Sunday, 8/19

This would be our last day together in KL and we wanted to do some local sightseeing. The plan was to see Batu Caves (see if the tanggathon was actually happening), the bird park, and any other thing we might think of.
We got in a cab and headed to the caves. Our cab driver (Yap) was very helpful. We told him where we wanted to go/see and he made suggestions of additional things to see (that might interest us). As he drove, he would pull out pamphlets and hand them to us.

The Batu Caves were about 20k from KL. Yap told us that most people take an hour to walk around; he told us that he would wait for us. Climbing the 272 steps wasn’t easy—they are quite steep and are very narrow (Frank had a hard time getting ½ of his foot on the step).
We arrived about 7:30am—when it opened. It wasn’t busy but there was a Hindu ceremony starting so we were able to see it; very interesting if you’ve never seen one.
As we stood there, I looked around for two things—monkeys and the tanggathon. I saw neither.
When we reached the top, we continued walking (and climbed more stairs) into the main chamber. It was a hollow cave that had several different “temples”. That is where we found the monkeys but they were up on the rock rather than near the people.

We were done looking around in about 40 minutes so we returned to Yap. We told him that the bird park was next on our list. He made suggestions about the batik factory (handmade fabric) and the local pewter factory because they were on the way to the park; Frank & I had read about both and quickly agreed to add them to the itinerary. Both places gave us a guided tour and explained how everything was made. Naturally we walked away with souvenirs from both places; isn’t that how it is supposed to work?

On the way to the bird park Yap showed us a sign for the colonial British house (it was very hard to understand him because of his accent and pronunciation). We agreed that we’d like to see it so he quickly turned left from the right lane. The place had a gate & guard. Yap told the guy that he wanted to show us around and the gate opened (to my surprise). We parked (it was deserted) and he just started opening doors to this mansion-looking place. He told us it was now a 6 room hotel (sounded very exclusive) that anyone can stay at. He was not shy about opening doors and snooping. The rooms are as big or bigger than most apartments in Houston!!! It costs about $300/night. Looking at the place you would have guessed MUCH more.
Finally we made it to the bird park. It is touted as the biggest free-flying bird park in the world (or something like that). What can I tell you other than there were birds everywhere. Most were local birds but they looked exotic to us.
Favorite parts was taking our picture with the birds and feeding the birds (yeah, I know it is totally touristy).

We were gone from 7am until 2pm. Yap was our driver the entire time; he patiently waited patiently while we were doing our thing at each place. The cab fare for the entire day came to about $20-$25. What a bargain.
After lunch we went in search of the chocolate factory I had seen while riding in the cab.

The rest of the day was spent walking around the area and packing.