Batu Caves

On Friday our main mission was to see the Batu Caves which is an extremely old Hindu temple located in a cave at the top of some of the worst stairs of my life. Google says there are 272 steps but it felt like 500. I really honestly have gotten so out of shape since spring term, I worked so hard then to gain muscle and get in shape but then I went to my internship this summer and lost motivation and muscle apparently. It was honestly embarrassing how hard it was to get up those steps...

The other thing was that they were doing construction or something at the top so each visitor was asked to carry a brick up the steps with them so that laborers weren't having to lug tons of bricks up the steps. We each took one and honestly felt pretty good about helping out. There were piles of them at the top so ti seems a lot of people chose to help out even though it was quite a bit of extra weight when compounded up 272 ridiculously non ADA stairs.

They were worth it though because the caves were beautiful, very open, light pouring in, and beautiful earth/rock structures on the inside along with lots of statues probably depicting Hindu faith. They were colorful and beautiful, and while I recognized certain characters and certainly at least one story or two, I must admit that sadly it was mostly lost on me.

A view up from one of the inner cave openings.

One thing I wasn't really expecting was all the monkeys! There were monkeys everywhere climbing, eating, drinking, walking through the crowd and sometimes bothering people. One guy was holding a coconut shell out to a larger monkey and had a bag in the hand behind him and after looking at him a bit the monkey B-lined for the bag and took everything there rather than the single coconut shell. It was pretty impressive to say the least.

Pretty rooster there, mainly took the photo to make fun of Ashley because she is terrified of birds (and snakes) which are all new fears that I'm learning about her on this trip.

Stunning view from inside the first cave. I used the Panorama camera function but up not sideways to capture so much of the opening. It is a cool camera hack that I've been using a lot and am rather proud of. The entire thing was absolutely beautiful and afterwards we stopped for a "tali lunch set" at a vegetarian Indian food place at the bottom of the temple. It was a complete success of a trip and we all wore the appropriate knees and shoulders covered. We did keep our shoes on (Nikes in my case) though where many of the people there were barefoot I can only assume out of respect or religion or both. It was interesting to note the difference here between Thai and Hindu temples because in Thailand it is very rude to show your toes in some circumstances and rather than having bare feet be holy, in Thailand sometimes covering your toes is a must just like covering your knees and shoulders. For something like feet I feel it must come from rather specific customs or historical hygiene/safety beliefs to have such a difference. It was interesting to note though.

Another thing was that many people were dressed in absolutely beautiful clothing probably in respect and worship. I was doubly impressed with these people than the barefoot people because I was sweating like a dog and I can't imagine wearing such heavy clothing and sweating in such beautiful clothing and not feeling extremely guilty...

I took another photo with a monkey!

I took a selfie with a monkey!

Ashley and Jacey

Jacey and me

Ashely and me