Day 84- A Mosque, Hindu Sacred Site, Royal Malay Palace, and Subway Restaurant. Which One Doesn't Belong?

On my previous day's failed attempt to find Chinatown, one thing I did manage to find was the contact for a tour company known as "Reggae Tours".  They offered a tour of seven of the more popular tourist sites in Kuala Lumpur via a minibus and it was only RM70 ($23 Canadian) for the full day.  So even if it sucked, we still wouldn't feel that bad!  Before any touring could take place though, we had to fuel up on Colleen's preferred choice of chow, Subway.  The mall was extremely quiet as it was it was officially the first day of the Chinese New Year (February 10).  It was definitely a bit of an eerie feeling (see: haunted mall).

With our freshly inhaled foot longs resting in our belly, we headed back to the hotel for our tour pickup.  Although he was running quite late, our driver Jebb eventually showed up with a crew of about eight or so other passengers.  He informed us that both of his drivers had called in sick that morning and that he was in fact the owner of the company and rarely drove.  It's good to know that calling in sick on a holiday is a worldwide problem!  Having Jebb as our driver actually turned out to be a good thing (IMO) as he was super knowledgeable, friendly, and was really good at answering all of my nerdy questions about Malaysia and the sites we were visiting. 



Colleen getting her "mosque" on.





The first stop on our whirlwind day tour was at the International Mosque of Malaysia.  We had to throw on some robes (cannot remember what they are called, no disrespect intended Muslim people) before giving ourselves the quick self-guided tour.  With one site down, our second stop of the day was Little India, which was a different Little India than the one I had visited the day before.  Who knew a city could have multiple Little India's?  This was followed up by a visit to the National War Memorial and then a visit to the Royal Palace.  And by visiting the Royal Palace I of course mean that we just went to the outside gates and stood there and stared at the guards or whatever they are that stand there seemingly perfectly still all day.  I felt sorry for their horses more than anything.  They, like the people were meant to stand there all day "at attention" if you will.  Lots of time to day dream about eating carrots and visiting the glue factory I guess.



Not too sure what I'm doing here.





War Memorial. Looks like every other war memorial around.
 



So close, yet so far from the Royal Palace.


The chaos that is Little India.

After we mowed down the first four stops of the day, our next destination was a little out of the city, the Batu Caves.  The Batu Caves are a series of sacred Hindu caves and temples and it is in fact one of the largest Hindu shrines in the world outside of India.  On this day, we learned that it happened to be one of the busiest days of the year at the temple and there were thousands of people everywhere who had come to the temples/caves that day.  Many of the men and women had shaved heads and there were even babies with freshly cropped crew cuts.  I think it was safe to assume that the local barber wasn't going to be going out of business anytime soon.  Many of the people with their shaved heads were also covered in some weird powder and were walking around barefoot.  While I wasn't about to take my devotion that far, I did decide to hike up the nearly 300 stairs to the main cave/temple.  Colleen decided it was not for her, so I was left to explore on my own.  After reaching the top of what felt like Mount Everest, I was greeted by monkeys and chickens that were running around and a series of temples in caves.  The whole thing was really quite bizarre if I say so myself, but hey to each their own!



Batu Caves.



Looking down from the top of the stairs at the Batu Caves.



That is a shit load of stairs.



Sweet hairdo man.



Thankfully the walk down the steps was a little easier than going up, and after rounding up my fresh-legged girlfriend we were back on the tour bus and headed to our last two stops of the day: Independence Square and some street with old-style Malaysian architecture that Colleen and I could give two-shits about.  One bonus of the tour was that I was able to sleep (much to the amazement of Colleen) on the rides between various stops.  It sure helped to keep me feeling fresh!  All-in-all though, I must say it was a great value tour and a good way to spend a day in KL if you are ever in the neighborhood.



Independence Square. Will Smith is nowhere to be seen.



Back at our hotel we decided to steer clear of the mall for dinner that night, as the service issues were borderline unbearable.  We opted instead to eat at a bar across the street from our hotel .  One thing I must warn people of: drinking is generally not a cheap hobby in Malaysia. I found it amusing that on the way in the gentleman asked me if I was Muslim and refused to show us the alcoholic drink menu until I verified (by honor system of course) that I was in fact a non-Muslim.  I must say, working security at a nightclub in Kuala Lumpur has got to be one of the toughest gigs around.  Keeping track of all your patrons religious beliefs has got to be mind-boggling!

~Brentski~