Kuala Lumpur – Batu Cave, Firefly Cruise - February 23

Somehow in packing, I carefully charged my camera batteries, put the charger in my suitcase but somehow the batteries don’t seem to have made it, so we started the day taking a taxi to a local mall (Plaza Low Yat) to buy batteries for my camera.  Luckily, we found some but paid double the price.  I thought I was so organized, NOT.

Our guide picked us up at 2 PM for an 8-hour tour.  We started with a visit to the Batu Caves, a series of limestone caves on the edge of the city and one of the most popular Hindu shrines outside of India. But, to enter the cave you must climb 272 steps just to reach the entrance.  This is a lot of steps even under normal circumstances but add 90 temps and 90% humidity and it becomes a definite challenge.  

We slowly made our way to the top, surrounded by monkeys ready to steal items left unattended.  This one snagged a baby bottle with milk and obviously knew what to do with it.

Once inside, there were several shrines and the remnants of the 4-day Thaipusam Hindu Festival that more than a million people attended in the Sri Subramaniar Swamy Temple. We walked around inside the caves, took photos and then slowly headed back down the stairs on legs that were wobbly by the time we reached the bottom.

 

Our guide Sammy was very informative about the history and economy of Malaysia. About 60% of Malaysia is forested and about 19% of this is considered primary forest which is the most biodiverse and carbon dense type of forest.  According to our guide, of the forested areas, 12% are palm oil plantations (60% owned by British companies), 8% are rubber plantations, 5% are cocoa plantations and 51% tropical rainforest.  He also told us that there are 2500 species of trees and1500 species of flowering plants.  There are 300 species of palms of which 70% are native.  Chris, of course, peppered him with questions throughout our journey.

 
Selayang Hot Spring which is a naturally occurring hot spring was our next stop.  It is a typical “developed” hot spring with pools of different temperatures.  I stuck my hand in the water for about 3 seconds in one of them.  Many people removed the water in buckets and used scoops to pour it over themselves considering it a cure for many ailments.
 

We stopped at another Hindu temple that was preparing for a wedding the next day.  The workers had cut down two large bananas trees that they were placing in pots and roping up as banana trees are considered good luck.
 

Traveling west toward the coast, we stopped at the Kuala Selangor Nature Park.  Both silver-leafed monkeys and long-tailed masques were abundant there.  

Unfortunately, although told not to, many people were feeding and playing with the monkeys.  (see photo of people behaving badly).

We walked the trail around the park and although home to many bird species, we only saw one grey heron. 

Chris spotted a monitor lizard and we saw mud-creepers.  We did see a very large swimming bivalve we have yet to identify.  There were large mangrove swamps part of a massive restoration project.

Further north, along the Sungai Selangor River, we stopped at the Restoran Qun Hua Kuala Selangor Seafood Restaurant for our seafood dinner before our firefly cruise. 

The cruise started at 7:30 pm and our boat with about 30 people headed upriver at a high rate of speed.  This would have been fun except for the amount of plant debris in the river including large logs and many large branches…it was even scarier on the way back in the dark.  We then cruised very slowly, very close to shore and as it got darker, millions of fireflies appeared.  This was very nostalgic for me because as a 6–7-year-old living in Illinois, I spent many a summer night catching fireflies in jars and bringing them inside (I am sure my mother was thrilled).  Since that time, we have not lived any place where fireflies are common. 

Link to the firefly video

We got back to our hotel at 10 PM totally exhausted.