If you travel Malaysia Capital and make a plan to visit Tugu Negara, so don’t ignore ASEAN Sculpture Garden in Kuala Lumpur.
Location
It is a beautiful garden along Parlimen Road, about 100 metres to the National Monument (Tugu Negara) as well as very close to the Lake Gardens and 15-minute walk from the Masjid Jamek LRT station.
Asean sculpture garden entrance
What to explore in Asean Sculpture Garden in Kuala Lumpur
You should spend 15 minutes take snap of pictures as the garden features the works created by award-winning local artists of the six founding Association of Southeast Asian Nations, namely Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia and Brunei.
The garden was officially opened in 1987 to commemorate the 20th anniversary of ASEAN. It’s quite interesting if you know more about the meaning behind every works as there is few information at site.
It shapes twenty slabs in a curving movement from a low profile to the upwards, symbolising the growth of ASEAN during the first twenty years, created by Syed Ahmad Jamal with material including Malaysia marble slabs on reinforced concrete.
Towards Peace (Singapore)
There are six sculptures symbolising the progress in unity, growth, peace and harmony of ASEAN with 6 members together, created by Han Sai Por with Malaysia Marble.
The Gate Of Harmony (Indonesia)
The Gate symbolises communication among ASEAN countries: independent wings and pillars represent the interdependence of the nations while the concrete block implies the nations create communication, conference and harmony. The structure is made of reinforced concrete and created by Dolorosa Sinaga.
Barong-Barong (Philippines)
A modern interpretation of old type architecture popular in ASEAN region, made by Jerusalino V.Araos and of many material including steel and glass.
The progress
Progress (Thailand)
The artist use stainless Steel – an industrial material to emphasize the industrial progress of ASEAN. The maker: Itthi Khongkhakul
The Asean Dance (Brunei Darussalam)
It’s simple: to preserved the old and welcome the new. Created by Abu Bakar bin Abdul Rahman
Final thought
The garden is free entrance, beautifully green and well-maintained, so most of travelers would take a visit on their way to National monument, but it will just an ordinary visit due to the lack of relevant information on structures.
the structure needs to be maintained regularly.
In addition, these ones seem also in need of some restoration and sustain like the garden. It’s good to understand the success of the region in over the last few decades, which will match perfectly with the surrounding history site.
vNo-one travels to Kuala Lumpur to miss a visit to Batu Caves – a very attractive destination close to the capital, featuring the popular Hindu festival – Thaipusam, holding the tallest Hindu god statue in the world and the labyrinth of spooky limestone caves in Malaysia. So amazing !!
Besides, you will be given a challenge to take quite steep 272 steps to enter a giant dorm-shaped cave with numerous religious activities conducting inside and a panoramic view toward the metropolian area. Don’t miss it !
Batu Caves actually includes three main caves featuring temples, Hindu shrines and a system of small-scale caves to explore.
1 – The history
statue on a rooftop
Some quick fact to know: – The limestone forming Batu Caves is around 400 million years old.
– The caves were first used by indigenous people (Temuan) for sheltering, then by Chinese pioneers collecting guano to fertilize their vegetable gardens in early 1860s.
– Over 10 years after that, the limestone hills attracted an American naturalist William Hornaday (1878) and also colonial authorities including Daly and Syers.
– But the turning point for Batu Caves was when K. Thamboosamy Pillai, an Indian trader, used it as a place to worship Hindu gods (Lord Murugan).
– In 1890, Pillai, who also founded the Sri Mahamariamman Temple, Kuala Lumpur, set up the Murti (consecrated statue) of Sri Murugan Swami in Temple Cave.
– The Thaipusam festival in the Tamil month of Thai (late January-early February) started celebrating there in 1892.
– Wooden steps up to the Temple Cave were initially built in 1920, then replaced by 272 concrete steps later.
