Dark caves of Batu Caves
Batu Caves is located 13 kilometers north of Kuala Lumpur. It is a natural limestone cave houses Hindu monuments. To reach it one has to climb 272 steps. Its main cave -Temple Cave has shrines to the Hindu deities and is the site for the colourful religious festival of Thaipusam. Every year, on Thaipusam, thousands of Hindu devotees and other visitors throng the caves. |
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A little below the Temple Cave is the Dark Cave, a two kilometer long network of relatively untouched caverns. Other than basic limestone stalagmites and stalactites formations and bat guano, it contains a number of rare cave animals such as racer snakes. |
Access to this cave is restricted and permission and guidelines must be obtained from the Malaysian Nature Society. Their seasoned cavern members will act as guides for nominal fees of RM 10-RM15 as funding for the society.
In this trip, be prepared to gruel 3-hour workout in and around the dark hole. You will have the chance to wrestle with racers (snakes), swim through a rampant raging river, crawl on our belly for a great part of the journey. Not only that you will roll in the mud, slide down virtually vertical rocks, take shower in room with rapidly rising water level, wade through knee-deep bat-shit, fight off hunger, thirst and claustrophobia, squeeze through cracks that you wouldn't dream of getting past.
In the dark caves, not only you'll be on your four's, but practically most parts of your abdominal flesh will have to stick to the ground full of mud and guano to squeeze through gaps as low as 1 foot high and 2 fee wide that may stretch as far as 20 meters. Some parts are so low that head has to be tilted side way. You may also need to wade through knee deep pool of water at some parts of the cave. The water is very murky, no way near the water cleanliness in Gua Tempurung, Perak.
By the time you come out of the cave, you'll look absolutely filthy. During my last trip, the part I liked best was on the way down the stair case when meeting some tourists climbing their way up, I just asked "Are you sure you want to go up?" Looking at me, some of them really got scared and considered turning back. Definitely an experience worth gaining and talked about.
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