The Batu Caves are part of a broader cultural day trip around Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia that can be good for the whole family but prepare for stairs.

The itinerary for this tour

As we had no car, we ended up taking a tour that I booked via Tripadvisor.

You can consider this more of a half-day trip though it could creep up longer depending on how long you stay at each spot.

1. Visit the Batu Caves north of the city
2. Check out a Batik store and watch a demonstration (optional)
3. Enter the Chinese temple (Thean Hou)
4. Visit Chinatown
5. Enter the National Mosque (optional)

Since we were staying at the Park Hyatt Kuala Lumpur, which is immediately next to Chinatown, our driver changed the order for us and moved the National Mosque up above the Thean Hou Temple. That way we could just walk back to the hotel when we were done with visiting Chinatown. Normally, I do not believe you would get out at Chinatown.

This itinerary is good for anyone who wants a more cultural experience in Kuala Lumpur. The city has a blend of cultures, though to a lesser extent than what you might find in neighboring Singapore. This tour specifically visits the large variety of temples here including Hindu (via Batu Caves), Muslim (via National Mosque), and Buddhism (via Thean Hou).

A brief reminder to use a shopping portal

Yes, you can just directly book the tour from Tripadvisor but doing so would rob you of the opportunity for more rewards. Viator is on many shopping portals, so book via one of those. In our case, I waited until Tripadvisor was having a 35X deal on the Capital One Offers portal. Rewards are offered based on the price paid in USD, so the $110 USD price tag for our family of 4 earned 3,850 Capital One miles. Not a bad haul for taking a tour that I would have taken anyways.

Click here for a reminder on what you can do with Capital One miles.

On top of that, you should check if your credit card offers a rebate for making a purchase via Tripadvisor. Every little discount adds up.

What to bring on this tour

Beyond just bringing yourself along for this tour, there are a few things we’d advise you bring with you:

• Sunscreen
• Bug/Mosquito spray
• Bottled water
• A respectful outfit

A little more on that last item: you’ll want to wear respectful clothing to enter Batu Caves. The entire area is considered sacred, so you’ll want to have your knees, shoulders, and stomach covered. Given how hot and humid Kuala Lumpur is, this might be tough to do. In the case of the National Mosque, you can borrow appropriate clothing for free at entry. But that’s not the case at the Batu Caves.

The Batu Caves

Official website: (None!)
Address: Gombak, 68100 Batu Caves, Selangor, Malaysia
Hours: Generally 6AM – 9PM
Price: Free

The Batu Caves is a limestone cavern carved into the side of a mountain hundreds of millions of years ago. Today the caves are worshipped as a Hindu temple with a shrine located inside. Depending on the day, upwards of 2 million people can visit this site in particular. When we were here, there we didn’t see anywhere near that number of people. Sundays can be more crowded than other days.

On the outside are some colorful steps, a large golden statue of Kartikeya, the Hindu god of war, and the welcoming sign below in a shopping center.

At the base of the steps, you’ll find a Hindu shrine in case you want to pay respects before venturing further inside. That giant gold statue is nearly 43 meters (140 feet) tall and booms over everything else.

While here, you’ll also want to be on the lookout for monkeys. They’re all over the place and it seems like quite a few people bring bananas for them to eat. Thankfully, the monkeys didn’t seem aggressive but they certainly aren’t shy.

If you look hard enough, you’ll find them scattered all over the rooftops of the shrine.

From here, if you wish to climb up the stairs, it’s 272 steps up to the top. Don’t feel bad if you feel a bit winded on the way up, but there isn’t a great place to pull over and stop. Plus, some steps are steeper than others so don’t go on autopilot on the way up.

As you get closer to the top, you’ll see the cave just appeared to swallow up the steps.

And take a look back and you’ll see how small everyone seems. It doesn’t feel like you’ve gone that far, which is a little discouraging, but that’s how steep stairs go sometimes.

Once inside the cave, you’ll find it’s actually fairly wet. Limestone is a very porous rock and water will run through it easily. Even though it wasn’t rainy outside, water was dripping everywhere in here.

