KL city in 5 hours

Anthony Burgess, an English writer who taught in Malaysia seems to have said that Malaya was perhaps the only country in the world for any man who cares about history. I am not sure I accept his words completely, (even India has a rich history) however, the history of Kuala lumpur is fascinating.

 From muck and marsh some 150 years ago Kuala lumpur literally meaning  muddy estuary was  a tin and mining town. It has evolved into a cosmopolitan capital with tall buildings, swanky malls and an active night life. But for all its sheen, it has a rich history.  The city tour I took on a sunny morning authenticated it.   I will make this a visual post with descriptions of the place below.

The first place we visited is Istana Negara or national palace.

It is the official residence of the King of Malaysia since 2011, constructed at a cost of 900 million dollors. The old palace at jalan istana has now been converted into a museum. A grand place with beautiful surroundings on a hillock. Public are not allowed beyond the gate which are guarded by horsemen. This was just a photostop for us nothing much to do except get clicked and click the monument. It was interesting to note some people driving sporty bikes on the hilly roads inside. below is the closeup view with the lens between the gate grills.

The next place was the national monument. Erected to commemorate those who died in malaysia’s struggle for freedom, particularly during world war II and the Malayan emergency. The 15 metre high bronze monument to the right sits on a hilltop overlooking the parliament house and the serene perdana botanical garden. Interestingly the gardens had lampposts of hibiscus which is the national flower of Malaysia.Nothing much to do except go around and click photos. But the place is impeccably maintained. One has to carry water bottles, caps, hats or umbrellas, if you are here in the afternoon. Very very sunny.
           

 

The next place is for anybody who likes history, art and architecture and one of the most interesting place- National heritage site. I can make multliple posts about this place, but I will keep it short and sweet. Nearly 20 national icons are located here at the place called Dataran merdeka or independence square.

The whole area is a delightful contrast to the modern Malaysia which is in the centre of the city. The buildings here are colonial. The first building our tour guide pointed to here is the Sultan Abdul Samad Building. Much before petronas towers was built, this building was supposed to have the been the signature of KL. It was initially an administrative building for the Federated Malay states, later turned into a highcourt, surpreme court and now it occupies the ministry of information and culture. The building has symmetrical brick structure and is supposed to have been built by Indians with bricks brought from India and this is how Indians arrived in Malaysia . ( info courtesy: tour guide)

Just opposite this building is Dataran Merdeka or independence square which is a huge broad platform on which stands a tall flag pole. The  100 metre flagpole is supposed to be one of the tallest  and the flag  was first hoisted on 31^st aug 1957 signifying  the independence of the country.

Beside this is the KL city gallery which is in a 116 year old heritage building. The story of KL is beautifully presented here in photographs and descriptions. It also houses a spectacular model of the city with a short video about the city’s history. The building also houses an architectural modeling workshop ARCH where artisans sculpt and make miniature models of the city’s buildings. One of the places where I would have loved to spend more time, but time was ticking and so ended up clicking photos of all those places and at the I love KL structure.

There were banners like these depicting the origin of KL from a marshy estuary to that of the modern day KL housing Statesque buildings

It seems miners and traders first came upriver to where the rivers klang and gombak converge in search of tin. They named the settlement KL meaning muddy estuary in malay. by 1860's the flourishing village was the reason for rivalry over mining claims and water rights which led to bitter feuds and gang clashes. Finally, a chinese settlement was put under the leadership of the above person. Under his leadership it grew into a thriving town. Later a british resident Frank swettenham moved his administration to KL when brick building were introduced street by street and wooden shanties were pulled down.

 KL model measuring 40ftx50ft with an audio visual tour of the city.

                                                               A model of masjid jamek                     

The ARCH architects at work. It involves concentration and hand dexterity.  A glass wall separates my camera lens and the artisans at work. 

After merdeka square we were off to petronas towers( i will make an exclusive post on this) and then to the various  shops like pewter shop, leather shop, chocolate(malaysian cocoa is supposed to of the premium quality in the world and is said to be exported to other chocolate makers around the world)  factory, batik printing workshop etc. Our final stop of city tour was  at KL communication tower whose sundown version is a delight to watch and is also my room view. But we were here on a cloudy afternoon. We sped up to the observation deck in the lift car of the tower in just 50 secs that is 421metres tall.

