Asia travel - Robert Scheer's Blog

Malaysia’s Batu Caves – Rapture in a Hindu Temple

Some of the best advice I’ve ever been given about how to benefit from visiting sacred places came from Dr. Jean Shinoda Bolen. The author of Crossing to Avalon and Goddesses in Everywoman told me, “When you go to a sacred place with an open, receptive attitude, the energy of the place can activate the divinity within you.” She added, “Since you are going there to be affected by the place, you have to allow yourself to be affected.”

Dr. Bolen’s advice can be difficult to follow, especially if you’re in a foreign country, or an uncomfortable environment, as I learned during a recent visit to the sacred Batu Caves near Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

I live in the temperate Pacific Northwest, and I’d never before experienced the sultry atmosphere of Southeast Asia other than inside a sauna. Compounding the oppressive heat and humidity was the location of the caves — at the top of a flight of 272 steps. Fortunately, the staircase is very wide, so there was plenty of room for others to walk around me whenever I stopped to catch my breath.

Every year the Batu Caves are the scene of the spectacular Thaipusam festival, when worshippers demonstrate their devotion by skewering their flesh with large metal spikes and hooks, yet feel no pain. Thaipusam celebrates the birthday of the youngest son of the god Shiva, Lord Subramaniam, also known as Lord Muruga. Hindus prepare for the festival by cleansing themselves spiritually. For one month they pray frequently, eat only one vegetarian meal per day and abstain from sex. During the festival, some devotees cover their bodies in mud from the nearby river and crawl up the 272 steps to the temple in the cave. Others, entranced, walk on knives or broken glass. It is believed that celebrating Thaipusam will cleanse participants of their sins and redeem misdeeds from the previous year. An estimated 800,000 people — from faithful followers to curiosity seekers — were expected to attend the 2001 festival.

UPDATE: The next Thaipusam happens February 5, 2023

Private Half-Day Batu Caves Waterfalls and Hot Springs Tour – $42.94
from: Viator

There are actually three caves in the Batu complex. The Dark Cave has some interesting rock formations, and the Museum Cave contains statues depicting scenes from Indian mythology. Several gray monkeys, long-tailed macaques, watched me walk toward the far end of the Museum Cave, where another stairway leads up to the Temple Cave. There was a fire of incense burning in a large brazier at the foot of the steps, and the smoke wafted up through patches of daylight into the third cave. When I finally made my way to the top of the steps, I could see the Sri Subramiar Temple, dwarfed by huge limestone stalactites that hung like gray curtains around the grotto.

I snapped some pictures of the temple and the clusters of Hindu gods on its top. There were puddles on the damp floor, and I worried about getting my socks wet as I took off my shoes before stepping into the temple. Behind me, a young man smashed a coconut onto the ground, and the noise of the explosion echoed sharply through the cave. (I learned later that breaking coconuts is a symbol of purification that helps you get rid of selfishness.) I looked around for the other members of my group and realized they had all gone back down. I felt uncomfortably disconnected, an intruder into a culture I could not understand or appreciate. Then the music started and everything changed.

I don’t know where it came from. Perhaps an unseen temple priest had simply pressed the button of a hidden cassette player. It was Indian music — drums, strings, woodwinds and cymbals. I couldn’t tell whether it was an ancient devotional melody or a contemporary pop tune, but the music touched my heart and opened it. Joy began to fill my being, and I allowed my body to sway and step with the rhythm. I looked up at the incense smoke swirling through the shafts of sunlight and smiled with a glimmer of understanding. I saw a young man, sitting and holding a white dove. Our eyes met, and I believe he sensed my enlightenment. Maybe I didn’t know who Lord Muruga was, but I was suddenly certain that his temple was a place of rapture and celebration.

My feet were as light as my heart as I retraced the 272 steps down from the Batu Caves. It was only then I recalled Jean Shinoda Bolen’s advice about being open to the spirit of places. I was chagrined that, if the music hadn’t started when it did, I might never have experienced the exhilaration that this sacred site could communicate — to someone who was willing to listen.

The Batu Caves are located 13 km north of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. For more information, contact Tourism Malaysia in Los Angeles: 213-689-9702; New York: 212-754-1116 or Vancouver: 604-689-8899.

