kuala lumpur

We disembarked on our first shore excursion, excited and slightly nervous - neither of us had ever been on a cruise before, so this was another first. We had to get to the right part of the ship, and get a sticker, be assigned a group, then wait to be called up to the gangplank so we have our cruise ship id cards swiped and be allowed *off* the boat and onto the ground.
The beautiful, hot, interesting ground.

Our first day trip took us into Kuala Lumpur, and up some very steep stairs to the Batu Caves.  The stairs were crowded, and no one followed the "up on the left, down on the right" rule - mostly because your left when you go down is the right of the person coming up....

Batu caves are a natural phenomenon that have been turned into a temple.  There was a temple at the foot of the cave mouth, an elaborate arched shrine at the foot of the stairs, the ornate stairs up to the cave itself, and then different shrines and smaller temples and areas to pray spread throughout the caves.  And the largest cave was open to the sky in the middle, with vines and trees climbing and reaching their way towards to sunlight and rain that stream in from the open sky.

There were lots of shrines, and lots of lights brightly decorating the shrines, and tons of people. There were also many many monkeys. They weren't afraid of us. In fact we were warned not to get to close to them, because they try to steal your stuff, especially if it looks edible.

The story is that there were 2 brothers, part of a family of gods, who quarreled. One got so mad he ran to the caves and hid himself up there, refusing to come down. This greatly worried his parents, so his brother (who he had quarreled with) told them he would wait at the foot of the mountain to keep an eye on his brother. And should he ever come down, or need anything, then he would know and could help.

So, one temple at the bottom for the brother who waited, and one in the caves for the brother who hid.

When we got there, a week long festival had just finished. There were still streamers and flowers being sold in great quantities, and a few pilgrims climbing the stairs to the temple in bare feet, with marks on their foreheads and flowers around their necks.

But the marketplace at the foot of the caves had mostly returned to normal. And were once again full of plain and simple tourists.