Day 95 and 96: Shopping and Batu

Day 95

We are being frugal this morning and hanging out at the hostel so we can make lunch here. It works out well as it rains this morning and we get to watch Bad Neighbours. After a lunch of a surprisingly good Pot Noodle, we head off to start our Langkawi shopping and see if we can find any food markets. Our first stop is Central market which is in a gorgeous Art Deco building. It's beautiful and the stuff inside is really lovely but more traditional Malayan pieces, no cheap clothes here. We do find a cheap, delicious Indian restaurant just next door and grab some Roti Canai which we have heard so much about. It's simply Indian bread with curry sauce and a dahl which is so filling and so cheap, think £1 for a full meal for both of us. We'll be having this again, Nom.

We head around the corner to the markets there and try and find clothes which aren't made out of terrifying polyester but no luck and it looks like we've come a bit late so they're closing up. No luck here so we grab a train to Sentral and search around the big mall here. It's full of the usual shops (I swear there is more H&Ms in Kuala Lumpur than in the whole of the UK) and we trawl for ages finding nothing when we spot a shop called Cotton Co and it has a sale! I pick up 2 dresses (a girl can never have enough) and Ben some shirts. Mine are cheap so far, woop.

With aching feet and happy with our purchases, we grab some skittles and head back for a pasta dinner and a film, Flight. I'd recommend, as long as your not flying any time soon.

Day 96

Another morning hanging out to save on food and then we head off to see the Batu Caves. The sky looks a bit ominous before we leave but we think it's going to hold off. That's until we get out of the building and it's started to chuck it down.  The rain storms here, though heavy, never seem to last that long so we head off to the train station which seems from all our research, the longest but the cheap way to get to the caves. The rain slows which is good as we need to change trains and when we arrive at the next station our next train isn't for 45 minutes and Ben has massively over heated in the humidity. Not a happy chappy.

The train arrives and is air conned so Ben comes back to a normal temperature by the time we arrive at high caves. We leave the train and follow the flock of tourists towards a gate, where we immediately encounter a huge statue of the Hindu monkey God Hanuman we we saw so much of in India. This one is incredible and has a very strapping pair of legs.

The main cave is a short walk around the corner and we have already spotted some cheeky looking monkeys rummaging through the bins (you are warned against buying food as they have no problem snatching it out of your hands). You can't miss the entrance to the caves as there is a beautiful Lord Murugan statue just outside which seems to guard the day in. Which is stairs. And a lot of them. Oh how I hate them, we do see a lot of monkeys on the way up which makes it a little more bearable. 

Once at the top and you've admired the view from there of the city, you go into a huge beautiful cave which has been sadly filled with souvenir shops and rubbish. It also smells quite strongly of wee. We wander around for a bit and I can see why it has become such a place of worship, it's just a shame it has the rubbish and bits that detract from its impressiveness.

We don't stay for long and decide to grab some food in Jalan Alor, a well know foody street in the city centre. We wander down and each stall is full of Malayan and Thai dishes that look scrumptious but we want an Indian fix and find a buffet around the corner which Ben samples whilst I got for our now staple favourite, Roti Canai. Tomorrow we are flying to Borneo and in a few days hopefully, Ben will be climbing Mount Kinabalu so we go off on a rain jacket hunt which is a bit fruitless but I do spot a Liverpool FC club, glad to see they have their priorities straight when it comes to British teams.