawi airport Air Asia morning flight — Our flight was on time (Above photos taken on Nokia E72)

We all sat together but Ramesh chose the window seat. The following are his photographs.

Langkawi wave breaker from plane Malaysia — That’s a wavebreaker

We landed at Kuala Lumpur Low Cost Terminal nearing 1pm and was out in 30 minutes. There were plenty of buses from KL LCCT to KL Sentral, which is the main transportation hub in Kuala Lumpur city.

KL LCCT to KL Sentral bus Manchester United believe — We got a ManU fan for a driver

LCCT to KL Sentral Kuala Lumpur bus journey — The bus ride costs RM8 (Rs. 117/$2.7)

LCCT to KL Sentral Kuala Lumpur heavy rain — Soon after, it began to rain heavily

Kuala Lumpur city highway powerlines — But halfway through the journey, the rain stopped

Kuala Lumpur city highway Petronas in distance — Malaysia’s landmark in the distance

Kuala Lumpur construction near KL Sentral — After nearly an hour, we arrived at KL Sentral

After reaching KL Sentral, we then hired a taxi to where were staying.

Kuala Lumpur city Proton taxi — It cost us RM35 from KL Sentral to Berjaya Times Square

Kuala Lumpur luxury building — (Above photos taken on Nokia E72)

After a 15 minute journey, we reached Berjaya Times Square. There is a metro service from KL Sentral to Berjaya Times Square, but with our luggage, we decided to just take a cab.

Kuala Lumpur Irsia bed and breakfast hostel — The tiny white building was where we would be staying: Irsia Bed & Breakfast

We chose Irsia after much deliberation and researching on the location. We made our booking for a triple room.

Irsia bed breakfast hostel triple room Kuala Lumpur — Which by the way, looks like this

After freshening up and making our payments, we headed to Berjaya Times Square for lunch.

Berjaya Times Square is relatively old but still remains one of Malaysia’s biggest and popular shopping destinations. It’s pretty huge, with 7 floors of shopping — high ends brands in the lower floors and more affordable stuff in the higher up floors. There’s also a 5-star hotel, Berjaya Hotel — among other things.

Berjaya Times Square hotel escalator floors — (Photograph by Loiyumba)

We headed all the way up to the 10th floor to the food court. We chose our meals from a place selling ‘mock non-veg’ food.

Kuala Lumpur Berjaya Times Square soya food court — Pick and choose

By that I mean, stuff that looks like chicken and fish but are actually vegetarian because they are essentially soya-filled made to look like non-veg items.

Kuala Lumpur city SJK Julimbi building — The view from up here

When I mentioned “among other things” earlier…

Berjaya Times Square indoor roller coaster — … there’s also an indoor theme park with a rollercoaster inside the building

Berjaya Times Square indoor theme park — I tried to the get the whole theme park section of the building in one frame

Berjaya Times Square mall Kuala Lumpur — We stepped out

Kuala Lumpur Times Square monorail line — And decided to check out the area we were in

We chose to stay at Irsia because it was close to a lot of places we wanted to go. One among them being Low Yat Plaza, Kuala Lumpur’s famous IT mall.

After crossing the road, it was a short walk to Low Yat

Kuala Lumpur Plaza Low Yat side entrance — This isn’t the main entrance

Kuala Lumpur Low Yat Plaza five floors — 6 floors of gadgets

I couldn’t get to spend much time in Singapore’s IT malls to pick up the things I wanted, so I consoled myself assuming I could get them at Low Yat.

Sadly, the selection of camera tripods weren’t very exhaustive and I couldn’t really find everything I wanted. Also, more importantly, the prices we found for some items were far more than what we saw in Singapore. There isn’t an incentive for tourists either via a tax refund scheme like Singapore has with its GST refund and Thailand has with its VAT refund scheme.

Kuala Lumpur Low Yat Plaza stores — I checked out pretty much every floor

After lingering around for nearly 30 minutes, we left.

We were soon on Bukit Bintang, Kuala Lumpur’s popular shopping district.

A short walk from here is Jalan Alor, also nicknamed ‘Food Street’.

Kuala Lumpur Jalan Alor evening — Not buzzing just quite yet

Kuala Lumpur city CBD traffic — Quite a lot of malls in Bukit Bintang

Kuala Lumpur monorail train — KL’s monorail service (Photograph by Loiyumba)

Kuala Lumpur monorail HSBC branch — We were walking towards Malaysia’s world famous landmark

Kuala Lumpur Hotel Istana Menara KL tower evening — It’s tall, but it isn’t KL Tower

Kuala Lumpur Petronas towers Monorail — That’s where we were headed — Petronas Twin Towers

Kuala Lumpur Menara KL Malaysia — I had plans to go to Menara KL too

Kuala Lumpur Menara Shangri La hotel Malaysia — Menara KL (or KL Tower) is in fact taller than Petronas towers, but that’s because it’s perched atop a hill

KL Petronas Tower Canon street ad — Even half of one tower is impressive to look at

Kuala Lumpur Suria KLCC shopping mall — Suria KLCC is the shopping mall (KLCC is the convention centre I believe)

Public Bank AmBank headquarter building KL — Plenty of bank headquarters in and around Petronas Towers

We walked into Suria but there was a sign saying at certain sections of the mall, photography is prohibited. So we just kept our cameras in and walked through the mall and out the main entrance of Petronas Towers.

