Have you ever seen a gigantic statue of Lord Murugan? Have you ever seen colourful steps to any temple that too a cave temple? Do you know where is the largest hotel of the world located?
Till the time you think about these, let’s take you all to an incredible day trip journey of Batu Caves and Genting Highlands.
In case you don’t know who we are………..
We call ourselves Travel Freaks……..
Let’s begin with a quick recap. We arrived in Kuala Lumpur one day before and we have visited a few of the local attractions. In case you haven’t read about it, checkout here .
Table of Contents
1. How to Reach Batu Caves?
There are many ways to reach this beautiful Cave Temple. One can opt for KTM Komuter which connects Kuala Lumpur with Batu Caves station, car/taxi, guided tour service. We booked our day trip through Klook.
It was a join-in tour. We started from Kuala Lumpur around 8 AM. The bus halted at a few more stops to pick up other travellers. It took us around 30-45 mins to reach. As we were peeking through the bus we were amazed to see the place. This is one of the must visit place while in Kuala Lumpur.
2. How was the Batu Caves Temple?
As we reached the place, our guide informed us that we had 1.5 hours to explore this gem. We quickly moved to the entrance area. A gigantic 42 metres high statue of Lord Murugan with the colourful steps at the backdrop was the sight to behold. There were around 272 colourful steps to the cave temple.
You will encounter many monkeys on the way up. Be careful if you are carrying any water bottle or food packets. As we reached the top, there was an entrance to the this massive cave.
The main temple inside the cave was dedicated to Lord Murugan. However, there were other temples as well dedicated to various Hindu deities.
As you reach the cave area, you would need to hike a few more steps to visit these temples. It took us around 1 hour to explore this entire cave area. If you observe carefully, the cave entrance seems to resemble the shape of a Vel, Lord Murugan’s weapon.
On the way descending, near to the parking area there were a few souvenir shops and cafeteria. We quickly made our stop for some snacks and got ourselves some souvenirs as memories.
As we moved to the bus area, we were excited for our next stop.
Do you remember one of the questions asked in the beginning of this blog?
Yes, you got it right…..we were heading to the place where the Largest Hotel of the World is located, Genting Highlands.
3. What is special about Genting Highlands?
This was the most awaited destination of the day, Genting Highlands. There are two ways to reach it, one is by cable car and the other by car.
We took the cable car which is locally known as Awana Skyway Gondola ride (glass cable car through which you can admire your surroundings) to the Genting Highlands. It was one of the longest cable car rides in South East Asia. It connects Awana Transportation Hub with Sky Avenue Station at the peak of Genting Highlands. The length of the ride was approx. 3kms which took us around 30 mins to reach.
It was the first time we experienced that cable car slows down at multiple stops where you can get down as per your choice to explore other places.
On the way, we saw the World’s Largest Hotel as per Guinness World records, The First World Hotel which has over 7000 rooms.
One interesting incident which happened was when the Gondola was about to start at Awana Transportation Hub, one of the staff clicked our snaps. To our utter surprise, on reaching the Genting Highlands station they presented us with the glass frame with our pictures embedded on it. We loved this surprise and purchased the glass frames.
It was too cool at the top. Don’t forget to bring your jackets. This place had both indoor and outdoor theme parks.
We explored the indoor theme park. There were various rides which you can enjoy. Also, you will be spoiled for the food choices available at this place.
This is one of the biggest Amusement parks in South East Asia, where you can spend the entire day indulging in numerous activities. There were theme parks, casinos, cafes, hotels, restaurants, branded stores, food courts, etc.
Due to our tight schedule, we had to return. On the way, we had one more stop awaiting us to visit. Now, you must be excited to know…..
4. Where were we heading to?
We took the Gondola again. This time to stop at a different place, which was Chin Swee temple. After getting down, on the way to the temple we were surprised to see a series of escalator rides. There was a huge garden area in the temple premises. It was a breathtaking view of the surrounding area with mountains in the backdrop. The sight was so colourful and vibrant.
The temple is dedicated to Chinese Buddhist deity Kuan Yin. You could get the picturesque view from the top but for that, you would need to hike a few steps inside the temple.
After looking at our watch, we realized we were running out of time. Hence, we quickly made our way back to the Awana Transportation hub. We took our last Gondola ride to descend.
It would be unfair to say that we explored the Genting Highlands completely. Given the vastness of the place, you would definitely need an entire day or two to explore this. On our way back, we got down at KL Sentral.
On reading KL Sentral, you must have understood where we were heading for dinner…
5. Which was the place we chose for dinner?
It was around 7:30 PM and all of us were starving. We decided to go for dinner at Little India Brickfield. As we were strolling in the area, we picked one of the restaurants where on enquiring we got some good Indian cuisine option. All of us occupied the chairs at one of the table and ordered from the menu.
We were delighted to see once the dinner arrived. It was Dal fry, Chapati, Steam Rice, Mixed Veg, Spicy Bhindi, Mutton Keema with Gulab Jamuns (Indian Dessert). The food was beyond our expectation. Being away from home, it felt like a home-cooked meal.
Soon after finishing the dinner, we were excited to have the Monorail ride to our Hotel at Bukit Bintang.
As we got down at Bukit Bintang station, we saw some street performances. There was a huge crowd, we also made our way to it. Here in Kuala Lumpur, these were quite common sightings, which we do not usually get to see in India. We enjoyed the performance then went to the hotel as we were pretty much tired.
With this we called our day off.
6. What kind of help are we going to provide?
Let us inform you that we prepare itineraries not only for anywhere in India but also for Asia. We have been travelling since we were toddlers. So here in our blogs and stories, we will give you a glimpse of our journey and help you plan your trip.
Read about our Uzbekistan blogs.
Read about our Kazakhstan blogs.
Read about our Singapore blogs.
Read about our Vietnam blogs.
Read about our Cambodia blogs.
Read about our Bali blogs.
Read about our Kuala Lumpur blog series.
Read about our Sri Lanka blogs.
Read about our Nepal blogs.
Read about our Char Dham blogs.
Read about our Ladakh blogs.
Read about our day trip to Hyderabad.
Read about our Madhya Pradesh blogs.
Read about our Andaman and Nicobar blogs.
Do follow our Instagram handle @mindfulllofvacations and watch for the next destination story of Kuala Lumpur. For any query related to any trip, drop a mail at @mitkau007@gmail.com.
by mitkau