February 3, 2025
KUALA LUMPUR – How would you design an itinerary for somebody visiting Kuala Lumpur? Perhaps the most obvious way is to take all your favourite places, mush them together into a rough list of “you need to be here on that day”, and use it as a rough guide. Or you take a pre-existing list and tweak it to suit your needs. Or you just go out slightly blind, yet open to new sensory experiences.
A friend was going to spend Chinese New Year week in KL, but when I asked them, “What would you like to see or do?” their answer was so broad it might as well have been “anything”.
I briefly considered the open-top bus that traverses the city, hitting all the major sights like Bukit Bintang, Twin Towers, and Petaling Street. While it pretty much covers everything in central KL, I felt it would be a fleeting overview I could cover from my car, while avoiding potential carbon monoxide poisoning.
Then if you delve into itineraries offered by tour groups, they will boast “City Tours with 21 Attractions” – and frankly, even as a local, I’d struggle to name 21 genuinely interesting places in KL.
The other thing was that I didn’t want this to be just a random checklist of landmarks. I wanted something that would tease, intrigue, and possibly excite. Could I weave an itinerary that would surprise and delight? What are the most interesting sights in KL?
One obvious approach is to trace KL’s history through its architecture. Start with Masjid Jamek, nestled between Petaling Street and Jalan Masjid India, showcasing the muddy confluence of two rivers and a melting pot of cultures. It’s where Yap Ah Loy established his influence and the city took root.
From there, you could stop at the magnificent Sultan Abdul Samad building and Dataran Merdeka before heading to Ampang, now the site of the Kuala Lumpur City Centre, where tin mines of the past gave way to a modern kind of wealth. The architecture tells its own story, evolving yet maintaining a distinctly Malaysian identity.
Interesting, but possibly only if you are a fan of history and architecture. There’s a lot of ground to cover, coupled with a bit too much neck craning.
Then I thought about highlighting food. KL’s food scene is a mirror of its multicultural identity. There’s the distinct heritage of each community – Malay, Chinese, Indian – and also their beautiful overlaps. Then there are unique hybrids like nonya laksa, which marries Malay and Chinese flavours, or murtabak, an Indian-Muslim creation enjoyed by everyone. Heritage and good eating together – it’s a feast not just for the stomach but also for the soul.
Or perhaps I should showcase KL as a modern, bustling metropolis. The various towers shimmer as they scrape the clouds, particularly stunning in the early morning light. The public transport system – the mix of LRT, MRT, and monorail – may not be perfect, but it’s efficient enough to explore much of the city.
And what’s fascinating is how seamlessly nature integrates into the urban fabric, with greenery spilling into the concrete jungle.
As I planned these itineraries, a realisation started to dawn on me: despite living in KL for more than half my life, there’s still so much I don’t know about this city. It’s a bit embarrassing, to be honest.
Take the MyCity Pass card for public transport, for instance. For years, I’d overlooked it, not realising that the RM6 one day, unlimited travel card actually saves money if your trip covers more than four or five stops. That’s a lot I could have saved over the last seven years since the card was first introduced.
Then there’s the MinNature Malaysia gallery in Bukit Bintang. I’d passed it countless times, even chatted briefly with one of its co-founders a few years ago. But until I needed to play tourist in my own city, I’d never gone in. And it’s incredible! So many iconic buildings that you can squint at from eye-level and peruse the details, along with detailed dioramas of local foods that could pretty much be a tour in its own right.
And later this week, I’m planning to climb Bukit Nanas Forest Reserve, from the base up to the summit of KL Tower. It’s mind-boggling that I’ve never done this, especially considering I spent years studying at St John’s Institution, a stone’s throw away if you have a really strong arm and a really small stone.
All of this makes me realise how much I’ve been overlooking in my own backyard. I’ve always been eager to travel and explore, but to my great shame, I’m reminded that I’ve barely scratched the surface of my own city.
And I haven’t even really delved into the culture available, less about what you see, more about what you do. We had to explain what “lepak” meant, this casual slouching that KL-ites do in their free time – while some would say such time could be filled more productively, I would answer that it’s very productive in its own way.
All this couched within random walks through the city as I myself was surprised by novelty and intrigue. I hope my guest forgives me for the lack of polish and proper organisation, but that’s kind of what KL is anyway.
It’s easy to dismiss what’s close to us. It’s not that we take it for granted, necessarily, but we rarely pause to look at it closely. Sometimes, it takes seeing our home through someone else’s eyes to truly appreciate its beauty.