We had the pleasure of a visit from the Yishun Climbing Community of Singapore last weekend. They had come up on the bus to 1Utama, and then stayed one night at the Madrasah Al Rahman next to the Volleyball Court wall of Batu Caves. They took two dorm rooms with 4 bunk beds each…. one room for the boys and the other for the girls. I had previously gone to check the rooms and made sure of their good condition. They were clean and comfortable and the bathrooms were “resort” style (as Joanna put it) with a door that opens outwards to the climbing area, for that better view and fresh air when taking a dump. (left: Derek belaying Chuan)

The common area on the stair landing was retrofitted with two hammocks for snoozing in the hot afternoon, and playing cards. The whole place was made of wood, which gave it a kampung atmosphere which I really liked. I also found out that the accommodation is not in fact owned under the Madrasah Al Rahman. The whole street is owned by this one family who runs restaurants and the Madrasah, and the rooms were actually joined to one of the family members houses, which means it is not actually in the grounds of the religious school. Perhaps next time we can ask the owners if such minor vices like beer is permissible in the dorms, which would liven the atmosphere a notch.It looks also that the cave restaurant that was being constructed is nearing completion and soon there will be a cool place to hangout at after a days of hard climbing. I highly recommend any other visiting group to KL for climbing to stay there. It is close to the walls and it has a nice relaxed atmosphere also. Nearby, a short 5 minute walk away are numerous restaurants for indian, malay and chinese food. And walking distance from there are also Nanyang Wall, Roadshow, Comic Wall and Nyamuk. Damai is a little bit further away, needing a bit of a long trek.

From the Yishun Climbing Community of Singapore, we were graced by the attendance of the following. The spelling may need correcting….

1. Derek
2. Chuan
3. Felicia
4. Joanne
5. Fong
6. Ying Zi
7. Jackson
8. Yi Li
9. Francis

They spent one night at the Madrasah Al Rahman, and climbed at Volleyball court the next day. I joined them in the morning. It was blisteringly hot and sunny. The wall was facing east and caught the rising sun which stayed on the rock surface for a good many hours till noon when it started to rain heavily. The heavy part was over pretty soon and then the light drizzling started for sometime. The rest of the day was overcast which made for comfortable climbing, if the rocks had not already been drenched by the rain. Some parts were still reasonably dry.

The volleyball court wall has been neglected for some time by the bulk of climbers for reasons that are not obviously evident. The routes are quite numerous and we could see several interesting long routes and roofs also. Due to neglect the anchor slings looked a bit worn and should be replaced. Some bolts were also rusted and of doubtful condition. The routes we climbed had very sharp holds that were painful to put your weight on. Some foot holds could be felt straight through the shoes. This is testament to how seldom the walls have been climbed, in contrast to Nanyang, Damai or Nyamuk walls.

(Left: Felicia with one of the resident kittens) There is also a small charge to climbing there at Volleyball court, imposed by the family who owns the row of shops, and run the Madrasah and the dorm rooms. Technically, charging climbers any money to climb here is not (strictly speaking) legal. Since the rock belongs to the state. And while the owners of the shop houses have endevoured to enclose the access to the rock surface on either side, and put some money up front to develop the enclosed area with facilities like showers, toilets… and soon to be opened a cave restaurant…… it must be brought to the fore that all these areas are “technically” state land and therefore public. So… in theory nobody should need to pay any money to enter this area and climb the rocks.

While on one hand, we could get all emotionally charged about our public rights and rave to the authorities and police and politicians and make a big hoo ha over the whole issue….. of which will take a lot of effort, time and not to mention political will and backing, and even then may not yield the results we want We here in Malaysia are accutely aware of which battles are worth fighting, and which battles can be won and at what cost……. the price demanded for climbing access to volleyball court stands at 5 ringgit per head, which isnt too much money. The owners of the shops have invested some money (agreeably in public land) to improve the facilities here and in a way, perhaps they deserve a little something to recover their initial investment. 5 ringgit a head isnt all that much anyway… after all climbing outdoors isnt free… all the other wall sections like Nanyang, Nyamuk, Damai and the rest have all been bolted and routes set up through the sweat, labour and finance of private individuals who dont get paid for their time and effort. But we do hope and should rightly demand, that with the charge of 5 ringgit per head, that the management of the volleyball court wall should maintain the routes by changing the anchors and rebolting as and when is neccessary. This is only fair.

I enjoyed the visit of our friends from Yishun Singapore, and I hope that they enjoyed their stay at Volleyball court and Kuala Lumpur. We get a steady regular inflow of climbers from Singapore to Kuala Lumpur for the batu caves routes, and climbing at Camp5. I hope that there will be better relations built between our two communities, and singaporean climbers can hook up with malaysian climbers for trips more often in future.

We hope they will come back soon, and will contact us when they do so. Hopefully they will also write their own review of their trip on this space.

Happy Chinese New Year of the Ox… and prosperity and good health to all.

Regards,
putra