One of the biggest tourist attractions in Kuala Lumpur has to be Batu Caves. Along with the Petronas Towers, it attracts thousands of visitors a day. This is my guide to Batu Caves to help you for when you visit. Batu Caves is a Hindu temple based in a limestone hill. It is just a 20 minute drive outside of Kuala Lumpur City. Hoards of tourists and local Hindus visit the temple to embrace the religious celebrations and statues.
A GUIDE TO BATU CAVES // WHAT CLIMBING THE STEPS IS LIKE
JUMP TO:
How To Get There & Other Info
The Rainbow Steps
Batu Cave Monkies
Dress Code
Murugan Temple
Hindu Temple At The Base
HOW TO GET THERE & OTHER INFO
You can get to Batu Caves in lots of different ways…
– Get a Grab or Taxi. The taxi journey takes about 20 minutes.
– Get the KRT train from KL Sentral Station, it only costs RM2.60 and the trains run every 45 minutes.
Opening Times: Batu Caves are open everyday from 6am to 9pm.
Entrance Fee: Entrance to Batu Caves is FREE and the Dark Caves cost RM33 per person. The Dark Caves ticket includes a helmet, flashlight and a guide.
How Long Do I Need There? I would say about 30 minutes to an hour depending on how long you want to spend exploring. You can check out the caves, taking pictures, climbing the stairs and if you want to get food there.
Places To Eat: There are quite a few places to eat there which is good. If you get there early you can get some breakfast. We got there quite early and we didn’t have breakfast in our apartment. We had a traditional Indian breakfast in a small cafe there before climbing the steps. There are so many yummy dishes to try, I had mango lassi as a drink whilst having veggie curry and a tomato and onion naan.
THE STEPS
The temple originally had wooden steps up to the Temple Cave which were built in 1920 and have since been replaced by 272 concrete steps. Batu Caves has recently had their steps repainted a few years ago in their famous brightly coloured rainbow. But due to the mass of visitors and resident monkies the steps are looking a little worse for wear already. There are 272 rainbow steps that lead into the cave. This helps to take in the scenery, take photographs, have a breather or check out the resident long-tailed macaque monkies.
If you have big feet like me, they can be quite hard to walk on because the steps are quite thin. So I had to walk sideways up and down the steps so I didn’t feel like I was going to fall over. Definitely watch your step when going up and down into the cave.
Check out this amazing video of the Batu Caves steps for more wanderlust!
BATU CAVE MONKEYS
The resident monkies are cheeky little things because they see lots of people and they love stealing your food or sunglasses but don’t be scared. If you show you’re scared they are more likely to get a little too close to you.
They will quite happily sit or run along the side of the steps or maybe sit on some of the steps but don’t try to touch or feed them as they are wild animals and will most likely attack.
DRESS CODE
The dress code in Batu Caves can be quite strict at times as it is a religious temple so make sure you aren’t wearing any revealing clothing. The main one is ladies showing too much leg so make sure you are wearing the appropriate clothing.
There are quite a few men at the base of the steps telling people they cannot climb the steps based on what they are wearing. I saw several people get turned away, but I also saw others wearing revealing clothing and still get away with going up the stairs. They had a moan at me for my arms but I covered them up with my sarong. My mum was also moaned at for wearing shorts but she wasn’t climbing the steps as she was still tired from our hike the day before.
Another note about the dress code is that it’s recommended you wear brightly coloured clothing so that when you’re having photos taken on the steps you don’t get lost in the colour. I wore my navy blue gym kit with my brightly coloured laced trainers but I wish I had worn a nicer outfit that was brightly coloured.
MURUGAN TEMPLE
Batu Caves was promoted as a place of worship by K Thamboosamy Pillai, an Indian trader. He was inspired by the vel-shaped entrance of the main cave and was inspired to dedicate a temple to Lord Murugan within the caves.
Batu Caves is the focal point of the Hindu festival of Thaipusam in Malaysia, which is a festival celebrated by the Tamil community on the full moon in the Tamil month of Thai (January/February). Usually coinciding with Pushya star, known as Poosam in Tamil. The festival celebrates the occasion when Parvati gave Murugan a Vel “spear” so he could vanquish the evil demon Soorapadman.
HINDU TEMPLE AT THE BASE
At the base of the Batu Cave steps there is a gorgeous rainbow painted Hindu temple, I can’t for the life of me find the name of this temple so if anyone knows it’s name please let me know. Before entering you have to remove your shoes as it’s sacred and shoes are very disrespectful also it’s to preserve the marble floor. Inside is just as colourful as outside with lots of Hindu murals and statues as well as mini shrines for gods in which you can pay a small fee to receive a blessing.
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Would you like to visit Batu Caves? Did my guide to Batu Caves help you? Let me know in the comments below.
Happy travels,
Oh my, I wasn’t expecting it to be so bright and colourful! It looks amazing. 😀
Sarah ???? || Boxnip
Yeah it’s so pretty and filled with so many people as well x
I came get over the beautiful colours. This place looks amazing. I enjoyed the read and the photos were fab x
Thank you for reading and commenting and I’m glad you liked the post. The colours are beautiful aren’t they x
OMG this place looks insanely colourful!
Isobel x
http://www.fashionistachic.co.uk
It’s so pretty and perfect for photographing 🙂 x