Unique Places in Kuala Lumpur

Learn how to cook Malaysia food at Bayan Indah Culinary Retreat, website: http://www.bayanindah.com/

I used to follow them on FB, until I changed my FB settings to prevent Google from finding me on FB! ;-) Their dishes look authentic and yummy! :-)

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Whilst in Kuala Lumpur we took 2 day trips and both were excellent.

Our first trip was to Fraser's Hill, a former Hill Station during colonial time, located in the highlands 100km from KL.

The trip took just over 2 hours with the majority of time driving the one way road up to the highland.

Upon arrival in Bukit Fraser we found a small community which still retained buildings from the British Colonial times. The landscape was green and the small town surrounded by virgin rainforest. After lunch the mist commenced its path over the rainforest and ontp parts of the town. The temperature would have been 12 C lower than Kuala Lumpur.

We managed to fit in a hike around the town and golf course. The mist being water laden we had to put on our rain jackets. A most enjoyable day

Full details of this day trip are on my page: Bukit Fraser

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When visiting Batu Caves, ladies might want to give themselves a treat after having gone up and down those steep steps uneventfully. That's exactly what I did when I saw a woman in her stall near the entrance, displaying a sign saying henna tattoo.

It takes all of a few minutes, though it depends too on how intricate the design you want. The artist has a collection of designs from which you can choose. The price of course depends on how complex the design is. I chose a very simple one, a butterfly on one hand. It looked nice, though I was not too impressed with the artist as she seemed to struggle a bit with the pattern. It cost 20 ringgit which seemed expensive for such a simple design which took her 3 minutes to do. Of course, this was geared more for the tourist whom they expect to be willing to shell out amounts unthinkable to the locals for such a simple and ordinary thing.

The henna dries within an hour, and just breaks and falls off. It stays for about 4 days, and starts fading quickly after that.

One seemingly mundane fact turns heads if noticed. Many modern streets have the indispensable lighting poles sticking out over the asphalt and executing the role they were designed for – namely floodlighting the road so car drivers have it easier to see where they are going. Suddenly this purely utilitarian concept has been converted into elevated appreciation of the jungle environment that Kuala Lumpur was privy to not so long ago. The light fixtures are seen from completely different angle and turned into pollen pods surrounded by colourful petals – brilliant! As if to underline the idea of fusion between city and jungle, the opulent tropical trees lining the streets are decorated for festive occasion with handing strings of lights that during the day look as hanging roots of particular kind of local tree – unique!

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Malaysia is known for beauty and the girls here are no exception but unfortunately you would only see nicely dressed girls of Chinese and Indian Ancestry since the local Malay girls are conservatively dressed in Niqabs. For a guy who loves girl watching, Kuala Lumpur is a feast for the senses especially when viewing the pretty malaysian girls from long range hence is it an advantage to have a really powerful optical zoom camera around hence the far shots hehehe unless you would be accused of stalking if you take pictures of them really close to them.

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yes the King of fruits, also known as the durian can be mixed into chocolates to produce durian chocolates and these chocolates are one of the popular gifts or take away products for tourists and even locals having their durian fix with a twist. the taste of the hybrid durian chocolate is more of the durian rather than the chocolate due to it's overpowering taste hehehe but still is surprisingly good and melts in your mouth too. the price of a small box of 12 pieces of durian chocolates is RM 40 (a little more on the expensive side) and is available in malls, supermarkets and big stalls.

Between the famous Bukit Bintang area and the Bukit Nanas city forest, you will find some legacy of old Kuala Lumpur. A row of houses from 1938 is left into decay. Some of the houses are still inhabited, some others are lacking vital parts already creating a spooky atmosphere. Similar to the old jail, these might be pulled down in a couple of years making place for a modern building. They are found at Jalan Raja Chulan, close to the fuel station/Changkat Raja Chulan.

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Being built between 1891 and 1895, Pudu Prison is one of the oldest structures in today's Kuala Lumpur. The prison had always a bad reputation, especially for its small, overcrowded cells and limited ventilation through tiny windows. It was a Japanese POW camp when Malaysia was occupied in WWII and later became the place of execution in an extensively covered trial when two Australians were sentenced to death for drug trafficking. When it closed in 1996, its future became uncertain. For a short time it was a museum, but has been disused for much of the time since 1997. From then on, it got into the focus of city developers as it stands on a very lucrative sport, next to Berjaya Times Square and close to other commercially attractive areas. Although any investors and authorities would like to see the building pulled down, there are plans to conserve a part of it, one being mentioned was the prison mosque. Today, it stands as a derelict building in the centre of Kuala Lumpur with its eastern wall (with the mural paintings) pulled down. As time goes by, more parts of it are likely to disappear. If there is no chance to see anything from street level, have a look from the KL Monorail. Between the stations of Hang Tuah and Imbi (travelling towards Imbi), you will see the prison on the right hand side.
If you are standing in front of Pudu Prison and want to travel back to a Kuala Lumpur before the era of skyscrapers, walk down Jalan Pudu to the south. There, in Pudu District, you will find a quarter with a mid-20th century atmosphere, including a street market in a mostly tourist-free area.