13 km north of kuala lumpur in the southernmost part of a limestone bed of southeast asia lies a massive cave with roughly 300 steps carved out. they lead into a massive hindu temple. i climbed the stairs at noon, so that when i got into the inner chamber the sun hit directly on the temple. water dripped from jagged tips of calcified spikes and monkeys ran around snagging whatever they could manage, mostly coconuts. i took a local bus (U6) and paid about fifty cents for a days pass to get there. it was awesome.
i took the bus back in to town, and found a little nasi stand and ordered some tom yam soup. spicy but sooooo good. i then headed to the kl sentral train terminal to get some info on my trip to penang tomorrow morning. good thing; the local train isn't running so i'm going to have to take a bus. i got off at a random stop on the monorail and ended up in the thick of chinatown. zigging and zagging alleyways of louis vitton and dior, fruit stands, dried fish heads, speeding motorbikes (which have an odd habit of ending up on sidewalks here), and lots of kissing noises.
i stumbled across all of the things i thought i wasn't going to have time to see: a massive hindu temple on the edge of chinatown, a huge chinese medicinal shop in traditional architecture, merdaka square, the national mosque, central market, and the largest chinese temple in malaysia whose name i can't remember. the clouds started hovering ahead as i raced through the square and found a nice taxi driver to take me to the monorail stop just as i felt the first raindrops and heard the first clap of thunder.
i rode back on the monorail in the heavy rain and wound all the way through the city. several views of the twin towers later, and i ducked off a few blocks from the hostel and skirted back "home." to penang tomorrow and thailand the next day...
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