After settling into our routine in Kuala Lumpur, we still had a few places to discover — some famous, some unexpected.
A Green Oasis in the City
Our favorite place in Kuala Lumpur was the Perdana Botanical Gardens. We visited it three times, which probably says enough about how much we liked this place.
It was an amazing green and peaceful oasis in the middle of a glass-and-concrete megapolis. Every time we visited, there were plenty of locals strolling, jogging and biking, so clearly we weren’t the only ones who loved this place.
The gardens were much bigger and more varied than I expected, with streams, ponds, waterfalls, huge old trees and dense tropical vegetation.
In some places it was easy to forget that we were in the middle of a huge city. In others, the skyscrapers were visible beyond the trees, reminding us where we were.
Twice we went there early in the morning with our breakfast and had a picnic near a stream overgrown with tropical foliage. Sitting by the water with breakfast was a perfect start to the day.
The gardens were also one of the few places where we could comfortably spend time outdoors when the heat in the city became too much for walking around, even in mid-morning. Surrounded by trees and water, it felt a world away from the hot streets of KL.
Museums
Starting our mornings in the Botanical Gardens also made it easy to visit two nearby museums.
The Islamic Arts Museum gave us an interesting glimpse into a culture that was mostly unknown to us.
The architectural exhibition was especially interesting. I never knew that mosques could come in such different shapes and forms. The variety of designs was completely unexpected.
The National Museum of Malaysia helped us learn more about Malaysian history and put some of what we had been seeing during our travels into a broader context.
One of the things that surprised us was learning that these animal-shaped tin objects had once been used as early currency or weights in Malaysia.
Chinatown
We also wandered through Chinatown, including the old streets around Kwai Chai Hong. The area had been restored and decorated with lanterns and murals, creating a very different atmosphere from the modern parts of KL.
The narrow alleys and old buildings were full of details to look at.
Some of the murals recreated scenes from everyday life in old Kuala Lumpur, making the walk feel a little like stepping into another time.
We continued wandering through the surrounding streets, where large murals appeared around almost every corner.
Batu Caves
We visited the famous Batu Caves early in the morning, as it is one of the main attractions in KL and can get quite busy later in the day. We had mixed feelings about it.
First we visited Ramayana Cave, where the Ramayana epic is represented by sculptured groups dispersed throughout the cave.
The idea was interesting, but the way it was implemented gave us a feeling of an amusement park.
All the neon-coloured lights were distracting and made it difficult to feel that we were in a temple.
However, one cave at the very top of the complex, the Ramayana Meditation Cave with a shrine dedicated to Lord Shiva, felt completely different.
Soft lights, no crowds, and only the sound of water dripping from a little waterfall created a quiet, serene space where I could not resist meditating for a little while.
A row of chairs along the cave wall seemed to invite visitors to linger — one person had even stretched out for a nap.
The main caves felt completely different again. By the time we finished with the Ramayana caves and got there, they were already full of people. Rainbow-coloured steps behind a giant golden statue of Lord Murugan led up to the Cathedral Cave.
The cave itself was amazing — huge, with intricately shaped rocks and light pouring in through the opening in the roof. Although there were many people there, the sheer size of the cave kept it from feeling overcrowded.
And, like everywhere else in Malaysia, macaques had claimed the place as their territory. After our experience on Pangkor Island, I had learned to keep my distance from them, but other people tried to interact with them. It ended with a large male macaque charging at them with bared teeth — not quite what they expected from a cute monkey.
The macaques also patrolled the rainbow stairs in numbers, looking for scraps of food, sometimes quite aggressively.
They were our last impression of the Batu Caves — the monkeys and the unending stream of people going up and down the rainbow stairs.
A Temple We Stumbled Upon
It may sound strange, but it was a different Hindu temple that impressed us more than Batu Caves — and we discovered it by accident on our very first night in KL.
That evening we were staying in Brickfields and decided to walk through the streets of Little India after dinner. We passed small restaurants and street food stalls, glanced into shops where traditional flower garlands were being made, and even tried a new fruit at one of the small fruit stalls. It was shaped like a fig but had a hard skin that reminded me of armadillo armour. The taste was slightly sour, with a sweet aftertaste. Interesting, but it didn’t impress us enough to buy any.
I turned a corner and felt like we had been transported into another world.
An ornate temple stood in front of us, brightly lit and alive with devotees, with cheerful prayer music playing inside. A green deity statue was sitting above the entrance, and as we came closer, we saw that it was a monkey. A quick Internet search gave us the name — the Sree Veera Hanuman Temple, dedicated to the monkey god Hanuman.
After some time in Southeast Asia, we were used to entering temples without shoes, but this was another level.
Right at the entrance was a small, shallow pool, and we noticed that everyone walked through the water before continuing into the temple.
We hesitated a little, as removing our shoes and getting our feet wet seemed like a hurdle at this point, but curiosity won.
After splashing through the water, we entered the cool stone temple.
It was unlike any other temple I had seen before or after. I had a hard time deciding where to look — everything was bright, ornate and eye-catching.
The ceiling in the entrance hall was painted with scenes from Lord Hanuman’s life. There were life-size painted statues of his father, mother, grandfather and other relatives. Multiple statues of Hanuman — some small and carved from stone, some large and painted — were all over the temple, brought from different regions of India and even China.
Devotees were praying or just sitting around, making offerings of flowers and fruit.
Several men — I assume priests — wore traditional garments while performing rituals in the inner sanctum and blessing the devotees.
It was so unlike the other temples we had seen that I wandered around spellbound, trying to take it all in. It felt purposeful but also peaceful. I was a bit intimidated at first to be gawking around while prayers and rituals were going on, but we received only smiles and nods in return.
Our stay in Malaysia was drawing to a close, but KL had given us plenty to remember — from quiet green spaces and museums to old neighbourhoods, famous caves and an unexpected temple we happened upon by chance.
We still had one more place to explore before leaving the country.