Tag: photos

Rock sport climbing at the Batu Caves in Kuala Lumpur and living in an aquarium (December 2025)

Back in Kazakhstan, we decided to go to Malaysia because there were a lot of climbing routes. More than in Vietnam for example. After we arrived, we found out that one of the biggest climbing areas close to Kuala Lumpur called Bukit Takun (open on thecrag.com) recently became unaccessible.
So we started trying out the other climbing sectors of the Batu Caves area in the north of Kuala Lumpur.
The wall of the Nyamuk (open on thecrag.com) was very beautiful and pretty high 🚀
There were a lot of interesting routes and we met some local climbers who helped us reading the topo and gave us some recommendations. Some routes were to wet from the last heavy rains but we did very good climbing and got used more and more to the tropical rocks and tufa.
Because most of the routes were pretty high, and we could only bring our 50m rope, we had to repell ourselves from bolts so we’d recommend to bring a 70m rope, if possible.
The bolts etc. we’re in very good condition.
Nyamuk translates to mosquito but it was not too bad. Of course we had mosquito repellent with us 🦟
The access to the Volleyball Site crag (open on thecrag.com) was very special. On the photo you see a restaurant and event place and behind that is the climbing crag. The access seems to be possible mostly on weekends and there were contact numbers to book sessions during the week (details on thecrag.com) 🎉
To access it, you have to go through the restaurant and on the roof of one of their buildings everything starts. When we arrived there, it was a nice atmosphere and a lot of climbers were there. After talking to some, we found out that they were from Singapore and enjoyed the cheaper Kuala Lumpur and climbing.
There were easy and hard routes and all in good condition 😁
The cheapest place to stay we found, was the ARK BATU CAVES HOTEL (see it on Google Maps) which was not too far from the climbing crags. It was 70RM on weekdays and 80RM on weekends. We called our room the aquarium because it had no windows at all. It could rain, storm or the world could burn, you wouldn’t notice in the aquarium 🤣
But the walk to the crags was easy and not too long and that was the most important to us. Actually the walk got quite longer because we had to take  detour for one of the very few pedestrian bridges 🙂

One day in crazy Delhi, India (March 2025)

In March 2025, the travel route we had in mind was: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Nepal. And after that destination unknown.
We organized everything. The Carnet de Passage (special customs document for our car which is necessary to enter certain countries with an own car) and the visa.
We tried to get a visa for India in Kyrgyzstan, but it was not possible. The only options left were: going to Germany and applying there in an Indian embassy or applying for an evisa online and flying to India to get the visa stamped in our passports.
Because getting the evisa stamped in our passports was not possible on the land borders and Rosinante was not used to flying, we decided to take the cheapest flight to Delhi and back to Almaty, Kazakhstan. Our ecological hearts were bleeding but we did not see another option.
Later we found out , that it’s most likely possible to get an Indian visa in Tajikistan…
No matter what, we made the best out of it and took a flight in the morning/ night of my birthday from Almaty to Delhi. We were tired and so we took a taxi to a park that looked nice on Google Maps.
The rollercoaster/ taxi ride was a good introduction to the traffic in Delhi. WTF. We had a lot of experience with traffic in a lot of different countries and I’d say we are pretty fast and active drivers who make use of mostly everything that’s allowed or tolerated in the traffic. But this was different, special, fast and tight. Often only a few centimeters were left between the cars, trucks, busses, tuktuks, people, cows, walls etc.
The park was a good place to ease our tired minds.
There, a lot of people did yoga, meditated and practiced breathing techniques. To me it felt nice that these practices were so much a part of the daily life of the Indians.
After breakfast, we did some sight seeing and I absolutely liked the style of the historical buildings.
The next method of transportation, we tried, was a tuk tuk. We got an electric one and had the most relaxed driver. After the taxi ride, that experience was very different. Less pushing. But of course vehicles, animals and humans were everywhere.
We got pretty tired and took a nap on a meadow near one of the historical buildings.
Everybody was super friendly and lovely. Several Indian groups wanted to take a selfie with us which we always find funny.
A nice home for one of the stray dogs.
One of the many tourist bazaars.
An ordinary shopping area in the old town.
Infinite small shops.
We liked the monkeys and the cows a lot.
Packed, tight corridors.
And sideways.
We decided to take a rigsha. Before we started, we showed the driver where we wanted to go because we were wondering if it wouldn’t be too far. About seven kilometers. He was fine with that.
In the car free area of old town, he pushed our rigsha through the tiniest free spots.
After some kilometers he got exhausted and driving on the bigger streets of Delhi, with big trucks and busses, felt more and more adventurous. Sometimes he spoke to other locals, told them where he was going and they showed him pretty much respect for his mission.
We asked if we should switch to a taxi, but he wanted to get going.
In the end, we made it, our driver was happy and I felt that he was kind of proud.
In a small Buddhist temple, I did a meditation and Racki relaxed a bit. After that we had dinner and took the metro to the airport.
Goodbye Delhi after 15 hours to get our visa stamped in our passports. It was a crazy short visit, but an interesting one as well.
Back in the airport of Almaty, Racki got a super discount on Baileys (her favorite drink). A successful end of our trip.

