The Stony Caves (Batu Caves)

So according to Google Translate, Batu=stone and so I thought fitting that the translation of the "Batu Caves" would be "Stony Caves"... A bit redundant if you ask me, but besides the point. I took easily 150 photos that day, from the bus ride to the caves, the monks, the giant statue, the monkeys, the birds- GOSH- there were a lot of things to take photos of... ENJOY!

on the bus, we met this lovely girl, she spoke 5 languages and was learning a 6th. Her smile was adorable, and her future boyfriend who she bet on the bus that day was sitting next to us... aka, this guy:

now.. we shall enter the mystical world of the Batu Caves!.. for those of you who enjoy a bit of auditory sensation to set the mood, please click play below.

it may be a bit loud, so probably best to start off soft ;)

 From a way's away, this statue of Murugan seemed just as enormous as it was-absolutely massive.

 This little chubs broke a sweat catching the pigeon in his hand... At first I thought that was very impressive as I didn't think one could catch a pigeon very easily!.. however as I soon found out, these pigeons didn't really move till you were literally touching them... So I'm not exactly sure how the kid got so sweaty... maybe he was just a little too warm with that black Diabolik t-shirt on.


Now maybe if he'd caught one of the countless monkeys (pronounced Mangies with a hard 'g'), then a sweat could have been excusable...

 Harro Mangi!

The view from the middle of the stairs

 The entrance to the caves- it was evident that this local religious man had an existing relationship with this temple and its monkeys as they did not once approach him to grab or tug at his colourful clothing as one would have expected!

The caves!

I can see the light now...

PRIEST MODE!

I might blow this photo up into a poster... the inside of the caves... I'm starting to wonder why they built the temple inside a monkey infested cave at the top of a mountain... cool no matter what the reason, and definitely a tourist trap!

An offshoot from the temple caverns were the monkey caves... hallo mangies!

 As we left the caves, we got a bit too close to one of the monkeys, specifically this pensive looking mangi.

One thing led to another, and our most colourfully dressed girl was aggressively intimidated by this wise mangi perched atop the railing to a point of giving the mangi what he had been contemplating over and about for this whole time... her orange gatorade bottle!

 More Musing yet under the surface Maniacal Mangies

I couldn't help but think (Aadam, Katherine, Wess,
and any other climbers that I've forgotten to mention here this is for you)
wouldn't that be magnificent to climb??!?!