The Life of Vikna

The Divine Journey - Thaipusam 2020 In Batu Caves

ViknaRajan 4. My Trips , batu caves 2 Comments

"I am a very pious man. I think of God every single second in my life."

Oh, the above statement is not about me. Just a random thought since its Thaipusam week!!!

Vetrivel Muruganukku!! Aroggaraa!!

Its the time of the year where I start thinking about how the heaven am I going to carry my son to the top of Batu Caves temple this time. Almost every year we will go to Batu Caves and the same thought will appear. And every single year I successfully carry him to the top albeit having muscle cramps after that.

Yeah back in 2011, I was in the early 30s so, boleh laa still got energy to go up and down without "side effects". Checkout my old post back in 2011 : Divine Jouney - Thaipusam 2011

Also check my 2012 post on our journey in Sungai Petani and Penang Thaipusam :

Thaipusam in Sungai Petani, Kedah

Thaipusam in Penang

Being 39 years old and 6 months old starting to get a toll on me this year.

Wanna know why? Read on .

This year, we reached Batu Caves around the same time like in 2011 and parked the car at the same location. The road side. Made sure I was not blocking the road or interrupt the traffic.

Not even Novel CoronaVirus could stop the Indians to fulfill the vows to Lord Muruga. It was around 5.30 am and the Batu Caves is full of people in yellow. So congested that it took us more than 4 hours to reach the top. Yup, I could have almost reached my hometown in Sungai Petani if have driven my car there.

3+ hours to reach the top.

1+ hours to reach the Lord Muruga.

10 minutes to get down.

We were standing down there for almost 2.5 hours while very slowly moving towards the stairs, I even saw a snail overtaking us and 2 hours later it was already at the top. Meanwhile, we just reached the stairs. hehehe. My son that I was carrying all this while slept well and after waking up we were still at the bottom. That's how slow the pace was. Luckily his mood was good and he was enjoying looking at the pigeons flying in the blue sky. Oh yeah, the sun was already up by this time. Moon went back to sleep already.

Before could reach the top of the caves, we had to go through a slipper mountain at the bottom. Literally it was like small hill there. Pretty sure nobody would be able to find their slippers back. Knowing well of this issue, we always keep our slipper in the car and walked barefoot.

It took us around 40 minutes to reach the top. Thankfully, my younger son was in a mood to walk up the stairs halfway through. I had a short relief of the terrible pain on my shoulders and arms. My elder son (11 years old) and wife carried 500ml and 1.5kg paal kudam respectively while I was carrying 16kg human being.

Finally we reached the top!! (Woohoo!!) and then nobody was moving. We were just standing still and again I saw the snail moving past me with a sarcastic grin.

Weirdly, there was not a single RELA members this time to control the crowd. Not sure why? Another 1 hour plus went by and finally we are almost nearing Lord Muruga. At this point, the Golden Vel made its grand entry will all the traditional music. This one single moment felt like it was worth going through all the hassle earlier. It was a sight to behold. Lord Muruga was so beautifully decorated and the divine aura can be felt in your heart. Even the snail agreed with me.We felt so blessed.

Rubbish management were better this time around but the problem is with the mindset of the people treating public place as rubbish bin. No discipline to clean up their own mess. Shameful behavior. #CleanThaipusam needs to be praised for the job well done.

Check out some of the pictures I took. Not many laa as tak larat already.

Most probably next year would be in KalluMalai Temple in Ipoh! Until then keep calm and read my blog.

de Journey to Phuket 2020

ViknaRajan 4. My Trips , ATV Ride 0 Comments

Another post after years being dormant. Nearing forties (6 months to go) certainly took a toll in most of my daily routines. Being a father of two boys is certainly not an easy task. Apart from listening to nursery rhymes and cartoons, I also have bring the kids to extra class, Taekwando class, guitar class, feeding food, cooking food, bathing etcetera etcetera etcetera...aaaaa.....all part of a modern father's life...

So, its that time of the year again where I travel with friends (leaving the kids to my lovely and understanding wife) for a short trip overseas. Thank you my dear wife. I really appreciate it. 😍😍🥰🥰

This year we decided to go somewhere nearer and unanimously decided on Phuket, Thailand.

Fun fact : Being born and bred in Sungai Petani, Kedah, I've only crossed the border (Dannok) once in 1992 with my family and I was just 12 then.

After 1.5 hours flight on AirAsia, we finally arrived in Phuket International Airport and oh my the Immigration counter was full with tourist from all over the world and took us almost 1 hour to clear and meet the tour guide.

At the exit, there were a few counters selling Tourist SIM and we decided to get one as well as the price is very cheap.

(149 baht only with 15 GB data for 5 days).

We went straight to the hotel as it was quite late in the night and we were quite tired after almost full day at the office as well. We love our job too much to take leave ( or maybe because we only have 14 days annual leave). I'll leave it to your imagination. ☺️

First thing that we noticed is that FamilyMart is everywhere. Just too many of them. 😂

Checked into Sunset Beach Resort near Patong. Boleh tahanlaa for "bachelors". Room was clean but the breakfast was lame. Every single day, they just change one item in their buffet, the noodles. Pad Thai, Yellow Noodles and the Koey Teow.There rest is the same plain food. (Facepalm).

Yup the guy with the grey hair is me. Right outside the Sunset Beach Resort.

Time difference between Malaysia and Thailand is just one hour so there is not much differencelah. Woke up at 5.30am and got ready by 7am waiting for the driver to pick us all up. From there it was close to 1 hour ride on the van to the jetty which heads to the Phi Phi Islands.

The moment we stopped, a lady came and put on a green color sticker on us. I didn't know what that meant. They asked us to sit until called by someone. Less than 30 seconds after I sat down someone called us based on the colour of the sticker.

