Today we packed our bags and prepared to leave Kuala Lumpur. We started the day with another buffet breakfast and promptly loaded the buses with our many bags. We drove about 30 minutes to the Batu Caves, where we climbed 272 stairs to the top. The site contains many Hindu temples and is visited by religious devotees and tourists alike. We took a couple of photos in front of the giant gold Kartikeya statue (the locals refer to him as Murugan). At the top, we saw a lot of macaques, a type of primate. Some of us went inside the Hindu temples and were blessed by the swamis. We also tried sweet laddoos from the street vendors. After exploring the Batu Caves, we went to lunch at an Indian restaurant, where we ate off banana leaves and used our right hands—a traditional style of eating. We also got to try a local rose drink, which many of us enjoyed.




We then got on the bus for a long five-hour drive to Kuala Tahan. We broke up the drive by stopping at a local supermarket, where we bought snacks and toiletries in preparation for the homestays. We picked up some games to play and some handheld fans as well. Those fans have been lifesavers in this humidity. Thankfully, the bus had strong air conditioning. On the bus, many of us were able to pass the time by singing our hearts out, thanks to Ms. Buxton’s speaker and the playlist we curated before we left. A lot of us also read our books, and some took naps as well.

As we got closer to the village, it started pouring rain, and we saw some lightning too. We were greeted by our local host, Angah, once we arrived. We took a small boat to cross the river and headed to the national park resort. They had hung up a sign saying “Welcome Menlo Abroad,” which was nice. It was cool to see our Menlo School represented all the way in the town of Kuala Tahan, thousands of miles away!




After settling into our rooms, we enjoyed a delicious dinner, with many of us trying fried banana bread balls called cucur pisang. After dinner, we took a night walk with our headlamps and bug spray and saw frogs, spiders, stick bugs, and more.



We can’t wait to meet our homestay families tomorrow!

-Ananya and Parker

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