It was 5.30am and finally we reached Batu Caves temple and managed to get a parking at the exact same location as last year, at the roadside of course. Where else can you get a parking on the most special day for Lord Murugan each year? We left from home in Kajang around 5am and reached Selayang in 30 minutes. The decision to leave early this year was because of the massive crowd on the cave when we went there at 8.30am last year.
And first thing first, for two consecutive years we performed the "head balding" (or whatever you call it) for my son in Batu Caves.So, we decided to do the last "session" at the same place. And what an experience it was! During the first year, my son was very quiet and did not even response when the barber was shaving off the hair. Second year, he cried for a while and gave a stern look at the barber when shaving. And during the final year, he was so pissed off that he started crying from the beginning till the end. It was very hard to hold him till the end. END REsult : Shaving could not be completed successfully.. There were patches here and there. Hehehe.
Once done, moved on to the Vinayagar temple to do the prayers and then to the other deities. Luckily, there were not many crowd at that time. RM5 for each archanai. WOW!
Later, the journey up the to meet Lord Murugan begins. 272 steps...And again, since it was only around 6am, the crowd was still manageble until you reach the top. It has been years since Thaipusam is celebrated here but I wonder why there is no proper management of the crowd. Those going to do 'archanai' will clash twice with those who are bringing the paal kudam. This will cause a massive jam and worse than the one we get to see at the highways everyday.And bear in mind, this was only around 6.30am!!! Just imagine what will happen later in the day. So, The journey up began at 6am and we only managed to get down at 8.15am.
Currently I am uploading the video of the crowd so that you can see it for yourself. Should be ready in the next 30 minutes. Video uploaded :
We didn't stay very long there as my son was getting sleepy already. While walking towards the car, we saw a few people holding a board written "Please Do Not Litter" and few of them were actually collecting the rubbish and putting it in a plastic bag. Man, we are so famous for littering during the festival that another organisation have to come and tell us to not litter! There were trash can in quite a few places but it was full. Who does the cleaning anyway? Doesn't the management have some sort of plan for this?And for the people, think before you throw..hehe
By 9am we left the temple and reached home at 10.30am. It took us 1 1/2 hours to reach back home when it took us only 30 minutes to reach the temple in the morning! Reason : Traffic jam, of course!
Checkout the photos below :
If you visit the the temple yearly during Thaipusam, what do you think is the most important thing that must be improved by the temple management or by the public themselves? Please comment below.