Full day tour around Kuala Lumpur with a really nice hike to a waterfall away from all the crowds. LOTS of monkeys, monkeying around.
Photo Gallery: https://pics.mattichan.com/-uwc137
Last Minute Changes and Flag Ceremony
As I was getting ready to get off the ship, I ran into some friends on the ship and we were chatting. Nate and Mom didn’t really want to go into nature and wanted to go see the city / buildings / mall, so they went and did their own thing. For my tour I had a car and my friends didn’t have anything going on so I told them they could come join my car if they wanted to. They chatted for a bit and decided to come along for the ride.
The centrum looked like it was ready for some sort of flag ceremony as well, which I guess may have happened either while we were off the ship or after we got back.
Tour
Batu Caves
Stopped first at the Batu Caves. There was also like 80% of the ship here too, so there were a ton of people, but it was ok. Nice views, and TONS of monkeys everywhere.
Lots of stairs as well to ascend up to the caves.
What was really annoying was that people were also feeding the monkeys, which then leads to learned behavior of them expecting food, and then attacking if you don’t give them the food. Just don’t understand why people can’t leave wildlife wild.
The caves themselves were pretty massive. Pretty neat, but also way too many people and quite a few pushing past (presumably to get a picture?). I did enjoy the little hole in the ceiling to views of the sky.
Beautiful peacocks around the temple as well.
The views coming back down were pretty awesome, but also, the stairs were pretty steep and going down is always worse.
Back towards the entrance we got some other statues of gods towards the front.
And right before we left, there was a baby and a momma monkey.
Kanching Falls
After Batu Caves, we headed to Kanching Falls which took quite a bit of time in traffic. But once we got there, we had a great time in nature away from all the crowds and people.
We were greeted at the entrance by a little jungle cat (kidding), but really nice entrance plaza as we got ready to trek through the 7 tiers of waterfalls.
Flora
Really interesting flora all over the hike that were pretty interesting, always nice to stop and view instead of just running past.
Waterfalls
Got to the waterfalls and saw the multi-layers. Ended up trying to hike up and made it up to the first set of waterfalls before heading back down. It appeared that the further ones were down some more muddy trails and I was in my oofos.
Tiny Wildlife
Saw a bunch of smaller critters including a golden lizard / gecko species. Nearly peed myself at the first glance as it popped out of a leaf and I thought it was a snake.
Macaques
This female was NOT having it, and kept running away.
This troop was really cute, and the little baby was jumping around and getting bullied out of the best positions and grass.
Made it back down to the main area, and as I looked back up at the waterfalls, I noticed that the troop was back up there since all the humans had left, and there was a nice background of the waterfalls as they were playing / fighting. Love having the 200-600mm lens. Literally the best investment (into my happiness) I’ve made.
Back to Ship
We headed back after the waterfalls, and traffic was a bear. Apparently traffic around KL is always just that bad, but we made it back to the port with plenty of time to spare. Our guide Adnan was terrific and we had a great day, even if I personally didn’t really care for the Batu Caves.
The walk back to the ship was super long again, and it was so hot. Just the sheer humidity was enough to make us want to disappear inside. Another short(ish) day, but we filled it with some great times.
Lunch
Grabbed a late lunch at the windjammer, and created my own nachos.
Halfway Home
We’re officially half way through our trip. Wild to think about and a little sad, but so much more to see! Stopped by real quick for the balloon drop, but there were a million people so I shot and ran.
Dinner
With the late lunch, I didn’t grab a ton at dinner, just did a french onion soup and some dessert.
Vibe Check
4 parts joy
1 part sadness – people feeding wildlife and just generally being annoying at Batu Caves
Feedback
Leave a comment or question if you have any thoughts! Anything you want to know about as we go around the world? Any things you want to share as feedback, or any images that particularly spoke to you. I’ll try to read all of them as time permits!
Matti 
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