I visited Malaysia in the summer of 2000 on a press tour hosted by Tourism Malaysia. Our group also went to the island of Borneo, where we were the first journalists to tour the site on Pulau Tiga island where the first episode of Survivor was produced.

The Truth About “Survivor Island” Borneo

PULAU TIGA, Malaysia – Producers of the hit TV series Survivor worked hard to make the location of their game show seem more remote than it really is. The island of Pulau Tiga is actually part of a state park that’s equipped with a new, 41-cabin resort and diving center, nine miles from the mainland of Sabah, Malaysia.

While the 16 Survivor contestants foraged for food and built their own shelters, the program’s 130 crew members enjoyed the accommodations of the Pulau Tiga Resort, which opened for business in March, 1999. The resort’s “Survivor” bar and buffet restaurant were open seven days a week, serving Malay, Chinese and Western style meals and a full range of cold beverages to off-duty cameramen, grips, gaffers and other production staff for nearly two months. “We had four shifts of cooks working 24-hours a day,” said Loreta Gundaya, the resort’s food services supervisor. “We had to hire 30 extra people.”

Only one contestant ever dined in the restaurant. As a reward for winning one of the games, Kelly Wiglesworth was led in, blindfolded, before she enjoyed a plate of noodles and a bottle of Budweiser Light. “After wolfing down the first helping, she wanted more, so I brought her a bigger plate of noodles,” Loreta said. “Then she had a third helping and another bottle of beer!”

The resort staff catered one very unusual meal to the contestants, though. As part of one of the games, Pulau Tiga Resort manager Terence Lim helped bring in 100 grub-like bugs for the contestants to eat. The butuds — a kind of caterpillar — are not native to Pulau Tiga, but can be found in Sago palm trees near Kota Kinabalu on the mainland. “In the old days they were considered a delicacy,” Terence said, “but not very many people eat them anymore.”

“We experimented with different ways to cook the bugs, but the TV people finally decided it would be more dramatic to eat them raw, “Terence said. “We had to eat them first, just to prove they weren’t toxic.”

Before games such as “In From The Deep,” “Choose Your Weapon” or “Treasure Island Relay” were played by the competitors, TV crewmembers and resort staff would try them out first, to make sure they weren’t too easy or too hard. The Malaysian natives beat the Americans most of the time.

Although the locals knew a lot about the plants and animals on Pulau Tiga, Survivor Executive Producer Mark Burnett proved to be an expert on how the show’s contestants would behave. When Burnett and Terence Lim were scouting the island for locations, Lim pointed out that an edible fruit, known as the Indian Almond, was plentiful on both the Tagi and Pagong beaches. “Don’t tell them,” Burnett said. “Keep quiet.” He wanted the participants to find the food for themselves, but they never did, despite the fact that the green, walnut-sized fruit grows prolifically on trees under which the tribes built their shelters.

The Tagi and Pagong tribes were named after actual beaches on Pulau Tiga. But the Tagi tribe was not actually situated on Tagi Beach, because the TV cameras would have picked up too much boat traffic in the background. Instead, the more isolated Ramis Beach was chosen to be the home to Richard Hatch and his fellow castaways.

Pulau Tiga Park includes three islands, all of which were used as locations for Survivor. The bulk of the production took place on Pulau Tiga, but some of the games were staged on smaller Pulau Kalampunian Damit (Snake Island) and Pulau Kalampunian Besar (Sandbank Island). Snake Island is named for its large population of Banded Sea Kraits, poisonous vipers that rest among rocks and tree roots during the day and swim back into the ocean at night. Although their venom is deadly — one bite can kill a person in less than an hour — the snakes have relatively small mouths and are also very timid. They’re only a problem if stepped on or handled carelessly. When the Survivor script called for a contestant to come ashore on Snake Island and pick up an idol from among a cluster of vipers, two Park Rangers — expert snake handlers — were positioned just out of camera range, for safety’s sake.

Life on Pulau Tiga is much quieter now that Richard has received his million dollar prize for being the final Survivor, but many souvenirs from the top-rated television show remain for visitors to enjoy. On the walls of the music room in Pulau Tiga Resort hang some of the original bamboo torches that represented the lives of the contestants. Visit Ramis Beach and you’ll see part of a bamboo raft, as well as the remnants of a shelter used by Tagi tribespeople. Perhaps most significant is the Tribal Council area, still largely intact near the Park Ranger Station. From there it’s a fifteen minute walk through the jungle to a mud volcano, where the last major eruption happened in 1941.

