Kuala Lumpur: Batu Caves
As we arrived here we knew we were in for a treat, we had monkeys greeting us, there were some shops unsuprisingly around there that sold bananas and peanuts to feed to the monkeys. It was a 7 mile drive on the number 11d bus from Kuala Lumpur to get here. We sure chose the right time to come here since the Thaipusam festival was going on, and atmosphere was incredible there was so many people!!! We saw some of the most unusual things ever, there was a man with various hooks peirced to his back it looked painful!!! Look for yourself:
To get to the actual caves we had to climb up 272 tiresome steps(1), but when we got there, we knew it was worth it. At the top there was the cathedral temple which was about 100 m above the ground, it had some really ornate hindu shrines(2). After this, we went to the base of the hil where was a art gallery and museum caves. Both these caves had some magnificent Hindu paintings and statues that were statues which were absolutely stunning. One great thing we got to do was rock climbing! Who would have thought we could have done that at the caves, but apparently there's about 160 climbing routes. It was so much fun. As we were leaving we took some great pictures at the world's tallest statue of Murugan outside the caves.
Penang: Cave of Darkness
This place was so peaceful and relaxing, it was just serene which we didn't expect from somewhere called Gua Kelam which means cave of Darkness. We took a ferry from Pulau Langkawi to Kuala Perlis it took about 45 minutes and it cost about RM15 per person. When we arrived, there was a fee of RM1 to get in. As soon as we went in, we went straight to rock climbing. It was fun but we got some cuts and bruises since the limestone walls were really sharp but it was worth the cuts and bruises. After climbing we went to explore the caves, they weren't that dark after all, there were lights everywhere. One interesting we saw when we looked deep into the caves was that they were mining equipment left in the caves from many years ago. We then had a campsite set up for us and we spent the rest of the day relaxing and enjoying the beautiful scenery around us.
Langkawi island: Gua Cerita
We got to this mysterious and legendary cave by taking a boat from Tanjung Rhu which costed MYR80 and it took an hour to get there. We did some exploring in this famous archaeological discovery and we saw some ancient inscriptions in Jawi written on the walls. These two limestone caves had alot of myths and lengends behind it which grabbed our attention and curioustiy from them.
Sabah: Gomantong Caves
From Sandakan, we took the turn off towards Sukau for about 20 km which lead us to the entrance of the caves but we still had drive for about 6 km more to reach the base of the caves and the reception area. This placed was filled with insects and bats so we decided not to stay too long. There's also alot of bird nests here, which the locals makes a soup which is suprisingly quite tasty. Around 5:30 in the afternoon, millions of bats emerged from the caves in search of insects to feed on, it was incredible and scary at the same time.
Sarawak: Niah Caves
It took us an hour and a half to drive here from Miri. We started off with an exploration of the cave on 3km path. Along the way we some great plant life and birds as well as some interesting insects. We also got a chance to visit the great cave where it said to be the dicovery of the oldest human remains in southeast asia. Finally we visited the painting cave where the paintings of human like figures on the rocks were done atleat one thousand years ago.
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