Streets of Kuala Lumpur

Oh great! It's pouring again now. Some say the haze is back. Perhaps it is, or perhaps we are polluting the atmosphere faster than the rain can wash the particles in the air away. Latest I heard over the radio that hotspots were sighted. Here, let me show you a shot I took two mornings ago.


Bad, huh? Oops! My apologies for always showing you the view of the Petronas Twin Towers and the Kuala Lumpur Tower each time the KL skyline is featured. Sorry, but that's all we have. -lol- Scream if you have to.

Despite the heavy downpour yesterday afternoon, the atmosphere was no better after that. Shot below taken this morning. Same same.



But take a look at how clear it was two weeks ago. I had to go downtown to sort out something in KLCC one Saturday morning.

Here are a few shots of the Petronas Twin Towers from different angles.



This is a directional sign along the road leading to the towers. Colourful.



This s a montage of four pictures. The top left was taken from the ground looking up, while the bottom left is from where the shot was taken. The top right is one of an early skater (an expatriate - not a young man though) and the bottom right is one of early shoppers or maybe not, because it was still too early for the shops to open. It was just nine-ish. Perhaps they were on their way to the skybridge.



This is a very old Chinese temple along the same road and same side as the Petronas Twin Towers. This temple has recently been refurbished. Not sure how far this is true but I heard that there used to be an old lady in the inner sanctum of this temple that was able to tell a person's previous life, plus when a person is going to die. Eerie! I wonder who would want to know that!

The road this temple is on is Jalan Ampang (Jalan is road or street in English). Jalan Ampang is sometimes referred to as Embassy Row for the many embassies and consulates along this street. You can find the Chinese consulate, British High Comm and French Embassy here besides others.

Jalan Ampang is one of the longest streets in KL. It stretches right up to Ampang village at the other end where there is a settlement of Chinese Hakka families, probably related to Yap Ah Loy.



On the other side of the Twin Towers is this old office complex, Angkasa Raya. This is one of the earliest/oldest complexes in Kuala Lumpur. Notice its simple design vis-a-vis the tower beside it. This complex dates back to the early 70s and was one of the tallest then. The other tower is much higher. Notice the KL Tower beside Angkasa Raya. KL Tower is located on a hill in the city though quite a distance from this part of town.



This is the junction of Jalan Ampang and Jalan P. Ramlee. P. Ramlee was a local celebrity. He was a very talented entertainment personality in the 50s and 60s. He was a film actor, director, singer, and songwriter. Thus this road was renamed in his honour. Notice I said 'renamed'. A lot of roads have been renamed from colonial English names to local names. Jalan P. Ramlee used to be called Jalan Parry. Sad that we are killing our own history.



See the brown building with the pointy top? This is the headquarters of Public Bank. This building is diagonally opposite the Petronas Twin Towers, separated by the junction in the above picture. From the picture, Public Bank would be somewhere in the direction of 2 o'clock while the Twin Towers would be at approximately 8 o'clock.



At night when the lights are lit, the building looks like a citrine crystal tower. That's the lit building between the Twin Towers below the skybridge in this picture. The Public Bank building is a sight to behold and which adds colour to the KL skyline at night.



A closer view of the marble-and-glass Public Bank building. On its right (but not shown in the picture) is the Australian High Comm.


I probably added a little oomph! to this gentleman's day when I took his picture. He amd his friend were rolling on paint to the boards shielding a work-in-progress construction site. They are imported labour from Indonesia. These days, the people who staff the construction industry are mostly foreign workers, Indonesians making the bulk of it.


After my business in the KLCC (KL City Center) area, I took a drive to the other side of town, the Golden Triangle area. This is Jalan Imbi. Notice the street is not congested with traffic. I was surprised too that a Saturday morning could look like that. But then again, it's still too early for vehicles to be pouring out from office complexes. Office workers enjoy a half-day workday (usually from 9am to 1pm) on Saturdays unless they are on a five-day workweek.


The brown building in the background is Berjaya Times Square. This is one of the newest malls in the city and according to Wikipedia, it is tagged as the "world’s largest building ever built in a single phase". It's attractions include an indoor amusement park, Asia’s largest indoor theme park, Cosmo's World, Malaysia’s first-ever IMAX 2D & 3D theatre, nine levels of shopping, two 5-star hotels and a monorail station right next to it. In April 2005, Borders Group opened its first franchise store here. Currently, the store is the largest Borders store in the world. Other popular stores include Metrojaya, which is a multi-level major department store.

The white and blue building on the right is the Parkroyal Hotel. See the pink structure in front of Parkroyal? This is a row of old shops. This street, Jalan Imbi, houses a number of renowned restaurants, such as Overseas Restaurant (Chinese cuisine), Sakura Restaurant (local fare, especially famous for its fish head curries), a number of vegetarian restaurants and a corner coffeeshop that serves the best meatball noodles in town.

This is a close-up picture of the same Berjaya Times Square, plus the monorail track. The monorail system just plies the city centre. Outside it, runs the LRT (Light Rail Transit) system which helps relieve some city traffic congestion.

Taxis here are colourful. The picture above shows two taxis of two different colours. This one is orangy-red with a strong message on anti-dadah (drugs). In Malaysia, possession and trafficking of drugs carries a death sentence.


This is another shopping mall, Sungei Wang Plaza which literally translates to River of Money Plaza. What's in a name, you say? Well, this complex even though has been here for more than two decades, is doing extremely well. On weekends, the place is packed with shoppers, both locals and tourists. You'd wonder as to where these people come from. We are gearing up for the Middle-eastern tourists who are normally here in the summer months of June right up to mid-September. Hotels are doing a roaring business this time of the year.


An overhead pedestrian bridge makes it safer to cross over to the other side from Sungei Wang Plaza - but jaywalkers are aplenty. Above that is the monorail track and beyond that is the monorail station. This station is only one stop away from the station at Berjaya Times Square.


This is the street leading away from the busy part of town. Still quiet. Monorail track overhead.


Kuala Lumpur is not entirely concrete. There is a lot of greenery everywhere. Btw, the white building in the background a little to the left, is Genting Highlands head office. This is the hub where they handle bookings for shows and rooms at the Genting Highlands Resort or popularly known as City of Entertainment.


KL, like any other city, has both the new and the old co-existing. This is a block of old flats, regularly spruced up with a new coat of paint.


Cranes atop buildings are a common sight here, afterall Malaysia is only 50 years-old.


I hope you enjoyed this little car-ride tour of KL. Next time, we'll go visit somewhere else. Welcome to Kuala Lumpur!