Other than the Petronas Twin Towers, the Batu Caves was the other place I wanted to see in Kuala Lumpur when I started plotting the itinerary of my trip to the capital of Malaysia way back in 2007. That was my very first airplane ride courtesy of my brother, who let me tag along with him. Coincidentally, that journey was what kick-started my wanderlust. A few days after arriving home, I quickly wrote a short narrative about it on the now-defunct Multiply blogging platform.
A Long-Awaited Return to the Sacred Batu Caves
However, of all the places we visited during those memorable four days, we missed out on Batu Caves due to a lack of time. "Visit it next time, you will have another chance," my brother told me, as if sensing that I would indeed be getting another shot at it.
History of Batu Caves
Named after the Malay word "batu", which means "rock", Batu Caves was one of the most visited Hindu shrines outside of India. Dedicated to Lord Murugan—whose 140-foot-high statue outside the cave was the tallest Lord Murugan statue in the world—the Hindu God of war, Batu's Temple Cave was first constructed in 1891 inside a cave where the limestone was formed more than 400 million years ago.
Designed in classic Dravidian architecture, the temple cave featured a number of Hindu shrines with connecting passageways to the smaller Ramayana Cave, Museum Cave, and Art Gallery Cave. The statue of Lord Murugan was only built in 2006.
Another Shot at Seeing Batu Caves
Several years later, as I embarked on solo trips, I actually encountered another chance to visit Batu Caves. Spending a few days in Kuala Lumpur after my second trip to Myanmar, I finally visited Batu Caves. However, as if the travel Gods remembered my desire to see this during the earliest days of my traveling life, I was gifted with a couple of chances to once again climb its two hundred and seventy-two steps—the most recent even serving as a tour guide to a sweet English woman.
The second time was a charm without a doubt, as I joined fellow travel writers and friends from Cebu Pacific on a media familiarization tour of Kuala Lumpur. By that time, the stairwell of Batu Caves had already undergone a major facelift. Gone were the plain colors of the steps, replaced with a vibrant appearance—as the long stairway was repainted with various color schemes producing a different range of hues when viewed from below and afar.
The redesign work did not come without some controversy, as a number of heritage advocates accused the management of Batu Caves of breaching the law regarding the banning of renovations done "within two hundred meters of a heritage site".
Setting the hullabaloo aside in my head, I savored the new look of Batu Caves, taking a few photographs before dashing up, racing with the mischievous macaques who were always out and about, ready to snag stuff from unsuspecting tourists.
I saw one snatch a plastic water bottle, another a bag of chips, and another a banana. Most of them, though, were fed directly with bits of cookies by amused tourists, thus creating foot traffic on the stairs. It was a quick stop, and about a couple of hours later, we were on the bus heading to our next destination. I thought that would be the end of my Batu Caves incursion. Little did I know, I would be blessed with my third audience with Lord Murugan and Hanuman—whose fifty-foot-tall statue stood inside the complex—just a few days later.
Playing Tour Guide to Rosanna
Since I extended my stay in Kuala Lumpur after my travel blogger friends departed, I met up with a few friends in the city. I met Rosanna through my friend Mayan, and instantly, we got along well. That same day, I accompanied her on a walking tour around Kuala Lumpur. "I love to walk, and it is better to see the city this way," she told me.
We started from Chinatown to Masjid Jamek Mosque to Petaling Street to Little India until we reached Merdeka Square. I thought that would be it until Rosanna told me, "I want to see the twin towers," and so off we went to the Petronas Towers on foot.
If Batu Caves were not located several Metro train stations away, we would have gone to it on foot. So, that evening before we went our separate ways back to our hotels, we agreed to meet up the next morning for me to accompany her to Batu Caves.
My second day of being a tour guide was a lot more relaxed, as we only went to the Batu Caves and had dinner afterwards. I got to know more of Rosanna during the long rest we had sitting on a ledge inside the Temple Cave.
The day would not end there, but my memories of Batu Caves were more than enough to dethrone the frustration of not seeing it during my first visit to Kuala Lumpur. Similar to events in life that cover up the misgivings of the past, Batu Caves showed me that chances are given to those who seek them over and over.
Whatever I searched for remained a big question mark for now. At that time, I was just happy seeing the smile on Rosanna’s face—satisfied that I somehow made her time traveling in Kuala Lumpur a little better.
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