The Batu Caves Stink...Really Stink!

The Batu Caves Stink...Really Stink!

The Batu Caves Stink...Really Stink!


After starting my Southeast Asia trip in the lovely city-state of Singapore it was off to the Changi airport to catch my Air Asia flight to Kuala Lumpur.

The day before I met some travelers at my hostel who were from Kuala Lumpur and they were puzzled why I was going to visit their city.

“Kuala Lumpur is just like Singapore but dirtier, noisier and stinkier,” one of the Malaysians exclaimed.

All three were true, but I got a real dose of the worst stench I have ever confronted when I visited the Batu Caves, located 35 minutes outside of Kuala Lumpur.

The Batu Caves are a sacred site to the Hindus in Malaysia. Every year in late January, early February the Thaipusam Festival is celebrated at the caves. The festival can attract over 800,000 people and is noted for the devotees piercing their flesh with hooks and skewers. The day I landed in Kuala Lumpur the festival was already underway so I would miss the event, but not the stench.

After a couple of days in Kuala Lumpur I took a day trip to the caves. Of the three major caves the most significant one requires a climb of 272 steps to get to. Once I got on top of the staircase I was rewarded with a great view of the city skyline and the stench that would pervade my nostrils and clothes. Apparently, the foul smell was a result from the recently concluded Thaipusam Festival and the celebrants depositing their waste (both human and manufactured) in the cave.

Nearby I witnessed other travelers in near vomit mode and others took the wise route and simply turned back and left. After I left Kuala Lumpur and traversed through the rest of Malaysia a common way other travelers would open a conversation with me would go something like this.

“Did you visit the Batu Caves?”

“I didn’t visit the Batu Caves, I smelt it,” I would reply.

We would share a laugh and then exchange our experiences of our day at the cave.

At the caves you’ll make many friends...not human friends, but rather the long tailed macaque monkeys that love to harass visitors. What better way to get acquainted with these monkeys than sticking my wide angle Canon 17-40 lens inches from their face?

That’s what I did with this monkey and he didn’t seem to mind. I guess he was too busy gasping for fresh air.

Stay tuned for more of my adventures in Southeast Asia.

Happy Travels!

Text and photo copyright by ©Sam Antonio Photography

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Taken on: 9th February, 2012. Copyright: All Rights Reserved - See Sam Antonio Photography's page of Flickr

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