Batu Caves

The first thing I wanted to visit in Kuala Lumpur is the Batu Caves. Batu Caves is a limestone hill which is made up of a series of caves and cave temples. Its name was taken from the Batu River which flows past the hill.

We woke up and got out of our guesthouse at around 8am. We then took the KTM Komuter train service from Plaza Rakyat Station  to Batu caves. I cannot remember anymore how much RM we paid to go and back. It was my second out of the country trip and I couldn't figure out trains and their routes yet. After a few mistakes and "deep" thinking (hahaha) we finally figured out what train to ride. It was a  total of 13 kilometer ride with 2 train changes.

Before going down from the train, we were greeted with this view.

We then entered a gate leading us to the grounds. It was a sunny day and it was almost 10am. There were a lot of tourists already ahead of us and so it was getting quite difficult to get photos. There was a huge statue looking like a guard from the gate. Also there was a shrine wherein you have to remove your shoes before you come up to it.

Batu Caves' main attraction is the large statue of the Hindu God at the entrance besides a steep 272 climb. The Hindu God is named as Lord Murugan. It stands proud at a height of  42.7 meters and is made of 250 tonnes of steel bar and 300 liters of gold paint.

There were a lot of pigeons on the grounds. People were feeding them or taking photos of them along with the stunning backdrop. After satisfying ourselves with photos of the view, we then set to climb the stairs. The keeper of the grounds stopped me as I was wearing a dress that did not cover my knees. I had to borrow my friend's scarf to cover my knees.

As we were climbing the steps, my friend was trying to look for fellow Filipinos visiting the place too. He kept on wishing he would hear a Filipino word from someone and meet a "kababayan". We also observed that there were monkeys everywhere. I have read beforehand that these monkeys would try to steal food or drinks from the visitors. We didn't have any but we still tried to get away from them from fear of being bitten. Some monkeys even have their babies with them.

Approaching the caves entrance.

We were able to see limestones and amazing rock formations even at the entrance of the cave. It is said that the limestone which forms the Batu Caves are as old as 400 million years old.

Going further inside, we saw a lot of temples and also stores that sold souvenirs. There was also sound of Hindu music or Hindu prayer all over the place.

The next thing we did was explore the Dark Cave. It was to the left of the larger cave and we found out that there is a Dark Cave Educational Tour.

I forgot how much we each paid for the tour but it was very educational. We had to set our camera to no flash so we can take photos. It really is aptly named as it was so dark inside. I can hear a lot of bats flying somewhere above us. The guide was fantastic and explained well on what species are living and thriving in the cave.

This is the view we were led to at the end of the tour.

After our tour, we went down from the caves and started looking for food. There were a lot of restaurants serving refreshments at the foot of the caves. We chose one establishment that sold pizza and sandwiches. To our surprise, the keeper of the store was a Filipino :) He told us that it was a great time that we visited because it was not the peak season nor the wet season. He also told us that most of the people come to the place to worship and offer to the Lord Murugan as he is famously generous. He asked us if we wished for something when we went up to the caves. Well, coincidence or not, my friend got his wish! 

Thank you and 'til my next blog.

Wandering at Hua Hin

Me and 4 of my friends went to another city last weekend. We left Phuket at 1 am of Saturday and drove a total of 650km towards Hua Hin.

Hua Hin is nearer to Bangkok and is situated less than 200km. It is one of Thailand's premiere beach resort towns making it one of the most popular weekend getaway destination for the city residents. A friend of ours stayed in this place for months and fell in love with it. She speaks highly of it and suggested that we go and visit the place.

Thailand mostly has wide and nice concrete roads because cheap transports are thru buses, mini vans and trains. On our trip, I saw that there were several gasoline stations every 10 kilometers and these are surrounded by convenience stores and food joints open for 24 hours. Although there were parts of the road which was very curvy or no streetlights and very foggy, the drive was pretty much ok. 

