AM? PM? 🤔

After wandering around the "inner city of KL" yesterday, up and down, I went to Batu Caves today ... a cave complex with Hindu temples ... the temples looked more Hindu than Buddhist, but does that even matter??? ... what do I know, just colorful temple stuff. Doesn't really matter 🤔.

Anyway, it was a total tourist spot. Believers were in the minority. The cave complex, located about 10km outside of the city, houses a temple, various prayer stations, etc. and had to be climbed via a total of 342 steps. Quite athletic in 32-degree weather. People were dragging themselves up and down a four-lane staircase. The Buddha statue next to the staircase measures an impressive 40m. For the worried: it's the "biggest" one in Malaysia 🤓.

In my opinion, the view from below of the temple complex is enough. It's not that exciting inside the cave. But since no one knows that in advance and it's somehow part of the experience when you're already there, everyone walks... including me 😨... up and afterwards realizes that the photo from below is still the best.

When I was back in my "little Guantanamo" in the evening, I had a long conversation with one of the 'guards' there. Also about how to best get to the bus terminal the next afternoon. While we were chatting, I showed him my booking confirmation by the way. Innocently. It was around 8:30 PM. He looks... pauses... looks... raises an eyebrow... and says, 'You know what 12.15 AM means?' I think I must have looked pretty dumbstruck... well, it meant that my bus wasn't leaving the next afternoon, but at midnight instead.

What followed was frantic packing, getting a Grab taxi (like Uber in Germany), struggling through the traffic jam, searching for the unmarked bus station with luggage on site... cursing myself in between... but then still arriving on time.

The night ride was OK, but I didn't really sleep. What turned out to be a bit stressful was the 'passport check-out' in Malaysia and the corresponding 'check-in' in Singapore. Everything had to be done quickly and yet it took forever. I had to answer all sorts of questions: 'What do you want to do in Africa?' 'Why do you have so much time to travel?'... 😨😨😨. The Singaporeans are very curious...

Since I can't check into my room until 2:00 PM 😜, I'm going to... even though I'm so tired... take a first trip to the city, more specifically the area around the government district. First impression: very fancy!!! By the way, I read today that every 30th resident of Singapore is a millionaire.

P.S.: Phew... really tired 🤫🤫🤫