Day 13: Monkey See, Monkey Do

Kuala Lumpur
It seems like we didn't do much today, but it took all day to do it and we're tired.  We went to the Batu Caves.  We had to take the LRT from near our neighborhood to the Sentral Station (only 5-10 minutes) where we took the Kommuter Train to the end of the line (almost an hour).  They use little plastic chips here instead of paper tickets.  The Batu Caves is a series of caves in limestone hills containing a Hindu temple and shrines near a village also called Batu Caves.  There is another cave there, called the Dark Cave which we really wanted to go to (great reviews) but it closed near the end of January, supposedly for renovations.  The Batu Caves has not admission fees.  You go up a series of 272  steps to reach the cave entrance.

One of the temples

The temple

The entrance to the caves

Being as it's a religious temple, women have to have shoulders and knees covered.  Men, however can wear anything they want.  I was wearing a very modest dress that goes down to mid-knee.  That wasn't good enough.  A guard lounging at the bottom of  the stairs looked at me and officiously pointed to the booth renting scarves.  So I had to pay 5 ringgits (about $2) to rent a scarf.  I was upset, but figured I'm a guest in their country and I need to respect their beliefs.  So the woman tied the scarf around my waist.  I said something about women needing to cover their knees, but men didn't have to.  She just replied, Men no have to, just ladies!  with a smile.  With a sigh I smiled back and hiked up the scarf to climb the steps.  The scarf fell a few inches below my knees.  So all of that for a few inches.  We saw the shrines and I returned the scarf (receiving a few ringgits back for the return).

The entrance

Joshua

Tbe entrance to the Dark Cave that's closed

Lots of peacock imagery

Roosters are running around loose in the entrance to the cave

More peacocks

A rooster

a shrine

Looking up in one of the caves

stalactites and stalagmites

the scarf

We took some more photos and Joshua and I bought a few souvenirs.

A temple

This serves Jain food--Jains are extremely gentle and won't hurt anything.
Their diet is extremely limited.  

The gate to the caves complex

Kids playing football (uh, soccer)

Then we saw the monkeys.  We saw a few of them before going into the cave, but now they were everywhere.  Joshua is collecting soil samples from each country and the monkey grabbed his little baggie, tore it open, then dropped it when he realized that it wasn't money.  A woman scammed me into paying her 10 ringgits for a bag of seeds to feed the monkeys.  I didn't realize what was going on until she handed me the bag, then the monkey grabbed the bag from me and she was standing there expecting money.  Some people were feeding the monkeys bunches of plantains.  One man was standing near them with his little girl (probably around 3 or 4 years old).  He seemed to forget that these monkeys are wild monkeys, not pets until a bunch of them jumped up an attacked his hand in his pocket (thinking that he had food in there).  He realized then that they could be dangerous, but still did not pick up his daughter.  As the monkeys became more inquisitive for food, he finally picked her up.

coconuts

Another temple that seems to be under rehab 

Then we headed back to the train station.  I had to buy the tickets from a counter.  The man there was very rude and acted very disdainful of me--because I'm a woman?  Many of the women we see here wear headscarves, some wear burqas with the little slits for their eyes and everything in between.  Granted, there are still plenty of women who do not wear headscarves or the hijab.  On the commuter train back, there were two cars for women only.  I had an extra seat next to me and men would stand rather than sit there.  They didn't want to hold the same handrail when we had to stand in the train.  I've always felt anger hearning about the misogyistic and paternalistic attitude towards women in this part of the world, but this was the first time it had been directed toward me.  When men have acted this way toward me in the US, I've always called them on it and they usually apologize.  Here, however, I feel that I can't because I'm a guest in their country and need to respect their beliefs and customs.  But I felt rage.  I surprised myself with the level of rage I felt.  It began with the scarf and grew.  I've never felt impotent rage of that force before.  I know that I could never live in a country where I was treated like that every day.

When we reached the Sentral Station, we stopped to eat.  We found a food court there.  I got a Thai Jawa fried rice because the woman at the counter told me that it wasn't spicy.  She lied!  It was super yummy, but also spicy.  At the drinks counter, I had purchased an iced strawberry milk.  It was sooo yummy!  And it went perfectly with the fried rice to temper the spiciness of the rice.  Yummy meal for me!  Joshua and Randy both got salmon spaghetti and coconut juice.  The top of a coconut was cut off and a straw placed in the hole!  Then we found a 7-11 and went back to our apartment.  The 7-11 didn't carry bottles of water, so we'll have to find a different one tomorrow when we go out because we have none and Malaysian tap water isn't safe to drink. 

Randy and Joshua with their coconut juices

My yummy dinner!