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| The Cathedral Cave |
We make a three days
visit to Malaysia and find it worth right from the huge International Airport
at Kuala Lumpur, a Global city with a recent history of
magical development. From this beautiful airport, 100 Sq. Km.,modern landmark
of the world, we directly move towards the 400 million old Batu Caves, a
distance of around 80km. via routes well
made and also dusty, but with a consistent accompaniment of a variety of trees and palms throughout.
As we reach the
fantastic, lush vegetation covered limestone caves, rising around 150mtrs above
the ground, we are thrilled by the naturally drooping huge stalactite
formations, contrasting well with the bulging greenery, giving an impression
that the whole structure is ethereal. And look, in front is the huge 140ft
statue of Lord Subramanya painted with 300 ltrs of gold! But the caves and the
golden statue equal each other in richness of their kind and compliment each
other to present a unique magnificence. We slowly look around in front of the
caves. It is a marketplace bustling with activity of the tourists and the local
people. Small restaurants, momento shops, fruit vendors, flower vendors and
vendors selling big alluring coconuts full of water. We buy a thirst quencher
each, enter a south Indian eatery and after a long time, enjoy nice hot Idlis
and Dosa.
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| Vel shaped entrance |
We then head
towards the steep flight of 272 steps to the cave wondering whether we will be
able to make them! Surprisingly we climb them with some difficulty without
wasting much time and we reach the Vel(spear)
shaped mouth of the cave with intricately formed huge stalactites above us and
bats, zooming and settled amidst them, noiselessly. Since 1860 Chinese settlers
used the caves to excavate guano as fertilizer for their vegetable gardens.
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| Stalactites flooding With Light |
This
is the Cathedral Cave
or the Temple
cave promoted as a place of worship of Lord Muruga by an Indian trader,
K.Thambusamy Pillai; with a100 meters high natural ceiling with several
openings throwing floods of sun light into the cave. There are small shrines in
several secluded sections with weird and awe inspiring ancient stalactites and
stalagmites and each spot is a place to appreciate and spend some time in the
giant, bizarre natural wonder! Finally there is another small flight of stairs
and we reach the main shrine above which there is a big opening in the ceiling
and from an angle it looks as if stalactites are flooding in along with the
light!
We spend some time in the exhilarating, out of the world surroundings
there and slowly return to the mouth of the cave, again trying to absorb as
much as possible of the fascinating cave. Then we climb down the 272 stairs
leisurely, enjoying views from, behind the back of the huge Golden statue and
also the pranks of playful macaque monkeys sometimes naughtily snatching
peanuts or bananas from the jolly tourists. I too love the big sized, crunchy,
roasted Malaysian peanuts offered to us in the flight. As we don’t have time,
and being sufficiently informed about Rama and Hanuman as Indians, we do not go
to the other smaller caves.
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| Over the Canopies |
Our next
destination in the same afternoon is the Genting Highland Resort, 45 km from
the caves. We are dropped at Gohtang Jaya, the lower station of the 3.4 Km.
Genting Skyway, a mono cable Gondola lift, the longest and the fastest system
in south-east Asia, gliding us over the beautiful, virgin Malaysian rain
forests to the Resort, pleasantly atop a 6000ft. mountain peak in the Titwangsa Mountains Congo !
At present they are under the scan of genetic biologists for new medicines to
combat diseases like AIDS and cancer.
At the
destination we are picked up by our cab again and straight away taken to the
colorful First World Hotel. Its early evening and we have to spend some time to
get our room in the world’s fourth largest hotel with 6120 rooms. In our
package we have access to the Theme Park with a variety of rides and also
casinos, but the rides being on a very small scale compared to the West, we
don’t get much interested and the casinos, I consider a waste of time in gaudy,
adrenalin smelling places. We spend much
of the time just moving around in the illuminated, festive atmosphere full of
tourists and also the nice helpful staff of the hotel. Then we have dinner in
one of the abounding food outlets in the First World Plaza
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| First World Hotel |
Next morning, at
the First World Café, we have a hearty breakfast of omelet with cheese and
vegetables, chicken slices, bread toasts, water melon and orange pieces with plenty
of good black coffee, an excellent stimulant for one to be on the toes for a
long time! And we decide to see the Chinese
Chin Swee
Caves Temple Temple , situated in the most breathtaking
place of Genting Highlands at a height of 4600ft. In Malaysia ,
forests and trees cover three fourth of the land, almost an area of the size of
United Kingdom !
