Transportation wise, there was a change. My friend, Jia Shyan (JS), changed his mind to join me for day-time photography, instead of his initially planned adventurous mid-night shooting hehe. So, he drove, and picked me up in Kelana Jaya at around 8.30am.
We parked the car at road side, and walked to Batu Cave for approximately 10 minutes. We were there as scheduled, by 9am.
Equipments:
I have nothing much, but the Panasonic Lumix FZ30 prosumer camera, while JS carries Nikon D70 DSLR with 2 lenses.
My friend, JS
As expected, plenty of business opportunities were seen along the road heading to Batu Cave main entrance. Of all, the one that caught my interest was a few canopies of barbering services. These stalls were there to shave or bald devotees’ hairs, before their holy journey.
I saw a crowd of devotees cleansing their bodies at the river side, but I didn’t go to that area.
Generally, the highlights and objects of interest found in Thaipusam festival at Batu Cave are:
- Crowd of devotees flocking to the temple ground and all the way up to the hundreds of steps
- Kavadi bearers in trance-like state
- Colourful objects, especially the Kavadi
- Pierced body
I’m surprised that there were actually a lot of photography enthusiasts shooting at Batu Cave. Among the non-Indian visitors, I can confidently assume that at least 80% of them were there for photography, and majority of this community were carrying DSLR. Some even carry tripod along.
This outing is fun, at least I get to learn more about Thaipusam festival. Photographing the devotees and Kavadi bearers in close contact is a challenge; you have to make sure your object framing looks good while trying not to offend the bearers, and also giving space for other photographers as everyone wishes to capture the same split second moment.
I’m glad that most of the devotees were friendly enough to welcome your shot. Just give them a smile as a signal, and they will pose for you :)
Something Unlucky
When we were leaving Batu Cave, guess what, we couldn’t find our car! JS thought his car is stolen, but I’m believe it was most probably tolled away by municipal council. Ya lo, JS parked his car by the road side, and at the edge of a junction haha.
So, I asked the nearby car park operator, if he saw municipal council enforcers tolling away cars. Yes, he did, and he can still remember the car numbers! Fortunately (ya la, at this situation, car being tolled away is more fortunate than losing it right), my friend’s car is one of those that he could remember.
“So how?” We asked.
It was tolled by Majlis Perbandaran Selayang (MPS). According to a few sources that we have got advice from, all the cars will be kept at Stadium MPS.
“Where is Stadium MPS?”
“Jalan sini terus, lepas dua traffic light, pusing kiri masuk Selayang Baru. Then you terus jalan jalan la, tak jauh punya. Lebih kurang 3KM saja”.
Translation:
“Walk down straight, until you came to the second traffic light then turn right into Selayang Baru. Then, keep your way, it’s not far away one…. Just approximately 3KM only”
OK la, 3KM only ma, not too far also. So, we decided to walk from Batu Cave to Stadium MPS! We wanted to get a taxi, but none is caught in sight at Batu Cave.
Walk walk walk….. “hm… cannot be la, we thought to ourselves”. We get further confirmation from some people along the way, and apparently, Stadium MPS is not near at all in walking distance. Sigh.
But no choice la, we still have to continue walking, till we hired a taxi. Luckily we got a taxi half-way. The Stadium MPS is really not considered near at all, from Batu Cave.
So, the result is, RM200 to get back the car lo.
