Day 4 - Batu Caves and a chilly bus ride

Day 4 (10.03.2023)

Our alarm clock rang at 5:30 am today. We packed our things and left our travel backpacks at the reception. The reason for our early wake-up call was a visit to Batu Caves and its temple complex. They are said to be particularly impressive at sunrise. So we arrived at the caves just before 7 am, which are located in the city area. Everything was still dark and we were the first tourists. Like two idiots, we walked into the temple with our shoes on, even though there was a clearly visible sign at the entrance. We can't read. At least the locals were nice and friendly and politely pointed out our mistake.

Behind the temple, a colorful staircase steeply led into the mountain. This led to a huge cave with more smaller temples. The approximately 250 steps were of course a piece of cake for us sports students (almost). When we reached the top, we sat on the top step and watched the rising sun and the slowly awakening city. However, it was not as spectacular as described by our nameless friend, as the sun rose behind the mountain. But it was still beautiful up there.

After sunrise, we went back to the temple to observe the prayers and Hindu rituals, this time barefoot. Everything in the temple was colorful. Many pictures adorned the walls and there were images of many different deities everywhere. Despite being very unusual, it was very calming.

Before we returned to the hotel, we relaxed and had breakfast in the city center. Since our trip to Batu Caves took less time than expected, we relaxed at our hotel until our bus departure to Butterworth (Penang).

At 4 pm, we finally set off north. We had a 5-hour bus ride ahead of us. It felt like it took forever. Due to heavy traffic and an endless toilet break, the 5-hour journey turned into 7 hours. In addition, the bus driver was very unfriendly and it was quite cold on the bus. We finally reached our hostel Zing Motel in Butterworth at 10:30 pm after what felt like an eternity. And with that, good night!