Petronas is the Malaysia’s national oil company — and one of Asia’s largest companies. Petronas Towers is the company’s headquarters, thought I’m not sure if all 88 floors are Petronas’ offices.

Petronas Twin Towers bottom angle — But what an office to work in!

Petronas Towers building entrance lobby — The lobby is quite nice

Petronas Towers observation deck bridge at night — That’s the Skybridge observation deck. We planned to go check it out in the morning.

The reason why we we didn’t want to go up to the skybridge is because, one, we were already late as the skybridge closes at 5pm and two, there is a particular method to which you need to get the tickets to visit the observation deck — which I’ll get to in a later post.

Kuala Lumpur Petronas Twin Towers Malaysia — I had to step back a bit to get the whole building in my wide angle

We attempted a portrait shot of all three of us in front of the Petronas Towes, but because we didn’t have a tripod with us, Ramesh fit the tripod on his camera and used his Kata bag to stand the camera.

Petronas Towers glowing Mithun Loiyumba charity girl — Me donating some money to some Chinese school girl

Loiyumba Ramesh Mithun in front of Petronas Towers full — After a few attempts, we managed to get the shot

The Malaysian MotoGP was happening the following week, and they had some competing superbikes on display.

After nearly an hour just staring at this beautiful building, we finally left the base of Petronas Towers.

The Petronas Towers are a symbol of modern day Malaysia. Just like Burj-Al-Arab signifies Dubai, and now Burj Khalifa, the Petronas Towers are an architectural icon. Inaugurated in 1998, even to this day, the Petronas Towers design stands as ‘modern’ – and yet, truly Asian in its influence as it can be. No visit to Malaysia is complete without having seen what was once the tallest building(s) in the world.

Even though Taipei 101 took over the throne of “Tallest building in the world” in 2004 (until Burj Khalifa did the same in 2010), the Petronas Towers are still one of the best looking skyscrapers in the world in my opinion. It shows how important good architecture is in creating a true global landmark. You can play the game of attempting to build the tallest structure in the world, but unless it looks good, the investment is futile.

If you disagree, just go around and ask people if they are aware of ‘Taipei 101’.

Kuala Lumpur city TANGS store — TANGS is a department store

We walked back and through some of the malls in Bukit Bintang district.

Kuala Lumpur Pavilion Mall street musicians — Musicians performing in front of Pavilion Mall

Pavilion Crystal Fountain, the Tallest Liuli Crystal Fountain in Malaysia

Kuala Lumpur Uniqlo store Bukit Bintang — Japan’s UNIQLO is now in Kuala Lumpur’s Fahrenheit 88 mall

Ferrari F430 parked in front of Fahrenheit 88 mall Kuala Lumpur Malaysia — This Ferrari F430 was parked in front of Fahrenheit 88 mall

Bukit Bintang street performers at night — There are a few street performers at Bukit Bintang

Bukit Bintang street dancers Kuala Lumpur at night — These guys were trying to perform street dancing but looked nervous when the crowd grew big

Kuala Lumpur Bukit Bintang monorail station — Bukit Bintang monorail station

Bukit Bintang street KL at night — It was time for us to now figure out what to eat

Jalan Alor food street Chinese restaurant tourists — So we headed to Jalan Alor a.k.a ‘Food Street’

Jalan Alor food street Kuala Lumpur at night — Quite a change of scene from earlier isn’t it?

Jalan Alor food street water sprinklers — These restaurants even sprinkle water in the air to cool off its guests

While myself and Loiyumba found enough options for dinner, as was the norm on this trip, Ramesh didn’t. So I ordered what I wanted to eat, so that we could head to some place Ramesh could get his dinner.

Jalan Alor food street KL kitchen — I ordered some duck dish, forgot what it was called

Jalan Alor food street fried fish — Was tempted to order some seafood too

Jalan Alor food street Chinese restaurant — A lot of the restaurants on Jalan Alor are Chinese

It maybe a bustling place by night, but if you feel like staying amidst all the food, here are some hotels on Jalan Alor:

Jalan Alor food street Apple Inn hotel KL — Apple Inn (http://www.appleinn.com.my/)

Once I got my takeaway, we headed back to our rooms only to stop at the 24-hour Subway store on Bukit Bintang where Ramesh picked up his dinner. (There’s also a 24-hour KFC on the same road)

We also pick up a few drinks from a convenience store on the way and had our dinner outside our hotel, where Irsia had put up a few tables for its guests.

KL street food duck meat Anglia shandy — My dinner

Berjaya Times Square from behind at night — When I say we stayed right behind Berjaya Times Square, I’m not kidding

Dinner over, we hit the bed early. Our plans were to go see the famous Batu Caves tomorrow, which we knew were on the outskirts of KL… which meant getting up a bit early.

So what was our first impression of KL? Not so good, to be honest. In fact, after a whirlwind 3 days in Singapore during a buzzing F1 weekend, it’s understandable we were a bit disappointed with Kuala Lumpur. But the fact is, things are a lot cheaper in KL, so it’s no surprise Malaysia’s capital city isn’t as glamourous as glitzy Singapore. Unfair comparison I’d say.

Oh well, we still had two more days in the city to change our minds about the place.