If you’d like you can visit the Hindu shrine here within the Batu Caves as well. Before entering, you’ll need to take off your shoes and there isn’t that good of a spot to do it. Having easy-to-remove shoes is helpful but not a must. Wearing shoes is fine elsewhere in the cave.

Looking past the temple is another set of stairs but thankfully these are easier to climb.

Make it past those steps and you’ll find… an opening in the caves to the outside. There wasn’t much else over here but it was peaceful. If I were here without kids, I might spend a moment just basking in the aura of this spot. But the kids wouldn’t let me stand here for long.

Oh, and there are monkeys here too. Did you think you would get away from them by going into the cave?

On the way out of the Batu Caves, you could do the ultra-touristy thing and get a certificate commemorating your visit and climb. No thanks.

Malaysia is close to the equator and so it feels like the temperature is always hot. What’s a great way to cool down? Drinking water. But if you don’t have water, you could stop by the little shopping plaza to buy some frozen treats. It’s best if you already have cash by the time you come here. Some businesses didn’t accept credit cards and most accepted QR pay, but I couldn’t get that to work with my phone.

East Coast Batik SB (Batik Chong)

Official website: (None!)
Address: No 1 & 3, Lorong Perusahaan Ringan 1, Taman Sri Gombak, 68100 Batu Caves, Selangor, Malaysia
Hours: 9AM – 5PM daily
Price: Free

OK, since you’re in the area of the Batu Caves already, you could just go practically down the street to this store selling Batik clothing. Think of Batik as a South East Asian style of clothing and cloth-making that involves dyes and wax. The style started in Indonesia and spread to neighboring countries over time, such as Malaysia in particular.

This store showcases the method for making Batik. In truth, since we were on a tour, I was already a little apprehensive that this would just be a tourist trap. And looking at who was here admiring the work, it somewhat met my expectation (all foreigners watching the locals make Batik). But at the same time, I’m sure locals have better things to do.

There is an opportunity to buy Batik at the end of the visit, but the patterns for sale didn’t look as elegant as the ones made live in front of us.

First, we can see the pattern drawn out in front of us. I’m always impressed when artists are able to make beautiful designs off of memory or their imagination.

On the walls hung some of the finished artwork.

And they even offered the kids to help paint the work of art. This one was a rather simple pattern of repetitive shapes that was clearly just to give anyone a chance to try it out.

But the kids had fun doing it. This isn’t a bad stop and I felt like I learned a thing or two while here. The clothing you could purchase seemed expensive, so just know what you’re getting into.

National Masjid of Malaysia (National Mosque)

Official website: https://masjidnegara.gov.my/ms/
Address: Jalan Perdana, Tasik Perdana, 50480 Kuala Lumpur, Wilayah Persekutuan Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Hours: 9:30AM – 12:30PM (daily except Friday), 3PM – 6PM daily
Price: Free

What physically stands out the most with the National Masjid (Mosque) of Malaysia is the tall minaret and the 16-point star roof. This mosque is free to enter during certain hours of the day. And since it’s a holy place, you’ll need to be properly dressed. Unlike at the Batu Caves, here at the mosque, you can borrow appropriate clothing at the entrance.

We’ve heard the architecture inside is lovely but we didn’t get a chance to go inside. The kids weren’t feeling it and I didn’t want to abandon them just to experience it on my own. The roof is beautiful, but it’s hard to do it justice unless you view it from a higher vantage point. Usually mosques have more of a golden dome but here in Malaysia, you get this unique pattern.

Thean Hou Temple

Official website: https://www.hainannet.com.my/
Address: 65, Persiaran Endah, Taman Persiaran Desa, 50460 Kuala Lumpur, Wilayah Persekutuan Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Hours: 8AM – 8PM daily
Price: Free

The final temple of our cultural tour of Kuala Lumpur ends with a visit to the Thean Hou Temple. This particular temple pays homage to the Chinese sea goddess Mazu. It’s a beautiful temple with plenty of gold and red accents that almost makes you feel like you’re in China. This temple dates back to the 1980’s when the temple was first started (1981), finished (1987), and opened to the public (1989). It’s still a popular temple to this day.