We arrived at Hua Hin at around 9am and as our hotel did not allow us to have an early check in (and the staff was quite rude), we went straight to see places we planned to visit while in there. So here's what we did while in Hua Hin:

1. Viewed the Railway Station
     Entrance fee: 0

This station is one of the oldest railway station in Thailand. It's most striking feature is the Royal Waiting Room in Thai architectural design. It stands adjacent to the station and is a favourite spot for picture taking for locals and tourists. The station itself and the place provides a Victorian like feel to anyone walking through the halls due to its concept and design.

Directly opposite the common waiting area is a display of a 305 Unit Baldwin Steam Locomotive. This might be what the first few trains looked like when the railway station was just starting.

This railway station is still active and while we were there we saw people waiting for the next train with their luggages. Bangkok to Hua Hin journey by train is 4 hours, longer than the usual bus but cheaper and with a bit of culture.  Unfortunately, we must have missed the earlier train when we went. I sat and waited patiently for it to come but it didn't. 

2. Had fun at Santorini Park
    Entrance fee: 150THB

Situated in Cha Am, Santorini Park provides the feel and vibe of the picture perfect Greek island. The place featured classic whitewashed buildings, stone paved paths and domed towers.

The buildings housed gift shops and restaurants which were fully air conditioned and a great way to beat the heat from the outside. The rides and games occupied the landscaped grounds. We saw a 40-metre high Ferris Wheel, G-Max reverse bungee and more. These rides had a separate fee. 

Aside from all the rides and (window) shopping, we had our fair share of photos from the picturesque designs and dainty features of the park.

3. Fed sheep at Swiss Sheep Farm
Entrance Fee: 120THB

Just a few kilometers from Santorini is another interesting place to visit: Swiss Sheep Farm. As the name says, it houses a lot of sheep as well as horses for the people to view and feed.

Other activities in the farm include horse (pony) back riding, bull fighting simulation, swing rides, archery and a lot more.

The walkways are not covered and while we were then the sun was burning so hot. I guess it would also be a problem when rain comes. Nevertheless, there were a lot of nice places to have good photos. 

4. Explored Plearnwan
Entrance fee: 0

Before going further, we ate lunch and rested in our hotel. After regaining our energies, we headed to Plearnwan.

Plearn Wan is a unique wooden brown building that has a two-storey courtyard style layout. It houses a lot of stores that offer either food, drinks, shirts or souvenirs. This is where we bought our gifts for our friends back in Phuket.

Aside from food and other stuffs, it also features some fun games which would get winners a chance to own some big and fluffy stuff toys. 

But as losers, still get a lollipop!

5. Shopped at Cicada market
    Parking fee: 0

The night was still young and so we headed to Cicada Market. It was a busy and big market full of trinkets for sale. It is said that this market is all about art, hand made crafts and good times.

I bought my kitty headband there and my friend found a cute casing for her phone.

We were busy taking a look at the different stalls and ended up getting a henna tattoo.

We were so busy and amused with all the market has to offer we didn't realize it was already near closing time. On our way out, we found local bands still playing their songs, artists displaying their artwork and this little boy who was able to make these bottles stand in difficult positions. 

I was not able to take a photo of the boy as he was busy making more of this bottle art.

6. Experienced Venezia

    Entrance fee: 180-480THB

It is another themed shopping mall which is a replica of Venice. It has St Mark's Square, the Bell Tower and gondolas. It was really sunny when we went there which was good for our photos. There was no big crowd when we were there so we had little or no photo bombers.

There were 3 packages to avail upon entrance. We chose package A which consisted of entrance to the mini zoo, mini train ride..

entrance to the 3D art Gallery, Mini Europe and Fontana Di Trevi Park and King + Queen Picture. I don't have a partner when I grabbed the queen's clothes, so this photo only shows me boredly waiting. (hahaha!)

7. Window shopped at FN Outlet Store

     Entrance fee: 0

This was not on our itinerary. The store had advertisements and banner all over the streets of Hua Hin telling people of discounts and low prices and this made us more curious. They offered a lot of brands: Roxy, FN, Quiksilver,Superdry and many more.

The place had 2 buildings and in between this was a bridge with some fountains on it. Feels like a forest in between a big shopping place.