                       The day suddenly turned from sunny to a cloudy noon.  we could capture such city views  and stand tall against petronas too. 

NExt our visit to little india.

KL - food, friends, fun and some trivia

When our  taxi pulled up in front of the tall hotel, the first thing that struck me was ” Wow! classy and minimally stylish!!"  The 12 floor hotel was conveniently located in the city’s renowned entertainment, shopping and business district and close to the imbi station as we found later. 

 The rooms we were allotted came with stunning views.  I woke up  looking at KL tower, menara Maybank, Polis HQ ,the colorful monorails made an unusual  and cute sight like a toy train. We chose  to stay at the lower floor(5th) since we wanted two rooms on the same floor.  This was also the first experience for my teens  to stay independently in a hotel, they checked in on their own and handled every service independently.    After refreshing,  we opened the inhouse menu card , only to see there were no vegetarian dish.  Alas! Class and style does not spell good vegetarian food in this hotel.  Even Salads were served with chicken pieces.

Our driver a Malaysian Tamil who drove us to the hotel had already informed us the only place to eat vegetarian food in KL is at the likes of Saravana Bhavan  or lakshmi vilas at Little India. The famished us,  walked over to Berjaya times square which was a mall nearby hoping we would find Subway or McD.  We had to walk through a small Chinatown eat street to reach this place. The  sight and stench (or aroma if the Chinese may call it) that emanated from the kitchens were stomach churning. Gosh! What all they eat, anything that creeps, crawls, flies. They spare no living organism.  

Food I realized was tough here for us vegetarians.  At times square, where we ate pizza,  We had to say “ Purely vegetarian, no eggs, no fish, no chicken, no meat, etc” Or else for them all the above are considered vegetarian.   Even the uncut fruits looked scary and the fruit Durian is banned in public places like bus due to its awful smell.  

While in KL,  we traveled away from the hotel  (where we stayed) to eat  dinner  and lunch at  Indian restaurants.  The complimentary breakfast  i never dared to try. Just once when i wanted to try  their vegetarian local cuisine  nasi lemak( rice kanji) a fried anchovie got mixed with the fried peanuts. The foreigners who serve themselves end up mixing the spoons and so the  anchovie ended up in the peanut bowl. From then on it was only corn flakes and milk which was kept at the farthest end.  We even travelled one afternoon to Little India  just to eat vegetarian food along with our friends.

About our friends,we met them in the hotel  lobby that day evening.  A 70+ couple from Chennai, A 60+ couple from Bangalore, A 25+ couple from Orissa and us.  Together we were  a group of 10 in KL and  this group taught me old age is never a deterrent for fun and  one need’nt be from the same age bracket  to enjoy.  It was  humour  and fun unlimited with this group from then on. We hired a cab, took a monorail, LRT, LCCT( low cost carrier terminal)  and explored KL like a local and sometimes with guided tours.

KL - this city is a marriage of the old and the new and has   The Malays, the Chinese and the Indians living in  harmony.  Though the migrant  Malays (not the native, those who migrate from neighbouring Indonesia) have an upper hand and get citizenship in 5 years  while the Indians and Chinese take 10 years to get a citizenship.  Reason, the Malays have a say (vote) in the formation of the government which is a muslim government . Many Indians whom  we met said they don’t face racial discrimination and enjoy freedom unlike Singapore.  Wherever you go, you can’t miss the photos of the king, queen and the Prime minister.  Their King or Sultan is more like our President.  The  Defence forces  comes under his wing.  The current king is very special they claim  because at 85 he has been elected for the second time. No other king enjoyed that privilege.

 I also understand that Malay has a little influence of Sanskrit. For instance, you can’t miss the word Jaya in most places like  in Putra Jaya, Kelana Jaya. Jaya means victory as in Sanskrit. At some  places,  I was able to decipher malay through english .  for eg., central is sentral and clinic is Klinik and pudu means new which also means the same in tamil. Bas is bus while teksi is taxi.  Apa khabar? is How are you? Sounds so much like Aap ka  khabar?    

We were warned to keep our valuables in hotel lockers as KL is supposed to be an unsafe place.

In my next post, off to Istana Negara – the national palace and other places .

                                     the room with a view 

This photo reflects the window glass. the yellow light at the top is maybank hq and the little blue and red light is the polis hq

one of the arty creation displayed below our hotel's restaurant staircase. twin towers assembled with plastic bottles