House and cat sitting while cleaning and maintaining Rosinante in Almaty Kazakhstan (March 20205)

We went back to Almaty (Kazakhstan) to take care of the house and cat of friends while they were in Germany for their holidays.
For us this was perfect to clean and maintain Rosinante’s camping cabin.
First of all we emptied the whole cabin and cleaned it a crazy lot. Some parts of the carpet we had to clean with bleach to remove moldy or strong dirt.
I was not a big fan of bleach but in the end, when living for so long in a small cabin, it is like a magical cleaner.
Again, we had a look at everything we had and sorted everything in a keep, maybe and a give away pile.
And we washed almost everything we had.
After the cleaning, we bought Rosinante a nice anti-rust treatment for most of the metal parts of the frame, rear bumper, wheel suspension etc.
This is her after cleaning .
And this with the new protection.
The guy who did it was a recommendation of the Startroopies (friends of ours) and we felt he did a good job for 400€.
After that we put everything back inside and it went very well. Letting go of some stuff absolutely helped. Especially because we wanted to keep the snowboards inside the driver’s cabin to protect them from the weather etc.
Our heating and air condition blower started to make disturbing noises and so we went to car city in Almaty to get a new one.
And the new and stronger coil springs for Rosinante’s rear suspension, which we had sent to a Kazakh friend, arrived and we mounted them by ourselves.
And the handling of Rosinante, which never had been bad, improved a lot.
After cleaning Rosinante, I had my teeth cleaned.
And Racki got some Hannibal Lector treatment.
This was the crazy cat we were sitting. She was super cute and very, very much attached to humans. Every morning at around 4 o’clock she came in our bed and woke us up by lying down around or on our heads. And if we ignored this, she started biting our feet until we fed her and let her out of the house.
One advantage of a house: an oven for casserole and french fries.
It was really nice to live in a house for these three weeks but living in Rosinante was always nicer.
The last day, we cleaned everything we used and when I was cleaning the shower bath, the holding for the shower gels fell off the wall and smashed the shower faucet.
I got pretty pissed. Especially because I knew our friends would come back the next day and I imagined that it would not be so nice to come home with a kid and having no shower or bath.
Because of the insurance, we did not try to repair it. In the end, we found a temporary solution in using a hose we were about to trash.
We did a very nice hike with Maria and her dog Vedinger.
The snow was pretty deep. Sometimes even waist deep and so we had to fight through it.
Vedinger had to fight as well but enjoyed it a lot.
And of course we went out with our friends.
One night we visited a “gay bar”. It was good fun.
And on one of our last nights in Almaty we had a proper farewell party.