Tag: batu caves

Nanyang Wall & Comic Wall @ Batu Caves

Anna, Cris, Edmund, Ping and I made a long delayed trip to Batu Caves to rock climb. This time round with new comers Ken and Sam. It was Ken and Sam’s first time rock climbing.

Since our last time outdoor at Nanyang Wall was quite enjoyable, we decided to head to Nanyang Wall again. However, it rained heavily last night and the place was slightly flooded. Further, many of the stalactites there were dripping water non stop hence many of the handholds and footholds were slippery.

We were the first group to arrive Nanyang Wall. There were hundreds of mosquitoes flying around attacking us. Nanyang Wall was not in good shape as one part of the wall was flooded, the second part had hundreds of mosquitoes lurking around and the last part was burning hot from the sun.

Cris was the first to test out the wall. He accidentally slipped after stepping on a slipper foothold. He got himself a blooded wrist.


and he got bird shit on his back..

The n00bs were next. It was quite difficult for them as they didn’t have experience and not even indoor experience. Nevertheless, we managed to guide them and got them to do the route.

On the last occasion, someone put a little bird up on the tree. The tree is gone now. I wonder what happened to the little bird. Hope he RIP.

Few hours later, Nanyang Wall was filled with more climbers. This time with more girls that guys!

We moved to Comic Wall, which is another climbing wall next for Nanyang Wall. Comic Wall has numerous beginners routes but many of the handholds were quite sharp. It hurts like crap sometimes especially when you have a small sharp handhold and that’s the only available handhold. Tunasing!!!

Comic Wall too has a fair share of mosquitoes. Thank god I had people like Anna and Ping to attract the mosquitoes. I think I didn’t get any mosquito bite. wahha

The Soulizen couple, Cicak and Lai, were there as well. We managed to climb 3 routes together.

One of the unique attractions of Comic Wall is an abandoned Chinese temple. It’s located inside a flooded cave. Nothing much is left in the temple except for some ruins. Bats have now claimed the place as their residence.


The temple ruins


Inside the cave..


Unwanted spectators


Ping’s new found love.

We ended our climb early around 230pm, which is quite early considering that the previous occasion we climbed until late evening.


Map to Comic Wall

Rock Climbing @ Nanyang Wall @ Batu Caves

Not wanting to lose our new found skills from our Krabi trip, team Malaysia (consisting of Anna, Ed, Cris, Ping and I) headed to Nanyang Wall @ Batu Caves to climb. It was our first time there. Many thanks to Abner for guiding us there.

Nanyang Wall is one of the climbing spots around Batu Caves. I heard that some climbers pooled in their resources and bolted a lot of new routes. The area is strategically located. It’s next to the main road and within walking distance from a commercial district. We parked our car at the commercial district and walked toward Nanyang Wall.

Unlike Damai Wall, Nanyang Wall doesn’t have a public toilet. Those who wants to do their small business can walk deeper into Nanyang Wall. For big business, you got to head to one of the restaurants at the commercial district. Just buy a few sweets from them and I think they will be obliged to lend them their toilet. I recall there was once a friend who had to knock on someone’s door to use their toilet cause they are no public toilets around. He said the toilet had holes all over the wall. HEHE

Most of the routes in Nanyang Wall are pretty short. However, the routes are quite technical.


View from top!


View from top!


Left or Right?

My favourite route would be the route called “Old Shoes Beware”. As the name suggests, wearing old shoes to climb is not recommended. This route is only made of 4 bolts but handholds and footholds are mostly crimps. You need new shoes to ensure that your feet stays on the footholds.

Me belaying Ping while thinking how to free fall him later.

Hanging by the tip of my fingers and toes.

We spotted a small young bird by the rocks. I guess it fell off its nest and couldn’t climb back up. I fed it with bread and even Mandarin oranges. Someone decided to put the little bird up a tree. He said other birds will feed it too. I hope I won’t find a skeleton when I come back next time.

We had lunch at one of the mamaks nearby. The food and service were terrible. The boss was quite rude as well.