Trivia
– Batu Cave is named after the Sungai Batu (Stone River), which flows through the hill. It is the tenth (Pattu in Tamil) limestone hill from Ampang. – Batu Caves is also the name of a nearby village.
– Batu Caves is also referred as 10th Caves since there are six holy shrines in India and four in Malaysia, including three others are Kallumalai Temple in Ipoh, Tanneermalai Temple in Penang and Sannasimalai Temple in Malacca.
2- System of Caves
Coming to Batu Caves, you should pay enough time to visit totally 3 main Caves (Temple cave, Dark cave, The Ramayana Cave) and maybe some small caves.
Inside Temple caves
The biggest – Temple Cave, has a very high dome-shaped ceiling and features decorated Hindu shrines. Actually, it’s a joint of 2 separated caverns. The first cavern contains six abodes of Murugan carved into the walls and the second is where the temple of Valli Devanai, Murugan’s wife, locates
Entrance to Dark Caves – regularly limited access
Below the Temple Cave is the Dark Cave, with rock formations and a number of unique animals. It presents a network of intact caverns, but the most stunning things is that the harmony of thousands-of-years stalactites and stalagmites creates complicated formations such as cave curtains, cave pearls, flow stones, etc. It will blow your mind and make you fall in love at a glance.
In order to maintain the cave’s ecology, access is restricted but there’re still regular adventure trips to Dark Caves organized by the Malaysian Nature Society. Along with Dark Caves, there are a variety of undeveloped caves holding a diverse range of cave fauna like bats.
Lord Hanuman statue at Batu caves site
The Ramayana Cave, featuring the story of Rama along the walls of the cave in a chronicle sequence, is situated to the left. On the way to the Cave, there are a 15m (50 ft) tall statue of Hanuman and a temple dedicated to Lord Hanuman.
At the base of the hill, there are Art Gallery Cave and Museum Cave with full of Hindu statues and paintings, which then was renovated as the Cave Villa in 2008.
3- The gold statue
One of the reasons making Batu Caves distictive and worthy your visit is virtually the huge gold statue right beside the steep stairs to the Temple cave.
Murugan statue
For your interest, that is the golden statue of Lord Murugan, 42.7 meter (140ft) in height (so highhhh!), and merely considered as the biggest one ever in the world. It took 3 years to accomplish the wonder. Wow !
4- Annual Thaipusam Festival
A temple inside Catheral cave
The Batu Caves is a renowned pilgrimage site, mainly dedicated to the annual Thaipusam festival of Hindu community worldwide. So you have a chance to take a close up to prestigiously religious activity if you’re kind of people interested in the topic.
So this is how its take place: A Thaipusam march starts in the morning light from the Sri Mahamariamman Temple in KL, heading to Batu Caves as a religious undertaking to Lord Muruga. It takes about eight hours totally and devotees are required to carry containers of milk as an offering to Lord Murugan, either by hand or in large ornamented canisters on their shoulders called ‘kavadi’.
“The kavadi may be simple wooden arched semi-circular supports holding a carrier foisted with brass or clay pots of milk or huge, heavy ones which may rise up to two metres, built of bowed metal frames which hold long skewers, the sharpened end of which pierce the skin of the bearers torso. The kavadi is decorated with flowers and peacock feathers imported from India. Some kavadi may weigh as much as a hundred kilograms” – Wikipedia
Devotees are bathing in Sungai Batu (or Rocky River), then enter the Temple cave by making a arduous climb through the center staircase while influx of worshipper and observer filling the balustrades on the sides.
Priests approach the kavadi carriers, sprinkle sacred ash over skewers and hooks on devotees’s body then carefully remove them. It’s noticable that no blood shed when people do piercing and removal, but it’s still very frighteningly watching the process.
5-Travel to Batu caves
The attraction is actually a limestone hill located in Gombak, Selangor, 13km north of Kuala Lumpurr, Malaysia. So there are various ways to reach the Batu caves:
KTM train service: Batu Caves complex is easily reached by commuter train at Batu Caves Komuter station in KL Sentral. A one-way ticket cost RM 2.6, which is the cheapest transportation.