The guys explained about the"Big Boat" and the speed boat and tried to upsell their services. We got into the big boat after upgrading to Silver class from normal class. If you get Jack as the guide on the boat, you better make sure your eyes are on the TV when they play the safety and information video if not somebody gonna get it after the video played twice! He will ask pop quiz to ensure you have listened to the video. Very nice guy though.

It was a two hours journey from the jetty to the islands.There a a total of 6 islands that's forms the Phi Phi Islands.As we took the big boat, it would not dock on all the small islands due to the size of the boat. They just past by the islands and made a full round on another island. I can recall Jack saying that one small island is dedicated only for scuba diving and you can only go there if have the license to scuba dive. If you like to do snorkeling, then you will be transferred to another boat and you'll get around 1 hour to do this. Those who do not know how to swim in the sea are not advised to go snorkeling by our guide Jack. Safety is their top priority it seems.

The islands were simply breathtaking.Just take a look at these pictures and tell me one reason not to love them! Once we docked at the Phi Phi Don Island, we just have to walk across to the other side of the island to have some enjoyment at the beach. we were too hungry to swim after the 3 hours journey and headed straight to lunch. To our disappointment, we were treated with Indian food! Can you believe it? Travelled all the way to Phuket to eat Indian food. Hahaha...I'm an Malaysian Indian, so eating Indian food is good when I'm back home or if I'm in India, not when I'm in Thailand. Haha..Then only we found out there is a lot of Indian tourists in Phuket all year long. So, Indian food is quite a norm here as well. Indians are everywhere here and back in Patong there is a significant amount of Indian restaurants as well.

Spent an hour at the beach. Every single scenes at the beach was cool to the eyes and the heart. 😂

Checkout the photos below.

The waters at the seaside is crystal clear.

Once done, went back to the boat and took a quick nap in the boat. After close to 3 hours, we are back at the hotel. As it was quite tiring, after a bath we just crossed the road to buy some street food.

And what a beautiful sunset we that was right in front of our eyes. A divine view indeed. I just wish the pictures below would be able to justify what I saw with my own eyes. It was simply mesmerizing.

Unfortunately even the most divine view right in front of my eyes could not win the fight with my growling stomach. Lesson learnt. Food always win over beauty. Thankfully, food was just right behind us. Bought fried noodles from a Malay lady and it was quite delicious. Once done, crossed the road again and headed to the FamilyMart (remember, they are everywhere), to buy some drinks and went back to sleep.

Day Two was more of an adventure trip as it includes white water rafting, ATV ride and elephant ride (which we politely refused) and Flying Fox. I've never done any of these in my life so, naturally I was a bit excited and nervous at the same time.

The van came on time and it was full with Russians (6 of them in total and only 3 of us Malaysians). The ride was indeed a very long one, unexpectedly. Almost 3 hours only in the van. Phew.
After around an hour of travelling another Russian guy joined us. We had no idea that guy was actually the guide of the day and he speaks fluent Thai language as well. Impressive.

Our first stop though was to Wat Suwan Kuha commonly known as the Cave Temple.Its a large cave complex and features many religious statues and the most prominent one being the 50 ft golden reclining Buddha.

To kickoff the first adventure trip is the ATV ride. While it was very enjoyable riding in groups, it was quite hard to control the ATV as this was my first time. Took a few minutes to get used to and we were all enjoying the ride on the red unpaved road.

It was lunch time now and to our delight they served mouth watering local Thai food such as Tom Yam soup, vegetables, fried chicken among others. It was very delicious. At the same time, some of the tourist headed to have an elephant ride while we opted out of it.

The next one was the one I was most terrified of as the idea of going down the river while being pushed by huge amount of water is not normal for me. But what a ride it was. The moment we were pushed into the river, it was only pure excitement and the anxiety is all gone. There was only 4 of us (another of my friend and two local girls which had no other boat to hop in to and was guided to join us instead) and two expert 2 guides. There guys were so cool and maneuvered the boat professionally and in a very fun way. At the end, I wished we could have gone a bit more longer ( it was 5km down the river). Would definitely try this again in near future back in Malaysia

The last activity was the Flying Fox though to my disappointment it was quite a short one. Less than 500m. Wish it was longer as this was my first attempt as well. Well, I might just try it again in some other places in coming times.

It was another 3 hours ride back home. (sad). Took a bath, rested for less than an hour and took a Tuk Tuk to head over to the very famous Bangla Street. It's costs 200baht and its similar price if your use Grab. Since, I do not drink alcohol, just bravely past through all the temptations of the street while chanting "buddham saranam gacchami" in my heart to save me from all the temptations on the street. Hahaha....

Day Three was just for leisure day so we managed to contact a rider that we took the day before to bring us around some local shopping areas. The standard place to go seems to be the Cashew Nut Factory, Bee Farm, Local Souvenir shop and one very bloody expensive jewelry shop called WangTalang Gems International. At the evening went to a local massage shop to get a leg massage. Yes, a lot of the times we were walking everywhere and the massage was really good and surely worth the money we paid for which is only 300 baht for 1 hour.

Once done with the morning tour, we headed to a Thai restaurant to satisfy our cravings for authentic Thai food and we definitely hit jackpot there. The restaurant was just beside our hotel. Yes, the one right next to FamilyMart. Checkout the photos below as seeing is indeed believing.

Finally it was time to bid farewell to the lovely city of Phuket as its the end of the tour. The food at the airport was quite reasonable and tasty too.

We were back in Malaysia in 1.5 hours and life continues as normal again. Wife, Kids, work..rinse..repeat with the same wife, kids and work.

Till next time. Enjoy reading ladies and gentleman as knowledge is the only wealth that cannot be taken away from you!

Fun Fact #2 : All tourists as aliens in Thailand according to the immigration pass. The truth is out there