If you enter the building, you’ll want to make your way upstairs to the outdoor patio area where plenty of paper lanterns hang. It’s here where you’ll pay your respects to the gods. As in other holy places within Kuala Lumpur, you’ll need to remove your shoes before stepping up on the platform.

If you have some spare cash, you can donate it and receive some incense sticks. It’s on an honor system but I don’t think you want any bad juju by not donating money. If you haven’t done this before, you get your incense sticks, light them, kneel down in the presence of the statue of the god you want to pray to, and then place your incense sticks in an urn. That’s about as good as I can describe it for someone who isn’t Chinese myself. It’s hot in here, so don’t burn your hands as you place the incense.

In the back of the temple, you can spy three altars for the three holy figures: Guan Yin, Tian Hou Niang Niang, and Shui Wei Sheng Niang.

At the back of the temple, you can find all sorts of smaller statues in the rear garden. Perhaps if we brought Jenn’s parents, they would want to study each and every statue here.

Meanwhile, the rest of the garden is a peaceful walk despite being next to a (fairly empty) street.

In the front of the temple is a garden with the 12 friends in it. You know–the Chinese zodiac animals. Char posed with her favorite.

And then we waited for our driver in this little waiting area across the way from the temple. Don’t ask me what the kids were doing.

Chinatown

Official website: (None!)
Address: Jalan Petaling, City Centre, 50000 Kuala Lumpur, Wilayah Persekutuan Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (Petaling Street Market address)
Price: N/A

If you have a chance to visit it and walk around, it’s worth a stop by Chinatown. Sometimes Chinatowns in other cities aren’t too interesting but this one is popping, to say the least. Perhaps the busiest part of Chinatown is Petaling Street (Jalan Petaling). This is where all of the street vendors line up to sell you cheap goods. Prices are low, but quality is also on the low side. You get what you pay for.

Once inside the semi-covered area, you’ll find all the vendors. There are some food stalls and restaurants in here, but for the most part, it’s clothing, accessories, and trinkets. Given how crowded it is, you should watch your belongings. It might be a good reason to wear a decoy wallet in your pocket!

There is more to Chinatown than this one street. If you need a break from the heat, consider checking out the Central Market. But don’t expect the A/C to save you that much… there’s very little air conditioning inside.

But the kids convinced me to stop at Inside Scoop in this market to get some treats. And, no, it’s not Dad’s Kopitiam Favourites in the image below.

Instead, they just got some ice cream. Simple, but refreshing on a hot day.

The architecture is quite beautiful in Chinatown. I don’t know exactly what this is, but it helps with shade and looks cool.

What are some choices to eat while in Chinatown? We ate at a couple of places. First up is Joy Food and Drink, which had a variety of simple foods.

Us adults just wanted something simple, so we got some filled roti, like this thousand layer beef patty. I didn’t count the layers so I can’t confirm if the name is accurate. But it did taste pretty good after a long day of visiting the temples.

The kids wanted noodles, so we ventured around the corner to Mee Tarik Warisan Asli. It wasn’t as crowded as other Mee Tarik places next door, but I think it’s also because this one is marginally more expensive. Price is king.

That said, we weren’t the only ones here and service is pretty quick.

Dining here, you can really get a sense of how expensive meals are in hotels. At the Park Hyatt Kuala Lumpur or at Le Petit Chef, prices can be a bit painful. But here? Hand-pulled noodles are as cheap as 10 MYR (~$2.50 USD).

The noodles are good and definitely taste freshly made. On top of that, the flavor of the broth is pretty good for the price you pay. It’s not the richest broth or the deepest flavors, but it’s a great value for the price.

And I realized too late that we could have watched them pull the noodles live in the show kitchen at the front of the restaurant. Whoops!

Have you been to the Batu Caves before?

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