Bus: From KL Sentral, take the monorail service to Titiwangsa station. Alight here and take the bus to Batu Caves, also bus 11/11d from Bangkok Bank Terminus (Near to Puduraya Terminus) or bus U6 from Titiwangsa
Car/ Taxi: You can drive/ take taxi to Batu Caves because it locates beside the main highway of MRR2.
6- Things to do
You will see many paintings in temple at the base
Cultural art hunting
Well, there are paintings and scenes of Hindu Gods exhibits in the Ramayana Cave and the temples at the base.
Photography
As a iconic attraction of Malaysia, Batu Caves also an ideal place to perform your photographic skills on ritual, naturally dome-shaped caves and for the best, the giant Hindu god guarding at front.
Stunning rock formation of Batu caves
Rock climb
Batu Caves is the hub of rock climbing in Malaysia recently, as you can see in Vang Vieng also. Actually, the caves locates on a limestone hills rising to 150mm, so it’s no surprising that the surrounding site offers many climbing routes scatteredly (I read that there are more than 160 climbing routes) . You should contact local adventure companies for your own safety, but some would seek to do it themselves by reaching Damai caves, locating in the north eastern area.
Feed monkey
Coming to Batu caves and I’m sure you would enjoy feeding its numerous macaques, except for someone involuntarily. These creatures may bites tourists so you can carry a stick as “weapon” against some “bad guys”.
Tour de Dark Cave
The cave is so famous that every one loves studying nature shouldn’t miss learning about the natural history in the area.
7- When to visit
The best time to visit Batu caves and enjoy all of its religious color is in late January or February when over thousands of pilgrims make their way to the Thaipusam festival.
For the other day, you should travel to the complex in the early morning, 6-7 AM is the optimum choice, when you can enjoy the sunrise and sense of tranquility before the site are overwhelmed by influxes of tourists.
If you want to see how Hindu rituals happen then notice that Prayers are held at 8.30am and 4.30pm.
8- Budget travel tips
You should notice that although the Temple cave is free, the other come with various entrance fees and opening hours.
Ramayana Cave is RM5/ pax for entrance
Travel by KTM at KL Sentral saves you most money and time.
Malaysia’s national monument in Kuala Lumpur (Tugu negara) is a favorite destination of travelers love history and military aspect of the nation. Free entrance !
Why not snap a couple of pictures.
Schedule
Open Daily: 07:00-18:00
Admission: Free
Every year on 31st of July – Warriors Day, the Prime Minister as well as the heads of military and police will pay a visit to the site to honour the heroes of the war.
Decorated Floor at Pavilion at National Monument site
How to get to the national monument in Kuala Lumpur
Taxi/Car: take any cabs and tell the driver you heading to Tugu Negara (national monument) and he should get you there at no more than RM20 from any starting point in the capital downtown area. The destination situates on Jalan Parlimen, which is a two-way street so very easy to access.
KTM Train: get to KL Sentral and take KTM Komuter to Bank Negara Station, follow the signages to Jalan Parlimen until you see a green park (15-minute walk), it locates to the right side.
What to explore
The 48,562-sq-meter complex includes five major components and takes you around 30 minute to visit and take a look. Along with Surronding gardens and the Fountains, three typical structures you should spend time on is Cenotaph, Pavilion and Bronze sculpture.
The cenotaph
The cenotaph
The 10-meter-empty cenotaph was elected to honour the dead with engraving words “To Our Glorious Dead” along with period (1914–1918), (1939–1945) and (1948–1960) as the evidence of Malaysia’s involvement in such wars. The fallen’s names are engraved on the plaques of the cenotaph.
