Kuala Lumpur
19th March 2014
Today’s excursion was to the Batu Caves and
School of Hard Knocks. However Doreen
reviewed the schedule and decided she could not climb the 272 steps to the
Temple Cave, so Geoffrey went on his own whilst Doreen relaxed on board the
ship.
After an hour and a half drive to the
centre of Kuala Lumpur we arrived at the limestone hill where the Batu caves
could be found. The entrance to the cave
was protected by a huge golden statue and after the twenty minutes climb,
surrounded by local monkeys looking for scraps of food, Geoffrey entered the
cavernous cave, which has been a Hindu shrine for many centuries.
After a pleasant hour walking around the
caves and local area we travelled a short distance to the Royal Selangor
factory, where pewter was crafted. After
a brief introduction about how pewter was crafted, we entered a small workshop
where we were taught how to create our own pewter dish using traditional tools,
and after a pleasant half an hour hammering away creating our individual pewter
dish, we proudly picked up our dish and moved to the retail area. Here we saw magnificent objects created by
real craftsmen.
Unfortunately the prices were beyond
Geoffrey’s pocket with this beautiful tea set, costing some £400, so he bought two
cups for a modest £30.
A good stop, where I learned that pewterware
was more than the common old pewter tankard.
On the trip back to the ship we again drove
through the centre of Kuala Lumpur passing the Petronas Twin Towers.
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