We started the day with another great breakfast. Judith and I have had many breakfast meals and we agree that this hotel is so far the best in terms of variety and tastiness.
We met our driver, Charles, at 9:00 to start our day's excursion. On the way he talked about the population: 46% Malay, 23% Chinese and 10% Indian. The religions are: 46% Islam, 36% Buddhism, 9% Hinduism, 6% Christianity, and 1% Daoism.
The Malay were legislated favourable affirmative action following large scale race riots in 1969. After the British left in 1957, commerce was dominated by Chinese and Indian merchants and many Malay toiled in the fields. The race riots resulted in lots of property damage and loss of life generally directed at the Chinese. To boost the prospects of the Malay a New Economic Policy was implemented. Bumiputeras include Malays and other indigenous groups and they have now been granted quotas to universities, discounts for housing purchases, preference for government jobs, reserved amounts of public share offerings, etc. The economic policy was originally seen to be a temporary 20 year need, but with this group representing over 50% of the population, the political party that is supported by the Malays has ruled the country for almost the entire time since 1957. And there's no incentive for removing any measures. In fact they keep adding more to ensure a favourable election outcome. Of course, non Bumiputeras aren't so happy with the policies. And the policy hasn't achieved the intended result with Malays still not earning as much as their ethnic counterparts.
Batu Caves consists of a large outcropping of limestone that's riddled with caves. The caves have been used by people for shelter and was "discovered" in 1878 by an American Naturalist, Hornaday. Around 1890 an Indian merchant was inspired by the shape of the entrance to the largest cave and decided to dedicate the cave to Lord Murugan, the Hindu God of War. Initially there was a small statue of Murugan inside the Temple but in 2006 the huge 140 foot tall statue was finished. About 300 litres of gold paint was used.
The stairwell is to the left of the statue.
To access the Temple cave, you have to climb 272 stairs. As we approached the first step a man came up to us and gestured to us to carry a small bucket of sand and a brick up the stairs. It occurred to me that since there was construction at the bottom, the items were for construction at the top. I wasn't sure how I would fare on those stairs, but I knew they would be a lot worse carrying extra weight. We declined carrying up the materials for him. Besides, that was probably his job and he had come up with a clever way of getting tourists to do his work.
The stairs were easier than I thought they would be. Inside, the cave has very big and had a large opening at the top which allowed pigeons and bats to fly in and out. The walls were painted green from the floor to about 10 feet up--I think it was to hide the graffiti. We watched the macaques climb around, but we kept our distance as they are known to bite.
Front Chamber of Temple Cave.
We came back down the stairs (there were a surprising number of people we passed carrying sand and bricks) and checked out the stands selling food and souvenirs. Judith tried a small slice of jackfruit for the first time and says she liked it.
We take a walk along the side of the hill toward another entrance. We don't go in as we don't have enough time. We went instead to find our driver.
It's scorching hot outside, about 30 degrees. I swear the humidity is 99% so it feels way warmer. At home, I don't find the hottest days that bad, but I do notice it here. Standing makes you sweat, moving makes you sweat more. Getting into an air conditioned vehicle is dream like.
The next stop is the batik factory. There are a couple of large silk sheets stretched out on sawhorse frames. The artist used a pen holding heated liquid wax to draw the design on the silk. She then applies colour by a paintbrush or by a sprayer. The other steps after the artist demo involved:
-They spray water after all the colour is applied to bleed the colours together.
Next the fabric is soaked in a hot water to set the colours and remove the wax lines.
This ended the tour part, and now we're whisked into the store and shown the art of tying scarves and wraps. Judith ends up being the guinea pig, most likely because they suspect she is more likely to buy. I suspect the driver gets a kickback from bringing. None of us bought batik but I did find a pair of pants.
Then it was onto the Royal Selangor pewter factory tour. It was much more upscale than most factory tours I've been. It reminded me of the Waterford Glass factory tour my friend Lori and I took in Ireland a few years ago. The current owners are the third generation and their children manage some of the overseas interests. The store was very interesting with lots of items to explore. First a picture of us at the GIant tankard.
After completion of the tour, we ended up in the store. Judith bought a couple of trinkets. As we were leaving, I recognized the face of the owner from one of the displays from our tour and indicated to her that I liked the store. She asked Judith and I to come with her over to the counter where she proceeded to tell us a story about someone who had bent over to pick up a teapot just as shrapnel whisked past where his head was. The teapot was made by her grandfather identifiable by the maker's mark on the bottom of the kettle.
The story finishes and we get back into the cab. Charles says he saw us talking to the owner and mentions that she likes to tell a story about the lucky teapot that saved a life...
We proceed to the very regal Kings Palace. We stroll around by the front entrance grounds (it's hot!). It's a very impressive property. All our tour guides like to point out to us that he's an eligible bachelor.
When we're done we decide to pose for a picture. To my surprise a family from India decides to have their pictures taken with us. Mostly I think they wanted to have their picture taken with Judith who probably looks like one of their deities. I think the following picture confirms this.
We go back into cab and begin our tour of the city. Much of it overlaps the food tour we took the other day.
We check out Merdeka (Independence) Square, the Congruence of the Klang and the Gombek rivers. I take a picture of the Masjid Jamek mosque between the two rivers.
There were several other sites we saw including the old cricket field and several buildings which dated back to early colonial British rule.
We get dropped off at the hotel and decide to go out to the nearby mall and pick out some lunch. We talk to the concierge who we have met a few times over the past two days. We let him know what we did today. When we mentioned Royal Selangor Pewter he asked if we had heard the story of the teapot from the owner. I guess all the locals know that she tells this story.
At the mall, we decide to order Indian food. Not great, but not bad either. We come back around 4 and decide to go for a nap. We power nap and sleep for the next 14 hours. At about 8:30 pm I did try to get out of bed but if found it futile so I went back to sleep. It must have been the combination of heat and jet lag. We did manage to coordinate ourselves to know that we needed to rise early the next day to catch the plane to Kuching on the island of Borneo. As a result I miss a day of blogging and will catch up another day.
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