It’s so pity that there’s no further information available so most traveler may be curious but just let it be. FYI, they belongs to two World Wars and Malayan Emergency – a guerilla fighting between the Commonwealth armed forces against the soldier of the Malayan Communist Party. The other term of this war is “Anti-British National Liberation War”, named by the latter.
National Monument
National Monument
The structure, marked in the book of records for being the tallest freestanding sculptures in the world, is made up of immense bronze soldiers with seven statues representing courage, sacrifice, leadership, unity, vigilance, strength and suffering, as well as to be dedicated to the 11,000 people who died during the Malayan Emergency (1948–1960) with inscription “Dedicated to the heroic fighters in the cause of peace and freedom – May the blessing of Allah be upon them”.
Felix de Weldon sculpted this memorial one as well as the famed Iwo Jima Memorial statue in Virginia, United States. The base stones were imported from a little coastal city of Karlshamn in South Eastern Sweden.
It suffered extensive damage in 1975 and took 2 years later for the restoration. Since then, the fence is erect at night to deter any further destructive attempts. Every day at dawn, a soldier raises the national flag and lowers it at dusk.
A corner of the Pavilion
The central pavilion
Locating between the National monument and the Cenotaph, it is such a stunning crescent-shaped composition that you will find interesting.
The pavilion comprises 3 gold domes, with the floor made of marble from Langwaki. It’s interesting that below the center dome is a vault. Take a closer look and you find out inside the black metal grill are names of the dead soldiers in wars recorded in microfilm for posterity. Don’t forget to look up at the ceiling and see the emblems of the regiments serving during World War II and the Emergency.
Backpacking Malaysia is an amazing experience, and this is useful tips I draw from my first trip to the Muslim country in Southeast Asia.
Transportation
Airplane
– AirAsia is a Malaysian low-price airline, so that it should be the first consideration to “hunt” for cheaper tickets. Ticket price approximately ranges from 1 million to 1.5 millions vnd as your luck.
– VietjetAir sometimes also sells tickets abroad at the price of 0 vnd. This airline tickets to Malaysia usually cost about 1.5 to 1.7 millions vnd. Notice: These prices include toll, tax, and visa fee.
Bus
During this journey, I mainly used bus to move from airport to city center or between cities. Actually, I didn’t use this mode of transport in inner cities. At ground floor of AirAsia airport, there is a bus ticket counter to Kuala Lumpur Sentral. It costs about 11 RM (ringgit – Malaysian currency) and takes about 1.5 to 2 hours duration.
To move from Kualar Lumpur to others provinces (for me it’s Malacca), I took tram to TBS. And from here, it was easy for me to find bus ticket. Thanks to good traffic condition in Malaysia, the trip was extremely quick and smooth.
Tramcar
To take the tram in KL, you obviously need a tourist map. You can ask for one at the airport. However, mine was taken from Sentral market information counter, which is not far from China town. To learn more about using the map, read Southeast asia transportation guide
Taxi
I just took a cab once in Melaka when it is out of bus. Malaysian cab is just like “xe ôm” (motorbike taxi) in Viet Nam. We have to haggle or we over-pay. Normally, the price of 1km is approximately 1USD. Use google map to estimate the distance before taking the cab so that you will know the most reasonable price to bargain. The better of your negotiation, the cheaper you have to pay.
Bicycle
Riding bike in Melaka was such a fascinating and economical experience. The hostel I stayed charged me only 5 RM for one bike, and I could use it whenever I wanted until I checked-out. Bicycle for hire ranges from 5-20 RM, depend on the owners and kind of bike you hire. You should ask particularly as some people charge the price according to the duration.
Remember, in Malaysia (so is Singapore), people go on the left side of the road. So please, when in Rome, do as the Romans do.
Destinations
Here I just list briefly some main places, please check my journey diary for more details!
