Adventures in Asia: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

This morning we slept in until almost 9:00, the latest we've slept since coming to Asia.  Partly this is because, despite barely being further east than Myanmar, Malaysian time is 1:30 hours ahead (so 9:00 in KL is only 7:30 in Yangon).

We were served breakfast in the YMCA's cafe.  I ate a traditional Malaysian breakfast of coconut rice, fried anchovies, nuts, and half a hard boiled egg.

After breakfast we took the Komuter train to the north end of KL to see the Batu Caves.

The Batu Caves are a Hindu holy site, although their significance to people in this area apparently goes back far further than the association with Hinduism.  

After leaving the train station, there is a Hindu statue which is apparently trying to look somewhat intimidating.  

Past him, along the mountain, there's a large fish pond full of fish, some koi, but mostly something else, all relatively large.

Then you get to an open plaza, where the nearly 300 steep stairs begin leading up to the main cave's entrance.  

The statue of Lord Murugan dominates the plaza, but far more compelling to look at are the monkeys!

They're apparently macaques, and they are running rampant all over the plaza, the stairs, and even inside the caves.

They remind me of feral raccoons I have encountered in that they are very used to humans and will literally take food from their hands or even drink from their water bottles.

Once the steps are ascended you actual descend into a massive cave, maybe the largest I've ever been in.

Really, it's too big for me to adequately photograph with my smartphone.

There are various shrines in the cave, I'm not knowledgeable enough to comment more than that regarding what I was seeing, but they were interesting!

Once through the cave, another stair case ascended into an open air space surrounded by cliffs on all sides.  

There were a lot of monkeys up here, too, including a mother carrying a baby underneath her body;

and this "romantic" scene:

From Batu Caves we took the train back to KL Sentral.  We ate lunch at an Indian restaurant again, and then Andrea took herself for coffee and I went for a shave at the YMCA's barber.

The shave cost me 10 ringgits (~$3), which I consider a steal; although, the only other time I've gone for a shave was in Quito, Ecuador, and there I paid only $2 USD and had about double the TLC I had during this shave.  

Later that afternoon we returned to the Petronas Towers, where we enjoyed the Kuala Lumpur City Centre (KLCC) park more than we had been able to yesterday night.

We stayed long enough to enjoy another fountain show.