The founder of the Genting Group, late Tan Sri Lim, discovered this 28 acre,
green rocky slope with streams which was very similar to the Chin Swee Crag
back in his province of China and hence was inspired to construct the Temple . Chin Swee is a
Chinese deity with supernatural powers capable of summoning rain and thwarting away
evil spirits. This beautiful temple complex which has taken 18years to be
completed, due to the hazardous, steep terrain is totally the dedicated work of
Tan Sri Lim who was the planner, architect and designer of the project. He and
his dedicated team dug 80 to 100 ft. holes, employed manual labor and
gloriously completed the work without any accidents or casualties.
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| Chin Swee Temple |
We enter the
spic and span lobby of the temple, ride the lift and come to the colorful
fascinating temple complex, mainly dominated by the 9-storey pagoda and the 5-storey
shrine of Chin Swee, a Buddhist, perfectly in accordance with the principles of
Feng Shui. And well, the Chinese organized schemes of color, dominated by Red
and Gold are a treat of a totally different kind to the eyes, just like their
food to the palate. At the entrance of the huge floor, are the nine dragons
painted in different colors indicating different messages of good luck and
fortune. Behind the shrine, are massive statues of Buddha and Kuan Yan, goddess
of mercy and compassion.Almost the whole
area is surrounded by different kind of depictions of human lives and behavior
and reincarnations in the Buddhist style with which we are very familiar;
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| The Pagoda |
but
the colors and life in the variety of the statues every where is just appealing
to the eyes! On the other side is the 9-storeys Pagoda, mainly decorated with
figurines of Buddha and holding 10000 lamps for devotees to dedicate for the
blessings of Buddha. The whole complex, perched amidst the sublime, natural,
phenomenal panoramas is a treat!Having the
satisfaction of visiting a worthy spot, we happily bid good-bye to the
highlands by Gondola, again having heaven of a time over the rain forests and
after landing end up in a smelly store with a variety of dried fishes; a
variety of dry, spiced flowers, ginger, pineapple; several types of cheap
candies and things we don’t have any idea about! We buy small quantities of roses and ginger candy and leave the store
before we get accustomed to the odor around! Then we start for Kuala Lampur,
the cynosure of all tourists with Petronas
Towers
We reach our hotel at 4 pm, relax for an hour
and refresh ourselves, think not of wasting time in the important city, and
move out and start walking in the direction of Petronas Towers Malaysia
The gigantic,
high strength concrete structure with its 452 meters tall, slender profile has
560,000 sq. meters of column free office space definitely gives one a feeling
of unshakeable well being as we move in the spacious, imposing modern corridors
towards the shopping mall, Suria KLCC. Our friend informs us that the structure
is based on the auspicious eight point star Islamic motif, a characteristic of
Muslim architecture. He also further informs us that it also happens to be the
star of Laxmi in Hinduism and also a Buddhist symbol signifying the eight
paths. I tell him that the good and well meaning things of all religions are
mostly the same!
We bid good-bye
to the gentleman who has made us comfortable in the place and enter the
elegant, vibrant Suria (from the Sanskrit word Surya, meaning sun) KLCC, the
premier Malaysian mall at the peak time. We move around the six-storey mall
housing shops of the leading brands of the world without any buying interest
and finally enter a crowded Chinese restaurant to have dinner! I leisurely
feast over steaming Canton soup and shrimps- fried- rice as Poonam enjoys hot,
spicy vegetable noodles accompanied by Coke.
Slowly we come
out of the mall into the base of the towers, and leisurely stroll out of them
to find that it is dark outside with plenty of moon light. We turn back and are
struck by the beauty of the halide lamps (right from 70 watts to 1800 watts)
illuminated Twin Towers
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| The Parliament complex |
From there we come to the National Monument, a huge complex with gardens and fountains, the main monument being a group of soldiers in bronze, who died in the freedom struggle against Japanese occupation, in the 2nd World War. This 15 meters tall bronze is the world’s tallest of a group. We spend some time around the monument appreciating the sacrifices though it is the hottest part of the day.
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| The National Monument Bronze |
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| The Fabulous Mosque |
The hall, with some
people praying inside is well lit, well ventilated and has heavy chandeliers
hanging all-round. The sea green and gold color scheme of the wall-to-wall
carpets matches with the colors of the brilliant glass ventilation all around
giving a pleasantly stunning appearance. The mighty pillars and walls with
artistic inlay work and calligraphic Koranic verses in gold on wide black
marble strips on the walls definitely intensify the Glory of the Divine in the
Peace emanating mosque. We pray for peace and tranquility in the world.
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| A View of the Towers n other Buildings |
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| A Pillar in the Temple |
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| Inside The Temple |
Chin Swee Temple
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| Buddha,Chess Players,10 Caves |
E-mail:rajaram.atre@gmail.com