Birdwatchers visit Pulau Tiga in hopes of sighting the magnificent black and white Pied Hornbills, chicken-like Megapodes, Nitejars, Magpie-Robins, Bulbuls, Sunbirds, Rollers and Sea Eagles. Orange-brown Flying Fox bats roost among the mangroves and Long-tailed Macaques make a racket in the coconut palms. Easier to spot are the reptiles. Golden Skinks and Monitor Lizards frequent the trails and Barking Geckos make strange noises among the cabins. Although nearly ten miles of hiking trails crisscross the island, more than 60 per-cent of its jungle remains untouched.

Most visitors to Pulau Tiga start their journey in the capitol of Malaysia’s Sabah state, Kota Kinabalu. From there it’s a two-hour drive to Kula Penu, a small town on the tip of the Klias Peninsula. Near the ferry landing, you’ll be met by a speedboat from Pulau Tiga Resort for the 30-minute ride to the island. 86 people can be accommodated on the resort. There are six one-bedroom and two two-bedroom chalets, all with air conditioning, private bathrooms and hot showers. A further 23 one-bedroom chalets have ceiling fans and private bathrooms but no hot water, and there are two five-room longhouses also with ceiling fans and private bathrooms. Rates range from 170 to 340 Malaysian Ringgit (US$44.75 to 89.50) per day. [PRICES IN 2000] The Dive Centre is equipped with 15 complete SCUBA sets. Snorkeling, volley ball and beach soccer are also available. For more information contact Pulau Tiga Resort. Tel: (6088) 240584. E-mail: pultiga@tm.net.my. Website: https://www.sdclodges.com/.

Tours may also be arranged through Rafflesia Tours and Travel, Kota Kinabalu. Tel: (6088) 259612, or Tourism Malaysia 088-2488698. E-mail: logi@tourism.gov.my.

2-Day Pulau Tiga Island Tour from Kota Kinabalu – $332.00
from: Viator

Photos by Robert Scheer

I visited Pulau Tiga in Malaysian Borneo in the summer of 2000, as one of the first group of travel journalists to explore the island after the production of the first episode of Survivor wrapped. As you can see in the photo, I was drenched with sweat. Pulau Tiga was one of the hottest, most humid places I have ever experienced. In exploring the island, there was still debris left over from the reality TV show, including a few remains of the Tribal Council area. On the same press trip, organized by Tourism Malaysia, I also visited a headhunter village and saw a longhouse where human skulls hung from the ceiling, and got a lesson on shooting poison darts with a blowgun. You can read about it on another page of this blog.

The above article was originally published in the October 11, 2000 Vancouver Province and several other Canadian newspapers. I suspect Pulau Tiga is quite a different place today (February, 2019).

Hunting Tigers in India

The man with the sickle was passing sheaves of long grass to the thatcher on the roof, but the dozen tourists on the nearby watchtower ignored this picturesque operation. Their eyes were trained on the freshwater pond and the adjacent patches of jungle that had been cleared to make the tigers easier to see. We were in Sudhanyakhali Mangrove Park in the maze of islands that make up the Sunderbans, site of one of India’s 27 tiger reserves.

One hundred years ago there were 40,000 tigers in India. Today an estimated 3,500 remain, with perhaps 100 residing in the Sunderbans. The number varies, as tigers in West Bengal regularly cross the border into Bangladesh (formerly East Bengal). The Sunderbans tiger census, taken in January, 2006, identified 65 different tigers by their pugmarks — footprints as unique as human fingerprints — in the muddy earth.

No big cats came into view from the watchtower, but we did see what Royal Bengal Tigers like best to eat: a group of six chital (spotted deer) emerged from the mangrove jungle just as we leaving. Unfortunately, deer, wild pigs, fish and crabs are not the only things tigers eat, so the locals must be constantly vigilant.

