Kuala Lumpur: the highlights

Julie and I at the National Mosque

I have such great memories from my short birthday break in Kuala Lumpur and I’ve already posted about some of them – the bellisimo birds at the KL BirdPark, the striking architecture – but here are a few highlights from those delicious five days.

Cousin Julie comes too

It was so wonderful to see a familiar face and share some of my explorations of KL with my cousin Julie, who flew up from Singapore for the weekend. Gem that she is, she brought Moet, though we had to drink it lukewarm, and treated me to a superb sushi birthday dinner.

She shares my entrancement with Islamic arts, so was as captivated as I was with the National Mosque, the Moorish influences in the heritage architecture, the Islamic Arts Museum. We walked miles, talked more, and, considering neither of us is that keen on clothes shopping, we shopped well. The sale prices and ‘Auntie’, one very persuasive saleswoman and shop owner, also had a lot to do with our success in that quarter, though Julie may not be thanking me when her next credit card bill comes in!

The turrets of the city railway station

I would've gone hungry without the help of this lovely young woman

Charming people

From the delightful elderly Indian gentleman who walked me from his hotel the ten minutes to my hotel after my taxi from the airport dropped me off at the wrong place and I got a little lost to the young Malaysian girl who helped me select some delicious delicacies at a local foodstall where the menu was incomprehensible, I found the people of Kuala Lumpur heart-warmingly helpful and friendly.

At the Petronas Tower, the smartly dressed guide inquired oh so politely as to my age and then delicately suggested that I would qualify for a senior citizen’s discount if I wanted to go up the tower (I didn’t, as it would’ve meant waiting for 3 hours). The Hop-on Hop-off bus tout relinquished his chair and fetched a cold bottle of water for this red-faced, sweaty tourist, then proceeded to tell me some local history while I waited for the next bus. And, by my third visit, the staff at the Secret Recipe were welcoming me like a long-lost friend and all came over to wish me a very happy birthday when I mentioned the cake was my birthday treat.

South Indian food for breakfast one morning

Colourful culture

I was so glad we chose the Golden Triangle area to stay in. Our budget hotel, the Hotel de’Grand Orchard, though difficult to find initially, was perfectly comfortable and had an inviting rainforest shower, but it was the location I particularly loved.

The mostly Indian Muslim neighbourhood is really colourful, with great street food (even if you're not exactly sure what you're eating!), a nearby market selling everything from traditional Muslin headgear to knock-off brand watches, local streets that transform into a bustling market on a Saturday night, and plentiful shopping at cheap prices. It's an easy walk to the Merdeka Square area, to the Central Market, Chinatown, the National Mosque and National Textile Museum.

Check out the little slice of Kiwiana in a stall at the Central Market

From Chinese temple to Petronas Towers

Convenience and contrast

Kuala Lumpur has all the conveniences of a modern go-ahead city yet still manages to retain its small-community charm. There are huge air-conditioned shopping malls, and an efficient transport system of buses, subway and monorail, plus the KLIE express train to and from the airport – for a completely hassle-free experience with no queues you can even check in for your flight at the city station!

In the central commercial area, skyscrapers and tower blocks loom over the tiny pedestrian, yet I still managed to find a fascinating Chinese Buddhist temple just a city block from the Petronas Towers. Heritage shophouses huddle between concrete and glass office blocks, and a vibrantly coloured Hindu temple sits cheek-by-jowl with Chinese shops and supermarkets. 

As you can no doubt tell, I was enchanted with KL and highly recommend a visit to anyone passing through Asia. And now I can't resist adding a few more architecture shots!

The Royal Palace

The Sri Mahamariamman temple

The Petronas Towers sparkle at night

Kuala Lumpur: the shophouses

Of the many architectural works that attracted my eye during my recent short break in Kuala Lumpur, the old shophouses were some of the most colourful and character-filled.

As the name suggests, these buildings were a practical combination of shop on the ground floor – which might also include some kind of service provider like a barber, or a cottage industry like a lantern maker, or a community space like a school – and living accommodation, for one or more families, on the upper one or two storeys. 

This building type is common throughout southeast Asia, where examples can be seen in those admirable cities that have preserved their historical heritage, and is similar in many ways to the British terraced house, with no separation but rather a single partition wall between the individual structures.

Kuala Lumpur suffered a massive fire in 1881, devastating for the people of the time but fortunate for lovers of these architectural gems, as, afterwards, the British Resident instructed the locals to rebuild a version of traditional attap (wooden houses) but with clay bricks and tiled roofs. Though many shophouses are now sadly crumbling and decrepit-looking, and overshadowed by modern concrete and glass monstrosities, the use of more permanent construction materials has ensured that many have survived into the 21st century.

These are narrow but deep constructions – an approximate size would be 20 feet x 80 feet but there is nothing standard about these buildings! Their narrowness may reflect the fact that buildings were traditionally taxed by the size of their street frontages, or it may be due to the practicalities of obtaining wooden beams to span the building’s width (rather than having to build inner supporting walls).

There is usually an open court-yard in the middle of the building to provide natural light and ventilation throughout the structure, and all shophouses were required to have a five-foot-wide covered walkway (called kaki lima in Malay) along the street frontage, to allow pedestrians to walk in the shade during the summer, to keep dry during the rainy season and to shelter from vehicular traffic. This eminently sensible idea dates as far back as 1573, when Phillip II of Spain included a similar decree for constructions in South China, and can also be seen in the historical buildings of Manila and Singapore.

In inner-city Kuala Lumpur the oldest shophouses can be found along what was High Street but is now called Jalan Tun H.S. Lee (jalan is the Malay word for road). The oldest examples date from the 1880s but the more common are the neoclassical buildings dating from the early 1900s. Their facades incorporate elements of Chinese, Malay, Indian and European design, including Ionic columns, intricate egg-and-dart and Chinese mythological motifs in the plaster mouldings, and ornate wooden window frames and fretwork.

Another interesting feature along these old roads of Kuala Lumpur is that the roads are often higher above ground than the shop frontages. The repaving of roads and the addition of sewers and other utilities has, over the years, raised the road surface above the level of the five-foot walkway.

Though traditionally the shophouses would have been plastered an off-white colour, many of the modern survivors have been painted a riot of bright colours, ranging from sunshine yellow and peppermint green to lipstick pink. In Kuala Lumpur, some of the heritage walking tours incorporate shophouse-lined streets in their itineraries but it is easy enough to discover these beauties for yourself, simply by wandering the old streets of the Chinatown area. They are a feast for the architectural eye and deserve to be conserved and restored to their former beauty.