Day 159 - Tour around KL

I woke up feeling like I had been hit by a truck!  The jet lag after a long-haul flight tends to be worse on the second day.  I felt a lot better after a late breakfast and a shower, did some food shopping then Nic and I hung out by the pool for a couple of hours before getting ready for the tour we had booked.

We were collected by an Indian man and his mini bus at 2.45pm, we picked up a German couple and their daughter, then proceeded to Batu Caves - a cave temple, consisting of Hindu shrines to their various gods.  Outside is a 140 foot gold-painted statue of Lord Muruga, then 272 steps lead the way to the cave entrance.  Lots of monkeys line the step handrails, waiting for tourists to give them food.  I felt like I was back in India as there was also a lot of Indian people worshipping the gods.  Two guys, one from Australia and the other from Malaysia joined our group at this point of the tour.  

Next stop was Melauati Hill, Kuala Selangor (yes, home of Selangor pewter, that offers views in the distance of the Indian Ocean).  Again there were monkeys but this time two distinct types - gray and orange.  The gray monkeys were friendlier and less vicious over the food.  People were selling vegetables that people could buy to feed the monkeys with.  They really are fascinating creatures.

We moved on to a restaurant on stilts that sat over the Selangor River (filthy in colour!  Ps Kuala in Malay means river, and Lumpur means mud) for a seafood meal that took awhile to get to us but was quite enjoyable.  The place was packed with people - tourists and local Malaysians it looked like.

After dinner we were given life jackets and loaded onto boats to be taken out on the river to see fireflies.  Kuala Selangor is one of the few places in the world where you can see fireflies and the flashing lights is pretty.  They live on the trees that line the river.  I was a little disappointed overall, but had read that the firefly numbers have been diminishing the past 10 years because the river has been dammed upstream.  

The trip back to KL took about an hour, we arrived back at about 9.30pm.  We had a gin, decided on and booked out accommodation in Langkawi, then crashed - it was a long day!