Mr. Tarun Mondal, one of the tiger census takers, told me how his group of twelve wore armor-plating on their necks and shoulders. “When Bengal Tigers attack,” he said, “they go for the throat.” Not only did Tarun’s group carry spears, a net and a rifle, they also wore masks on the backs of their heads, so any tiger behind them would believe it was being watched.

Near the dock I saw a shrine devoted to Bonobibi, the forest goddess to whom fishermen, wood-cutters and honey-gatherers pray for safety before venturing into tiger country.

Journeying to the Sunderbans was as fascinating as the destination, but it required a long, six-hour trip, by car and motorboat from Kolkata (Calcutta). As we putt-putted down the Hogol River, women on the banks were throwing nets, collecting shrimps and prawn seeds they would sell to commercial aquaculture farmers.

The longer the stay in the Sunderbans, the greater the chances of actually sighting a tiger. My day-trip from Kolkata was not long enough. Local guides recommend at least a two-night stay,

About 500 kilometers northeast of the Sunderbans, and mere steps from India’s border with Bhutan, is Manas National Park, another tiger reserve and UNESCO World Heritage Site. After tiger hunting by boat, my Manas experience, riding in a four-wheel-drive vehicle, accompanied by an armed guard, felt more like a real safari.

We parked near a bridge, where the driver waited behind as my guide, guard and I hiked along the river. The ground was alive with animal tracks — mostly deer and buffalo. The guard excitedly pointed to fresh leopard tracks, but I was after bigger game.

After several minutes of searching, we found tiger pugmarks. I laid a 100 Rupee bill alongside them for a size reference, and later estimated this tiger’s paw was nearly 15 centimeters (6-inches) long.

The trek was scenic but not very productive, until we returned to the car and the driver told us he had seen a tiger cross a mere few hundred meters in front of us. We had missed seeing him by a whisker!

Next morning we went hunting tigers on elephant back. Manas opens November 1st, but the tall grass that covers many of its 39,000 hectares would not be scythed and burned until early December, so the nearly 240 centimeter elevation of an elephant saddle provided an excellent, if slow-moving vantage point.

Unfortunately, tiger spotting was not one of the many thrills on our two-hour elephant ride. Perhaps it’s not possible to sneak up on a wily tiger while riding a thunder-footed 2500-kilogram pachyderm.

On our final hunt at Manas, we returned to the river where the driver had seen a tiger. We climbed to a bluff that provided a 180-degree vista of 500 meters of river — perfect for a hot tiger to get a cool drink and refreshing swim. We watched for more than an hour, but no tigers showed up We surmised they had probably gone to watch the elephant riders.

The Assistant Field Director estimates there are 56 tigers in Manas, but the official 2006 census numbers are not yet available.

Manas, in Assam, is 175 km north of Guwahati, and driving there requires a rugged four-wheel-drive vehicle, as the final 26-kilometers from Borpeda to Bansberi is a virtual minefield of potholes ranging from uncomfortable to hazardous, and there is a small stream to be forded. Facilities are minimal, restaurants are primitive and government run guest houses are sub-standard. This is a destination for the truly adventurous traveler who values an authentic experience over creature comforts.

Private Golden Triangle Tour with Ranthambore Tiger Reserve from Delhi

If you go:

Access to the Sunderbans is by motorboat from Basanti and Canning, which are connected by road and train services from Kolkata.

There are basic accommodations at a tourist lodge in the Sajnekhali Sanctuary, and more comfortable lodgings are nearby at the Sunderbans Tiger Camp.

Prior permission for foreign visitors to enter Sajnekhali Sanctuary and Project Tiger areas must be obtained from the West Bengal Forest Department in Kolkata. Telephone: 091-033-2221-5999.

Guwahati is accessible by air from KoIkata, New Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai.

For more information about India Tourism visit www.incredibleindia.org

Shrine of forest goddess Bonobibi photo by A. J. T. Johnsingh, WWF-India and NCF licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.

This article was originally published in 2006.

Blessed by a Sacred Elephant

Meekakshi temple Medurai

The Meenakshi Sundareswarar temple in Madurai is one of the largest in South India

I had to stretch my neck to look up at the enormous tower. Nine stories tall, the gopuram was alive with colourfully painted, sculpted gods, goddesses and animals, soaring above the entrance to one of the largest and most unusual temples in South India. The Meenakshi Sundareswarar temple in Madurai attracts 10,000 visitors on a slow day, 25,000 on Fridays, and even more during a festival. I was there on a Friday evening during the Navaratri festival, and I felt grateful to have met a local who agreed to show me around.

