Saturday 3rd December 2022
This morning we got a Grab car to Batu caves. You can also get the train there, but it would’ve taken longer and the Grab car was less than £5.
Batu caves is free to enter. There are 272 brightly coloured rainbow steps leading up to the cave entrance.
Inside, there are several chambers with a lot different small shrines and temples scattered around.
My favourite was the main temple just as you enter the cave, which is peacock themed.
Inside the caves were a few random cockerels. I have absolutely no idea how they got there or what they’re doing there, but their loud cock a doodle dos were sometimes quite startling!
Next to the bottom of the steps to the cave is a large Hindu temple. Inside, it’s very vibrantly decorated in bright, vivid colours.
A little further along is the Cave Villa Art Gallery, which has a 5 ringgit (about £1) entry fee. It’s not the most exciting art gallery ever, but it’s in a cave. Past the gallery, the cave opens up and has been painted all over in various colourful scenes, which is more more interesting than the actual art gallery.
There’s also an outdoor area, with walkways across a lake (with a lot of fish and turtles swimming in it), peacocks wandering around, and a waterfall. These things make the ticket price worth it.
After the caves we got a Grab car to Meet Mee Danau Kota for some pan mee, a Malaysian dish of Chinese origin. We ordered the dried shrimp version, one to share between the two of us. It was quite nice, but not amazing. A bit too salty, and that’s coming from someone who likes their food well seasoned.
We walked from the restaurant to the Royal Selangor Centre. It’s free to enter and they give you a guided tour of the museum, which tells you about the history of the company and tin in Malaysia. We were the only two in the museum so got our own private tour with an English speaking guide. It was an interesting museum, and I especially liked the Petronas Towers constructed from pewter tankards and the wall of hands honouring all employees with five or more years service.
After going through the museum, she then gave us a tour of the factory. Being a Saturday, the factory was pretty quiet but we still got to the various workstations and steps in the process.
You have the opportunity to have a go at making your own pewter item, for a fee. Unfortunately we’ve got a lot of budget airline flights still to go, so don’t have enough weight allowance for pewter objects. If we ever return though, we’ll definitely have a go at the workshop.
At the end of the tour is the museum shop. We had a quick browse, and there were some amazing items. If we had more luggage allowance, we may well have purchased something.
By this time it was early evening so we got a Grab car to Bol – Asian Reimagined, where we’d managed to secure a last minute booking for an early 6pm dinner. Bol – Asian Reimagined is a fine dining restaurant, with a modern take on peranakan food, but the prices were still very reasonable. We shared all of our dishes, and they bought them out one by one so it was a bit like having a multi course tasting menu. The standout dish was definitely the cod and octopus starter, an Asian take on arancini (but much tastier than any arancini I’ve ever had!) with fantastic flavour and a very crunchy exterior. The sea bass main was also excellent, perfectly cooked fish with crispy skin and a delicately spiced sauce. This was definitely the best meal (but also most expensive) we’ve had in a while, and I’m very glad we discovered it (thank you google maps!)
After dinner, we went across the street to Sin Chew Kee Cold Drink Store, a very highly rated cocktail bar. A lot of the cocktails are tea and coffee based, which Pete doesn’t enjoy, so we went for a creamy peanut based cocktail. I had an alcoholic Thai milk tea. Both cocktails were delicious!
Emma and Pete’s Asian Adventure 