1. Kuala Lumpur
This is the city with fascinating Muslim construct and surprisingly modern. Those buildings can cause your neck hurt if you want to watch the whole of them (just kidding)! There is Sentral Market, where you can find so many delicate souvenir, which you can’t help buying! Beside, taking a tram in Kualar Lumpur was a strange experiment to me, I could feel the hurry of the urban on each route.
Malaysian are greatly hospitable, if they see you just like an idiot when they are trying to help you with your direction, they will take you to the place you want if it isn’t far from there without asking for anything. I had a great impression with Malaysian since this trip. Food here tastes well, too. I don’t know whether it is just because I chose to eat Chinese food or not. Last but not least, my other impression about this city is it has a lot of crows.
2. Melaka (or Malacca)
Maybe this place was the most adorable and affectionated city in my journey: everything was inexpensive, the atmosphere was cool and fresh, there was a poetic hill with the structure of many culture displayed on the architectures. When evening has set in, you can walk to the waterfront, sit there, have some drinks and enjoy your life.
The most salient feature of Melaka is China town, every night, take a walk here and you can see many interesting things. In the morning you can comfortably live your dream lately on your bed because the stores are not open until 9 or 10 am. There is no reason for not living lazy one day in life!
If you feel hungry, just go to the market, you can easily find out many seafood, Thailand food, Indian food… which certainly will satisfy your appetite. Otherwise, if you feel boring, the shopping malls here will always welcome you with the price that can turn you to a shopaholic!
3. Johor Baruh
Muggy and cramped. I just had about 5 transit hours and stayed at my seat watching the station, because the time was not enough to go for a troll here. According to the information that I read, Johor is famous with many artificial amusement park, and some fruit-tree farm 80km distant from city centre to the East.
To what I perceived when sitting at the Center of Johor Station, this city is quite similar to VietNam, torrid, complicated, insecure, definitely different from TBS station in Kualar Lumpur.
Accommodation
Honestly, I love hostels in Malaysia. We live in a very nice private room in Kuala Lumpur for just $11, and every thing is neat and clean, air-con worked well.
Jalan Jalan, guest house we stayed in Melaka was also a good choice where it provides a digit code pass door (well security), bicycle for $2 and however long you stay there, you can ride one you rent. There’s also a guitar so you can play some works as you like.
Things should bring
Lock and Plug
There are 2 things you definitely have to buy if you forget to bring: lock (to lock your locker or room if your locker, or room don’t have the lock, it help you save your money for hiring) and plug to convert two-pin plug to 3 – pin plug. Malaysia and Singapore use the different kind of socket in compare with Vietnam. You just search on google the world “Singapore socket”, there will be some description of this posted by overseas students.
Clothing
I thought that I would visit some religious constructs so that I brought along long pants, which I finally realized that was unneccessary. At those places, you can hire the pants with a really low price (just ranged from 10 – 20.000 vnd/ pairs). Your job is just put it on, enjoying you visit, then simply put them back to the owner.
Malay and Sing’s weather are basically similar to Viet Nam’s, which is sunny, hot and muggy, rainy. Therefore, shorts and sandals are the most suitable and comfortable. long-sleeved shirts/T-shirts will also be needed if you are afraid of sunburnt. You should probably fold a jacket along with some socks in you backpack.
For all the time you have to sit on the transportation and all of them always turn on the air conditional system, your jacket will help protect you from thermal shock when you get off. In addition, some areas in Malay such as Cameroon or Borneo, which are near Brunei, are quite cold because there are plateaus and primeval forests. But, as my thought, clothes in Malay are inexpensive, so that we can buy there, no need to carry too heavy.
Sneakers should be considered because most of your moving time, you will go on foot (to the tram station or go sightseeing). Don’t forget to bring a cap/or hat because of scorching sun, and an umbrella just in case it would rain. (an umbrella in Malay costs about 4 Singapore Dollars – estimate 65.000Vnd).
Beside you should bring along a small backpack to convenient to take a walk. A large one contain clothes, personal stuffs so that quite heavy, we should put it at dorm. Precious things such as passport, camera, cash, phone, should always be by your side.
