Good Morning, lovely people of Hive. I hope you all are doing well.
Today, I want to share the 3rd Day in Malaysia where I planned visit a series of sightseeing areas with my friends and family. The areas are mostly way up in the mountains and some of the regions have clouds that touch the mountains. This journey was made back in May 4th but I still rememeber everything I've done and had thanks to all the picures I took along the way.
Without further ado, let's begin!
The day began with me and my friend on the pool area, getting in some early stretching and relaxation before we leave for a long day of adventure. As you can tell... this picture was taken using the snapchat filter since a portrait would take up more space on my phone which already was in a space crisis.
My friend and the rest of the family had lunch before we headed out for 2 distinct locations.
The first location we headed out for the famed Batu Caves, a sweet spot for bats inside a mountain that has a sum of 300 steps or more and each step tells a different story as they had paintings on the steps that are distinct... according to the locals atleast.
The first stop was at a gas station mart where we bought these 3 babies. Before we headed there, we bought some energy drink, I didn't red bull as I didn't like the taste after 1 sip, I got the Pipeline Punch and it had a good fruity taste, my friend got the zero sugar one... that also wasn't as good tasting.
Here, I spotted the next super car. I don't know much about car names as I am not a car guy but man this thing was smoking hot. A perfect red car with black rims and that yellow thingy. But, at this point in time, seeing supercars like this was a natural thing. It's good to see that the people in this country do not need to pay 400-800% tax on these nice cars like we have to back in Bangladesh.
It was quite a few ways of travel until we reached our destination. The city was very clean and the vibrant skies showed no signs of enlightment. Another thing I've noticed, many of these sky scrappers tend to be seen as lean from the upper part while a fatty lower part is observed to support that structure; almost looks like a ship.
Upon reaching I saw many idols of the Indian gods along with temples and other animals. This image was taken by me from he back seat which is why there is a reflection of the front seats.
Thankfully, this entire place was somewhat empty during this time and we found a good spot for parking. The guy in the green t-shirt is my uncle, the guy in black is my friend Riyadh.
There was a nearby school area with a playground too. I envy these kids as they don't realize how lucky they are to be near one of the tourist attractions and they get to explore it for free...
A monument erected by the chairman of this temple to thank their prime minister for visiting this place back in 2009. This PM sure has a long name.
A temple which we failed to explore as we were late so I'm not sure what or whom resided here.
This place offers different parking sections for different vehicle types.
It has a single giant store that sold the local snacks and food. Perfect when you would want to grab a cool drink.
This place had smart planning honestly. A single giant mart with a souvinier shop on one side and a designated bus parking area on the other. Private cars would park on the other side making it easier for people to get in and out efficiently.
This is Sri Venkatechalapathi and Alamelu Temple. It was empty during this time, maybe the time of worship was during the early phase of the day.
A closer image of the incarnation of the goddess Alamelu(Lakshmi).
And finally, the grand statue of Lord Murugan(Subramaniam). Apparently, this entire statue of made of gold, standing at 42.7 meters tall. I'm pretty sure this statue itself would attract a ginorous populace to come and visit and may even attract the devotees around the globe. Beside it was the stairway to the insde of the cave... they colored it rainbow... you can image how I would have to walk up.
There was an active prayer going on here and I knew it would be wrong to take a close up picture of them during this. Apparently, this was the temple dedicated to worship Lord Subramaniam(Murugan) and during thier festival of Thaipusam, they perform acts to try and please him.
I still remember running up half way in 1 minute and as I tried to catch my breath I took this picture and now upon closer inspection I see that the statue has a downward U shaped structure that went behind him which eerily resembles a snake.
The locals looked tired out while the white people on the right side of the picture were maintaining steady pace. As I looked up, I found that only 4 sections of stairs were left.
And so, within 2 minutes I climbed up this mountain and got to see this amazing view.
Inside The Cave
The first thing I saw at the entrance was this little temple of Sri Idumban.
