We were up bright and early on Sunday morning...5:40 a.m. to be exact. Caleb had to be at school to catch the bus at 6:30 a.m. for his cross country meet at Alice Smith School. He was excited! (I was excited for him!) We dropped him off and followed the bus out to Alice Smith School. It's a ways away, but quite an impressive campus. Large fields, an Olympic size pool, and the school looks great from the outside. There were 7 schools involved in today's meet. Caleb had the first race...1.5 km in the 9U bracket. He was running with several classmates - so that made it fun as we actually knew some of these kiddos!
The MKIS Team
Caleb - Pre-Race
Some of the MKIS Kids
Caleb sprinting it home
Caleb - Post-Race - All smiles
So proud of him! He's not the fastest (much like his mommy!), but he loves to run! Said he would definitely do it again...and I think he inspired his little brother to do cross country next year!
We also hit the Batu Caves today! This was my idea...I've been wanting to go here since we touched down in KL. The caves are set in a limestone hill slightly north of KL. Here, is located a Hindu shrine, dedicated to Lord Murugan (the Hindu god of war and victory). It is also the focal point of the Hindu festival Thaipusam in Malaysia.
Me, Caleb and Grayson and the Lord Marugan statue
Koi pound and shrine at the base of the caves
Now, I will admit that I loved the idea of hiking the 272 steps to the top. And, I was highly interested in the Hindu shrine located in the caves, as it's the most visited shrine outside of India. But, the REAL draw...yeah, it's silly...was the monkeys. I'd been reading how there are a TON of monkeys at the shrine. That some of them are quite aggressive. (I believe one of the blogs I read stated that his friend was "bitch-slapped" by a monkey!) That they could be fed and that you could get some great pics! Fab! I knew I could sell the boys on this, also! Come on - kids and monkeys! It's a sure thing!
So, we packed up some wax apples, bananas, and cold drinks for ourselves and headed up!
272 steps to the top -
A nice man joked with the boys that they should count the steps and if they missed one they needed to start again
Part way up
Continuing to climb - a few monkeys
As we climbed, I'll admit, I was a bit disappointed. We only saw about 5 monkeys...I had heard there were LOTS! Oh, well...we continued on our way.
Inside the first level
But, as we got into the caves...there were monkeys everywhere!!!!! And some smaller Hindu shrines set all along the cave walls. And lots of people.
The cave is open at the top...and the light streams in creating some awesome visuals
(I'm just not the best photographer)
Grayson and Blaine checking things out
Some of the monkeys we fed inside the cave
My favorite monkey inside the cave eating one of the wax apples we brought
Stalagmites and stalactites
Some of the Hindu art and offerings areas
There were even several roosters hanging out...and they seemed more aggressive than the monkeys!
Grayson insisted we keep some of the fruit so we could feed some of the monkeys on the way down. No problem...we can do that. We took a final look around and then headed back down the stairs. It is quite steep and the stairs are narrow - so we took our time on the down.
Down we go
Cool cave walls
Well, wouldn't you know it...we only saw 1 monkey on the way down and he was on the far staircase...so we couldn't get to him. Grayson was quite mad, but we told him we would come back with Nana and Poppy when they visited - if not before.
I wanted to go see this other statue that was down near the parking lot. This is it:
Not sure which deity this is...just think it's cool
And, once again...we were in monkey heaven. More monkeys than were in the cave...more monkeys up close and personal! Monkeys everywhere! Caleb and Blaine were getting braver by the moment...Grayson was still timid - basically throwing the bananas to the monkeys.
Caleb feeding wax apples
Blaine telling the monkey to say please before he would give him a banana
Mommy Monkey and her baby
We then saw a group of monkeys and decided that we would sacrifice one of our cans of 100 Plus so we could watch this monkey drink it. Blaine popped the top and this monkey was on it!
Enjoying his 100 Plus on a hot day
It was fantastic! The kids loved hiking up the steps to the top, we visited a very interesting Hindu shrine built into the caves, and we saw monkeys! Woot! Woot! That's the way to do it!!
That is sooo cool! Love the monkeys and vicariously living through you!
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