The Divine Journey - Thaipusam 2020 In Batu Caves

"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.