Me: Boss, I ordered maggi sup kosong. (plain noodles soup without any additional stuff)
Boss: yea, that’s maggi kosong.
Me: If it’s maggi kosong, how come I have vegetable in my soup?
Boss: Yea, its maggi kosong. We added vegetable for you.
Me: O_O


Nasi Lemak Ibu . Com – website still under construction

For the first time, we climbed from morning till late evening – from 10am to 6pm. Usually we would pack our bags by the afternoon because it gets too hot. However, Nanyang Wall was quite cool throughout the whole day. Further, the atmosphere was quite fun as other climbers were pretty friendly as well. A group of climbers even loaned us their rope, which was fresh out from the bag.

They were nice enough to let us deflower their new rope. Aah.. Fresh rope..


The rope got tangled. Need 3 fellows to untangle it.

A few of us decided to pack up early and hung around playing cards while waiting for the rest to finish climbing.


Best Belayer evaaa


Triple decker

Eddie hurt himself while descending from a route. He removed his runner from the bolt and jump down. He managed to lodge himself down safely a few times but… luck wasn’t on his side..


GGed

To get to Nanyang Wall, head to Taman Sunway Batu Caves

Climbing @ Damai + Camp 5

In view that our climbing trip @ Krabi is just less than 2 weeks away, Anna, Edmund, Ping and I headed to Gua Damai, Batu Caves to refresh our memory on the safety procedures. Gua Damai was packed with climbers and we had problem selecting routes as most of the routes were occupied.


Wow, I didn’t know you can actually book the entire Gua Damai..


Edmund


Frog


Guess what is this?

But we brought some kuih along and even set up a hammock to entertain ourselves.


Gua Damai also got guai lou..not bad, we’re turning into a mini Krabi!


Raining..


GG-ed finger again.

After climbing 2 routes, it started to rain. Everyone ran helter-skelter. We had no choice but to adjourn our climbing session to Camp 5.

And we did more than climbing there..

Edmund = 60kgs ++


Anna = 48Kgs


Ping training to lift Anna up..

Gua Damai @ Batu Caves

On Sunday, Amos, Cris, Ping and I forced ourselves to wake up to head to Gua Damai to climb. Since Krabi is just 3 months away, Ping, Cris and I had to familiarize ourselves again.

Gua Damai has changed tremendously since we came last year in February. There’s a grand entrance to Gua Damai now – with pathways and huts built around the vicinity.


Pathway for wheelchairs/trolleys!


3 years ago, the place was like this.

The old houses around Batu Caves were demolished and at one part, a playground sits over one of the old houses.


3 years ago, a monkey and rubbish sat here


Pool with stairways


3 years ago, no stairways!

Perhaps the only thing that didn’t change is that the place is still infested with monkeys.


Monkey having McD

Unfortunately, it was bloody hot. We went home with sunburn. We had to come out with ingenious ways to avoid the sun. Umbrellas were very handy.


Umbrella boy


Bea’s new invention


Copycats!


We managed to top the “Monsoon” route (many rock climbing routes have names) – a long but easy route.


After topping 3 routes or so, we headed for lunch at Bintang 7 mamak.


Mmm..fulfilling lunch..

Climbing @ Damai Wall, Batu Caves 3.2.2007

It’s been more than a year since I climbed outdoor. Thank you Hon San (frequent commenter AHLOKKOR) for providing us with the gears and guiding us.


This time round, Ping and a group of outdoor newbies (Abner, Eddy, Roland, Ben, Maylin, Lai and Cicak) climbed at Damai Wall. The surroundings at Damai Wall have changed considerably. The houses around there were removed and many of the monkeys were long gone.

Damai Wall was chosen because it has many 5C routes which are suitable for the newbies. Hon San said that one person actually said that all routes in Damai Wall are actually “5C routes”.


Hon San belaying


Ping the Belayer


Mosquito repellent- FULL POWER MODE ON


A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step..

For a person who doesn’t climb outdoor often, ‘leading’ “5Cs” routes were quite tough but doable. But climbing routes 5 – 6 storeys high is not my cup of tea. Further, climbing outdoor involves a lot of waiting.


The metal chain is the anchor, the only stable thing that holds you while climbing – provided its stable..


Me on top!