We left our shoes and socks at the gatehouse and walked past stalls selling garlands of fresh flowers — bright orange marigolds and red and yellow flowers that looked like chrysanthemums. The temple was busy, but it wasn’t as crowded as I feared it might be. Covering an area greater than fourteen acres, it can comfortably hold thousands of people, as well as at least one elephant. There was so much activity going on that it took me a moment to realize I was face to face with a live elephant. She had white spirals and floral patterns painted on her head, ears and trunk, and bells around her neck. I held out a 20 rupee note and she whisked it out of my hand. Suddenly her trunk was pressed against my forehead, nearly knocking off my eyeglasses; I had been blessed by a sacred elephant.

Mr. Siva told me that the temple was unusual because its primary deity is not the god Shiva (known locally as Sundareswarar) but the goddess Meenakshi (another name for Shakti). It is commonly called the Meenakshi temple, and the most popular of its three entrances leads directly to the shrine of the goddess.

We walked past a long row of columns that surrounded the Golden Lotus tank, a large rectangular pool of water where worshippers ceremonially bathe before entering the holy shrines. In the middle of the water was a large sculpture of a golden lotus. “This is the only temple tank in India that has no fish in it,” Mr. Shiva said. “According to legend, a heron-like bird once came here to meditate, but the fish in the tank were interfering with his meditation, so he prayed to God, and from then on there have been no more fish.”

Mass prayers are also very unusual in Hindu temples, but each Friday evening in the Meenakshi temple, a group of worshippers prays for patients in a nearby hospital who are facing major surgery. The patients’ names are written on a white board and read aloud during the service. The policy was started one year ago by temple commissioners, because the power of prayer is known to promote healing.

The city of Madurai in Tamil Nadu state is so ancient that its origins are lost in the mists of time, but a manuscript written in 650 A.D. refers to the area having been a center of learning for 9,990 years. According to legend, the temple was built around a lingam (ceremonial phallus) that was discovered in a forest. The earliest written reference to a temple in Madurai dates from the 9th century. Whenever it was first built, Muslim invaders destroyed it in 1310. Construction of the current temple began in 1560.

The lingam symbolizes the power of creation, Mr. Siva told me. He said that lingams are designed to be the focal point of power in a temple — the meeting point of energy from the heavens coming in from above and energy from the earth coming up from below.

As we walked through the temple’s 1,000 pillar hall, I remembered what I had been told about another Shiva temple I visited in Kanchipuram — that it contained 108 lingam stones. Someone else had told me there are 108 classical Indian dance positions. When I asked Mr. Siva about the significance of the number, he said that the numbers 108 and 1,008 are commonly found in Hindu temples because the value of the digits totals nine, and nine is a sacred number. There are nine holes in the body and nine planets, and the temple’s four main gopurams are nine stories tall. Even the name of the festival being celebrated, Navaratri, is Sanskrit for the number nine. It is a nine-day festival commemorating a nine-day battle between the goddess and a demon.

I was shown a fenced-off area where there were gleaming silver shrines devoted to the nine planets. We saw people walking around them (always in a clockwise direction) and praying. Siva told me it is particularly auspicious to circumambulate the nine planets nine times on a Saturday, because Saturn is the most powerful of the planets.

Near another shrine I noticed an area where you could buy coconuts. Remembering having once been in a Hindu temple in Malaysia where someone was smashing coconuts, I asked Siva what it meant. He told me that coconuts are sacrificed because they have three eyes, just like an enlightened human. Before devotees go into this shrine, they ceremonially leave behind their ego. Breaking the coconut symbolizes destroying one’s Self.

Of course I could not enter, because only Hindus are allowed into the most sacred shrines, but as I watched people going in I wondered whether I would ever become enlightened enough to open my third eye, or strong enough to let go of my ego. Certainly they are goals worth pursuing.

For more information about travel to India visit www.tourismofindia.com.

I visited India on a press trip in 2003 as a guest of the Government of India Ministry of Tourism.