A visit to Kuala Lumpur, perhaps, is not complete without a visit to the Batu Caves.

These limestone caves, on the city’s northern outskirts, are home to a host of Hindu temples.

The first inkling of an idea came in 1890 when Tamil trader K. Thamboosamy Pillai noted that the cave’s entrance resembled the vel, the sacred spear of the god Murugan.

Today, that very same cave entrance is home to a 272 step concrete staircase, and a towering 140 ft tall statue of Murugan.

The Batu Caves area is easily reached by public transit. There’s even a commuter train that stops here.

There are tour busses too, but I cannot fathom why you’d want to shell out for one when the train costs only a couple ringgit.

The original cave is free to enter, though others in the area charge admission fees. If you are somewhere with an admission booth, it is not the main cave.

The cave surrounds are home to a robust population of long-tailed maques, the main local monkey species. These monkeys are synanthropes – habituated to humans, and happy to steal their food.

“They’re so similar to us, but humans have done so much more evil.” “Yeah, but we wear clothes, so we’re better.”

“I mean, he was standing with his backpack open, away from his body, clearly not guarding his food in any way. It was going to get snatched.” “Hey, are you victim blaming?”

Climbing the stairs up was uneventful, and less strenuous than I was led to believe by any of the travel articles I had read. (Perhaps, I climb steps/hills more often than average.)

I took one of the less popular paths up, and my only real difficulties were two things:

1. The steps are shorter than the length of my feet, so it’s a little awkward to stop on them.
2. Eventually, I had to pass through areas filled with monkeys.

But fortunately, all of us kept to ourselves. I was pretty happy not to have any food with me.

Inside the caves, there are a few temples and dioramas.

And steps to a wider, more open area.

I enjoyed my visit here a lot. I do not know much about Hindu spirituality, but the cave is really cool, as are the colorful temples and the artwork.

I’m really glad that I made the trek out here on a hot afternoon.

And, also, I love Kuala Lumpur.