Picture taken from…

Halfway through climbing, it rained. Everyone had to run to take shelter. However, some people couldn’t leave the climbing spots as some were still climbing and belaying.

I took a nap after climbing. I dreamt that I fell off the cliff while climbing O___O

For more info on climbing in Malaysia, purchase Climb Malaysia by Climb Asia

White Wall @ Batu Caves

This morning, the usual climbing gang, couple of new members plus 2 photographers and I went to climb at @ Batu Caves again.

This time round, we went to White Wall. The journey there was tedious. We had to park our car at Damai before trekking up the steep hill into White Wall. The path was slippery and we even have to trek through a garbage dump.


Garbage dump…euw..


A sohai threw a motorcycle here..


Hiking up…

By the time we reached the hill, we were already exhausted. Further, it was bloody hot as well. The wall was hot, our shoes were hot and it was full of mosquitoes! There were not many easy routes as well. Since there were many of us and we had only 2 ropes, we had to wait a long time for the others to finish the routes as the route was tough and long. Fortunately, we had a 5C route to climb.


Ahh..white wall at last!


Creepy stuff..


Something is among the trees….can you spot it? 😀

By 1PM, it started to rain. Everyone scrambled their belonging and fled the scene. Getting down wasn’t easy as well. Since it rained slightly, the treks were already slippery.


ciao the scene!


Going thru the garbage dump again


This place reminds me of Amsterdam.


Damai

Fortunately, the rain stopped as soon as we reached Damai. We hung out at Damai for a while. Some were bouldering and some went to disturb monkeys. But suddenly, it rained heavily. Once again, we had to fled the scene.

It wasn’t a good day for us!


Monkey: Kiss ma ass.


Monkey not happy


Road to the unknown..


Ping on a journey of discovery


Karat & I

Rock Climbing @ Batu Caves II

Guy, Mikey, gMing, Ping, Wai Keong, Yong Lin, Cris, G-wan and I made another outdoor climbing trip to Batu Caves.

This time we headed to Red Wall, which is nearby Gua Damai. Red Wall is just a small rope-topping wall. We had to climb through bushes and trees to get to that place. Further, before we got there, a bunch of monkeys were having hanging out there. They ran after seeing us.

This time round, there were no mosquitoes or fleas. Flies were abundant though.

We started off with an easy route. Everyone managed to clear it. Pet Pet Lin struggled for a while but in the end, he finished it. Bravo!

Then we proceeded to another route, which was about 30 metres high. It was bloody tough. Out of the 9 people who tried, only 2 made it to the top. Further, the wall isn’t entirely flat. There are loads of boulders around. Hence, whenever we fall, we would end up swinging out from the wall. It was pretty exciting though. We could see a good view of the area. However, once the rope pulls us back to the wall, we would end up crashing into a tree.

Another thing worth nothing is that the villagers around Batu Caves are friendly. One of the villagers was happy to let Wai Keong to use their toilet. However, Wai Keong felt uneasy cause the toilet has many holes around the wall. I hope I don’t see Wai Keong’s face in any toilet fetish VCDs. Then, when we were about to leave, a bunch of Malay girls greeted us with, “Gong Xi Fa Cai!!” (A greeting for Chinese New Year). Hon San replied, “Sayanggg Sayanggggggg” (Darling… Darlingg). The Malay girls giggled non stop.

We ended the day with juicy mushroom Swiss double cheese burger…oOoohhhh.. orgasmic…

Rock Climbing @ Batu Caves

After weeks of planning, Celyn, Mikey, Guy, Eugene, Ping, WK, Florence, Cris and I went outdoor climbing.

We reached the place about 1030AM. We had to climb early cause if we don’t, we would be baked under the sun.

Batu Caves is divided into few climbing spots. There are Nyamuk, Damai, Volleyball and so on. One has to drive through narrow village roads to get to the climbing spots. We had to be very careful, if we bang into a child or a chicken, we would have to speed to the nearest police station as villages would be chasing us with pitch forks and knifes. There were many cases where villagers burn motorist’s vehicle or beat up motorist after they killed a child or a chicken.

Our first destination was Damai, a nice limestone climbing spot. It’s easily accessible as it just few steps away from the car park.

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