kuala lumpur

An Indian man came up to Emerson and put a jewel on her forehead, then said “Better!”

Khana took us to a waterfall/swimming hole area that was fun to see. Kids must flock their after school on their motorbikes. While we were hiking back to it, we saw lots of monkeys. One had her little baby on her back and there were two younger ones that were small but definitely holding their own! At a zoo in Hong Kong we sat for quite a few minutes watching a young monkey negotiate with his mom to let him climb higher on the fence. She wasn’t having it and kept pulling at his legs and tail. He wouldn’t give up and finally made it pretty close to the top. She turned her back on him- she was not happy, but then a few moments later she scurried up the fence, grabbed him, made him hug on to her stomach and they were safely on a tree next to dad in no time. I guess parenting can be a challenge at times for monkeys, too!

Hey Angela! How’d you like the shout out! 🙂

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Khana drove us here and bought us postcards and seemed excited to share his culture. That day was a very good day!

These caves are shrines to different Indian Gods. People (young, old, physically challenged, everybody!) walk up the never-ending steps to reach a huge cave system that has statues of cows and gods. Many people bring cow’s milk in ornate containers to serve as a gift to the gods. Cows are sacred to many Indian people. A lot of Indians cut out meat entirely from their diet and become vegetarians. I heard people say that they don’t eat dirty (meaning they don’t eat meat.) Or some will say that they eat clean which means the same thing. We saw people with white dots smudged onto their foreheads. Our cab driver, Khana, explained that the white powder is partly made from cow dung (poop) and is very sacred. Some babies had it rubbed all over their heads.
We were probably the only white people from quite a distance and many people stopped to say hi or hello and take pictures with the boys. Maddux’s blonde hair and Lennon’s curls are unusual here. Someone even took a picture with Jesse and he wasn’t even a soccer fan. I was transfixed on the monkeys and Emerson wanted to leave the cave because the smell was pretty gnarly.

Our taxi driver, tour guide and new friend, Khana!