Then I found a shop that sold garlands and agarbatti to the devotees. A great business strategy according to them, they get to supply the veneration items for thier gods and get rewards for it as well.
There were a few closed off shrines within the cave that normal folk were not allowed to pass through.
Granted this image was a bit blurry but this was the best image I could take given that my vision was worse after that climb. And also the fact that there were a few more stairs to climb up and down with a couple more temples.
This looked to me like a makeshift prayer spot as the space was too small for a god to be worshipped. The ceiling was way up there and I managed to capture that using the 0.5x on my iPhone 14. You can see moss and ferns on the cave walls and other signs that showed the after effect of water. This could mean that this place may have been submerged or flooded a long time ago.
A close up picture of Lord Ram's small shrine.
A second on going prayer happening at the temple of Lord Murugan, t=in fact this temple was considered as the main temple as it was inside the cave... moreover, now that I see closer, I find that the lady in purple skirt is in this image as well.
So, I moved over to the next spot, another temple dedicated to Lord Murugan. I was unsure of the steps as it was damp and uneven and I did not want to catch a cold.
Not a crime scene but a showcase of the venerations made by the pundits and maybe the devotees, this table had lots of candles lit wth multiple "thali" of flowers.
The inner most temple was of Lord Shiva in the form of Nataraja. It may be paradolia but I can see faces on the walls beside this temple on a closer look.
This is where I looked up to see the open cave system and it kinda looked like a slanted 8... or an infinity sign... not to mention that the mixture of greenery and rock formation gave it a meaner look.
This was the last temple of Lord Murugan called Sri Velayuthar and the colorful tower on the top is called Gopuram(Vimana). This was one of the ancient mysteries I never really understood. They beileve that during war times there were flying vehicles and flying CITIES which were used to battle one another. I am a die hard fan of The Whyfiles and am eagerly waiting for I came to in this journey, and it was located right beside the staircase I had walked up. Veneration and prayer were taking place by the devotees as the pundit removed the veil that covered thier Lord.
This was no attraction but I found this interesting as this pole somehow had stickers from rock bands to other popular brands I don't know of.
And after roaming the area for about 10 minutes, at 5:06 pm I decided to go toward the exit and took some last snaps as a memento.
From here, we can clearly see the Vimana structures with the statue of the lords depicted on top of the Murugan temple on the right side of the picture.
On my way down, I took a closer picture of the railings and the walls of the stairway. It eroded massively from one point onwards... along with the stairs itself.
For some reason they kepts chickens inside a gated area.
Just before I headed downward... winded... I asked a somalian lady to take a picture of me along with the inside of the temple.
And just before leaving, an elderly man saw me and pulled me away. He asked if I was going down. I said yes, then e gave me 2 buckets with water in them to carry with me. Without hesitation I took it because I am a smol tuf man... then I was also tired out.
Usually, the people carried 1 bucket and 2 being tough for me, I handed one of them to my friend while I took my time getting down. I also got my headsets which I didnt use the entire time.
Here, a woman ran through this flock of pigeons just after I took this snap. The sky was clean and the people were sweet.
On the side of the cave, we found this amazing pigeon enclosure and some monkeys were chilling on top of it.
This explained why there was a temple comples build for thier Lord hanuman, the monkey king. From my knowledge, Chinese mythology also has this form of character who could fly using a flying cloud and had magical abilities and a staff. The same or even greater attributes are present in the hindu version of the monkey king aka Hanuman. I couldn't go up the stairs because there was literally no time to spare and we had to leave for the next spot as half of daylight was gone and I was not ready to opne my shoes and head in.
At 5:40 pm, we left for the second spot... located at an elevated region. We navigated through google maps. My brother drove this part of the journey and yes, my brother got his driving permit on the second day of arrival using his passport so it was all good.
And that is it for the first part of the visit. I hope you liked my journey and if you got any questions about the place, do hit me up in the comments section.