8. Dined at the Beach
    Parking Fee: 20THB

We were hungry after the window shopping and on the way home we were looking for a restaurant on the road side. We tried to search for one and it brought us here in Hua Hin Beach. There were a lot of people and the tables were almost full as it was a Sunday. Lucky we got one table and we ate our hearts out with the delicious Thai food they served.

We had the tastiest Fried Rice with crabs and Tom Yam with chicken.

The atmosphere was so laid back and it would have been nice to lounge on the beach chairs.

There were still a lot on our list that we wanted to do however as we had responsibilities, we sadly bade goodbye to such a lovely and serene place. I hope to come back soon to see and enjoy more of Hua Hin. 

Thank you and 'til my next blog!

Trekking at Bang Pae Waterfall

Me and my friends haven't really been to all of the places here in Phuket as we have to arrange our different schedules in the office. Last Wednesday, we were lucky to have found ourselves on a rest day from work and so we (Mel, Jerome, Rax and I) went to Bang Pae Waterfall.

This waterfall is situated at Khao Phra Thaeo National Park. We travelled for about 15- 20 minutes towards the place. After parking and making sure that we have had sunblock and bottled water, we made our way towards the falls.

While starting the trek we found a lot of concrete tables overlooking the lake. Locals would often come to this place, especially on weekends, to have a picnic or a swim or just dine at one of the restaurants located near the entrance. We also took a photo of the place's landmark.

A few meters ahead is The Gibbon Rehabilitation Center. It was around 8am and we were curious what unusual sounds were in the air. We discovered that these were made by the gibbons and their calls/voices were echoing all over the place. It was quite scary to hear them. These gibbons are caged and people are not allowed to get very close to, give food nor sing or whistle to them. The center opens at 9am so we were way too early. The souvenir shop was still closed too. It was nice to see gibbons safe and being cared for instead of being touted for tourist traps. It was kind of difficult to take a photo of them as their cage is mostly blocked by trees. We just took a photo of us being the gibbons instead. :)

We walked a few meters further and started our trek. The first part was quite easy as the path is somehow defined with cement. It is great that we've worn good shoes because it was quite slippery. We also noted that there were some insects and mosquitoes around. We were not that worried as we also applied insect repellents on our skin.

There were some fallen tress that are on the path so we either had to step on them or duck below them. Some areas have big rocks which made the walk somehow physically demanding. After about 15 minutes, we reached the waterfall.

It was way too early so we had the falls for ourselves. Got a blurry paparazzi shot of my busy friends. 

Bang Pae is known as Phuket's biggest waterfall although by international standard it is not that big. It is only around 10-15  meters high. Although Phuket experiences hard rains for about 5 months in a year, there are no huge falls here. The reason is that Phuket is made of granite rocks which are not easily eroded by water. We enjoyed the shade, literally cool atmosphere and exotic forest surrounding us. We took time sitting on the rocks and having our photos taken. 

Since we still had energy to climb, we found a steep path on the side of the falls and moved forward. This path was more challenging. We had to go through fallen bamboo trees.

We even had to cross a small river of water and hold on to trees so as not to tumble down. We didn't have a map and there were no signs that we were still on the right track.

This path of around 8 kilometers is said to reach another water fall on the other side of the hill named Ton Sai Waterfall. Here's a short video of this challenging climb.

Our friend mentioned she saw a blog before that detailed how someone was attacked by a wild animal on this path. Because of this, the fact that we don't have a map and we are not experienced climbers/ trekkers, we decided to turn back to the falls.

And stopped by the falls again to take more photos.

The way back to the entrance was quite far. (Or we did not know that we already walked that far because we anticipated to view the falls earlier.) As it was near lunch time, we decided to go to Bang Pae Restaurant. A fitting end to our trek was eating in a restaurant with the same name of the falls we went to. The food was served fresh and we had our fill of shrimps and yummy traditional Thai dishes.

It was indeed a great outdoor trip; an adventure that Mother Nature can offer. Thank you and 'til my next blog!