Leaving Malasia with a bang: Thaipusam

The experience of going to the Batu caves during the holy day Thaipusam has definitely been one of the biggest highlights and surprises of our whole trip thus far. We walked to KL Sentral LRT station which was a long, arduous and extremely sweaty walk. When we finally got there we joined a growing crowd of Indian-malays in line to get on the train. During the hour long wait the crowd grew and grew until there was thousands of people around us. We, of course, had our 20kg bags on because it was our last day in the country and we had no where else to leave them. I seriously thought that my experiences with the fireworks shows in Van city and the olympic events had prepared me for such an endeavor. I was deadly wrong. I shook hands with Tyson as the train came to a stop and confidently stepped forward with a dont-mess-with-me glare on my face. Instantly I was shoved aside like a rag doll and squished to the point of gasping for air. I still thought I could make it and pushed forward. Long before I even reached the door of the train I was suffocating and claustraphobic. Adrenaline and fight or flight set in at this point and I began to shout for everyone to back the ___ up right now as well as get the ___ out of my way. While this is a bit of a blur to me, Tyson tells me that people parted and actually let me pass while appologizing.

After the above incident we actually did get on the bus with a security escort who also reminded us to watch our wallet. We responded that ours had been stolen on day one, but thanks anyway. We rode this bus like overpacked sardines in a small tin. It was not a pleasant experience and the whole time we regretted even attempting to make it to the event. This was until we reached the event. It was fabulous! The most incredibly fun thing I have ever seen. I took some video but you must you tube it to see a better shot. I got distracted and most of my video are of the ground.

Music was blaring through the huge speakers, there were lights flashing everywhere. Locals were shouting for us to buy Ghandi movies and packora. We were eating samples of God knows what and being dragged down the small aisles. The huge gold buddha statue was glowing and the hundreds of stairs were packed with people. The holy people carrying the trays of milk on their heads were being paraded down the street to loud drums while other men had huge statues and scultures attached to their bodies with pins and nails. These people had all walked from KL which is a good 50km away. They were all hypnotized into a trance to not feel the pain of the experience. Everyone was shaving their heads as sacrifices and painting their scalps with gold paint. There was easily a million people there, but the main event is not until tomorrow! The actual holy day is the 7th but we went on the sixth because we fly out to Bangkok tomorrow.

It was a foreign but surreal experience and we were two of the few non-indians there. It was exciting and busy and we ate a lot of food. We actually spent all the rest of our cash to the cent there and had to sneak back to the train for the ride home. For the return ride back to KL Sentral (its spelled with an S) we were locked in a cage like area and when the people coming off the train were in a safe zone, we were released like hungrey wolves. Everyone was literally running onto the train as if their lives depended on it. It all contributed to the drama and success of the night.

We caught the 10:30 bus (which left at 10:50) back to the airport. It was the very same bus we rode out of the airport with a few weeks prior. It was a traumatic ride today because this is where we lost our wallet. On a bright note, I did find a nickel so what goes around comes around I guess.

We are spending tonight at the airport before our flight out to Bangkok in the am. We are very accustomed to sleeping on airport floors by now so we will be just fine through the noise and lights.
"If we are not happy and joyous in this season for what season shall we wait"