Today (31-1-10) we decided to go to the Batu Caves with a Canadian guy we met at our hostel. We were going to go yesterday but there was a Hindu festival so about 1.3million people went, some of them setting off at 5am to get there, they even come from oz to see them!

After a long taxi ride, and being ripped off by the taxi driver we finally made it! It was in a nice merc with aircon so it wasn't all bad! We had to walk through loads of market stalls to get to the caves. Everyone was staring as we were the only white people there. They kept taking our photos it was so weird. The streets were covered with hair as well where people had got their head shaved and painted for the festival. People kept offering us strange concoctions out of huge plastic tanks, but it looked well dodgy so I steered clear.

After walking through the crowds we made it. They are a series of caves set in a limestone hill. To get to the top you have to climb 272 steps!!! When I saw the steps I thought that I thought there's no way I'll make it to the top alive but we gave it a go. When we gt to the top the sun had just come out from the clouds, I was the hottest I had ever been in my life! The caves were huge and I got some really good pictures, but because so many people had been the day before the place was covered in rubbish so it spoilt it a bit. The place is famous for monkeys, as we were going down the steps a huge group of monkeys seemed to appear from nowhere. One of the smaller ones stole a small childs bottle and threw it down the stairs, it was really funny. But I didn't want to laugh too much as I was so hot, also I didn't want to attract the monkeys as I haven't had my rabies jab and apparently they are vicious! We got a bit further down and this man tried to feed one of them an apple, obviously it wasn't to the monkeys taste (it mustn't have been a granny smith) because the cheeky monkey threw it down the stairs. Louise was infront of me and I could see this apple bouncing down the stairs but I was too far away to shout so it hit her right on the bum haha! It then bounced off her straight into some poor womans head! Very funny but we were too shattered from the heat and climbing to laugh. We came back to the hostel and collapsed on our beds, were just about to watch the Australian Open Final - I have a bet on with Louise that Fed will win, fingers crossed! Off to Singapore in the morning so we're just going out to eat later and maybe a drink or two.... x x x