Time zone
One of the differences that I could clearly recognize was the time zone. For the first time in my life I saw the sky at 7p.m were as bright as 5p.m in Viet Nam, some time I lost my feeling about time. To contact with your family, you can easily calculate Vietnamese time by minus 1 hour in Malaysian time. For example, 7p.m in Malaysia is 6p.m in Vietnam.
The difference lead to many funny story. The first morning in Melaka, I have a short talk with the native man after enjoying my breakfast. He said that people here just began to open their store from 9a.m. A little voice in my head immediately said that people here were so lazy. But that was just my mistaken. When I woke up the next morning, I had my answer: 7-8a.m in Malaysia was as dark as night!
Budget for Reference
The amount of money that I spent in Malaysia is as same as in Vietnam, but it became double when I was in Singapore. At the time I travelled, exchange value of currency was:
1 RM~5.200 vnd
Kuala Lumpur
– SIM 3G: 20RM/500Mb
– Bus fee from airport to KL Sentral: 11RM/ person.
– A Big Mac combo: 13RM
– Tram ticket: 1-4RM according to length of the route
Travel from kota kinabalu to brunei by ferry is really awesome experience, and you can avoid most of annoying of bus route because of many custom borders between Borneo Malay and Brunei to reach the BSB.
Ferry Kota Kinabalu – Muara, Brunei
First, you buy ticket at Jesselton port, the ticket booth opens from 7AM to 4PM and the combo ticket from KK to Muara is 60 RM, you’ll also pay 3.8 RM as terminal tax in KK and another 5 RM at Labuan. So totally you spend 6.88 RM to travel from KK to Muara (Brunei).
You’re request to check-in 30′ before departure. So keep yourself in time. If you’re not sure about the schedule and what ship to board, kindly ask the officers, maybe they wear normal clothes, not a kind of uniform, but still bring a radio at bell.
The ferry is quite fast. It took me 3.5 hours from KK to Labuan (8AM-11.30AM) and 2 hour from Labuan to Muara (1.30PM-3:30PM) . Some people said that they arrived in Brunei port at 4PM, I think that it’s just in stormy day or rough sea. The better weather is, the more quickly you get to Muara.
When boarding, you have to show the conductor your ticket and passport also. When you’re boading in Labuan, you’re departing out of Malaysia, so it takes a little custom procedure.
When onboard, you receive a custom to fill in very basic information to summit custom officer. 5′ done! The officer will take the coupon and let you keep the rest, hold it carefully because it maybe in need when getting out of the country.
Though I read that you have to prove any evidence (flight tickets) of leaving Brunei then. But in my experience, they are not likely to ask. It’s so easy to get into Brunei.
Another important information is if you hold Israelis passport or have your passport Israelis stamped then you’re not eligible to receive visa. I didn’t have that chance, you can confirm, please do in comments below.
Ferry experience
Life vests are availably put under each seats so it looks professional and safe. The TV plays some films for entertainment. I saw a real-based movie “Eddie the eagle” to kill time, it includes English subtitle so no worries if you can’t read local language. Other travelers choose to put on earphone and enjoy their music world.
It’s very loud onboard, mostly from engine. My luck was bad because there was even a baby crying. So you’re advised to use earphone for more comfortable. I was listening to music while watching films and it seemed perfect.
The ferry (actually it’s a hydrofoil) is very steady. You just feel it dizzy a bit, so somehow people with seasickness can conquer it easily.
Because there’s no cabinet onboard so there are areas right at stair for your belongings if you mind. I don’t know whether the seat back is able to curve, so you’d better try with your seat for more comfortable (if any).
The crew will serve some food and drink after departure 15′, the price is a bit higher in land and they only do it once.
The toilet is quite clean, but going toilet in a swinging situation is likely to be very challenging. So you can do it at dock, more relaxing.
