Selected Highlights of Mid-Semester Holiday Escape Down Under to KL: Discovering Metropolis.

Alt title: A Different Sights and Sounds of Greater Kuala Lumpur. By the way for those who couldn't be bothered about my rambling thought, go to my Facebook profile to browse through all the photo albums arranged chronologically of all the things that tickled my fancy about KL.

Prologue: Crap, 2012 is coming to an end is less than a month.

Sultan Abdul Samad Building Clock Tower. 

Being a bustling conurbation of 7.2 million people, Greater Kuala Lumpur is teeming with shopping malls fulfilling the ever growing spending power of consumer not just for daily needs but as well for their insatiable desire for material gratification. Thus, shopping malls mushrooming across the ever expanding metropolis has become focal point for people to congregate, hang out and spend time with eachother by having a cuppa at upmarket cafe, perusing the latest merchandizes in shiny outlets, trying out fashion items in the season, twiddling with new gadgets while the trailing salesperson ever so keen to reach their sales target of the month keeps on pitching their latest and/or the best (note: expensive) product for you.

Due to its strategic location on my part with bus connecting directly from my family apartment, Midvalley Megamall and The Gardens has become the most frequent hangout place during my one week down under. It's also at The Gardens that I got to hang out with my SISTAHs KL Chapter namely Ah Pheng and ZZChuah spending one whole Sunday (11 Nov) evening at Papparich catching up with each other and talking about every little thing on the surface of the earth from career to love life and travels.

From all KLCC to Bukit Bintang: an evening with Tauke Owen Lim on Wednesday 14 Nov 2012. Meeting up KLCC while checking out Kinokuniya, walked all the way to Bukit Bintang via the pedestrian skyway, lunch at Sushi Zanmai, Fahrenheit88, marched over to Debenham at Starhill while guffawed at the ridiculously opulent renovated interior complete with chandeliers and RED escalators,  desserts at Pavillion (more on that later), went back to KLCC again for a reasonable dinner before wrapping up the day checking out Lowyat Plaza, the epicenter for all things electronic. It has been forever the last time I got to hang out with Tauke Owen (especially since I am actively avoiding KL.) and I wonder when will be the next time we got to meet up again.

A new addition to mall exploration: 1Utama at Damansara including an interesting visit to Candylicious, a Willy-Wonka-esque outlet with everything sweets that's imaginable lining the walls and shelves. One other mall that's not included in this collage during our dayout on 16 Nov (Friday) is Amcorp Mall which is a rather quaint mall compared to all the larger newcomers but has BookXcess in which you can buy imported books and such with vastly discounted price!

However, I can't help to feel that behind the glass facade and towering atrium is something incredibly hollow and shallow. Anything else after fulfilling your material gratification? Is this what KL is all about, hanging around shopping mall? This is why I am keen to discover more about Kuala Lumpur beyond material gratification for sights, sounds and senses that more fulfilling through out my one week escape down under.

The one place that I found incredibly loathsome, ubiquitous and tasteless (despite being touted as must visit) is Petaling Street, quintessential tourist trap lined with dubious stalls selling counterfeit watches and handbag, mostly manned by immigrants (who cares if they can speak Cantonese?!). Sure, there might be sights of local fares if you searched hard enough (like the fish porridge or the Chinese temple. I've been there before the last time I was "kidnapped" down under.) but dodging shoulder to crowd shoulder on dirty pavement while being mindful of pickpockets is not what I want for an enlightening discovery. With the ugly pedestrian roof blocking sunlight and view, any old  post-colonial shoplots around the area suddenly became uninspiring or even ugly.

Only when I marched over to Medan Pasar and environ that I can find relatively unadulterated architectural gem especially all those Art Deco building of the 1930s with some of them renovated in the 70's into Modernist design usually owned by banks reflecting the area's original role (and at certain extent, still is though most banking corporation do have glitzier towers as headquarter) as the financial heart of Kuala Lumpur. Medan Pasar currently undergoes renovation so I wonder how will it turn out to be a year or two later.

Anyway, I spent a decent amount of time on 14 & 15 Nov (Wednesday and Thursday) frolicking about the heritage core of Kuala Lumpur both night (14 Nov, together with Tauke Owen immediately after we're done with Bukit Bintang at night) and day (15 Nov, this time alone after excursion to the other end of Klang Valley to find another acquaintance of mine.) so here's a night-day comparison of (from left) Sultan Abdul Samad Building, Victoria Fountain (looks like Queen Victoria got herself quite a lot of fountains across British Empire during her Diamond Jubilee), Masjid Jamek in the middle of Klang River-Gombak River confluence and last but not least, Pasar Seni/Central Market. 

There are a host of other colonial era's buildings around Dataran Merdeka mostly in Moorish design (top left and center, bottom right) together with Sultan Abdul Samad Building but other style of design are featured as well such as the Tudor styling of Royal Selangor Club (top right) as well as Gothic style of St. Mary Cathedral. Merdeka Square serves as  the only sizable green patches of wide open space in the metropolis of glass and steel skyscraper including one that's adorned with a gigantic inflatable Octo of CIMB Bank at the lower right and another rather curvaceous looking tower coming up soon (top right).

One particular highlight for Dataran Merdeka I would say is Kuala Lumpur City Gallery and not just because it's free! Coming from Kuching in which museums are mostly free of charge, I am still puzzled why a lot of museum in West Malaysia (regardless of Penang or Kuala Lumpur) charge entrance fee for visitor. Imagine my surprise of finding something that is both enlightening and free!

Housed in a government printing house with ample amount of space for exhibition, a section of the ground floor is devoted to the history of Kuala Lumpur as well as heritage sites around Padang Merdeka and environs, complete with looping archive documentary about Tunku Abdul Rahman and the struggle for Merdeka/Malaya's independence. 

The 2nd floor features Discover the City Diorama which is a combination of promotional/informational video presentation about Kuala Lumpur and a large, flickering and shiny 3D model of Kuala Lumpur.

On the ground floor right before the exit, there's a massive space devoted to specialty woodcraft souvenirs. Turns out that KL City Gallery is the idea of a large arts and craft company which in my opinion, corporate involvement in museum done smart.

Of course being KL City Gallery, Kuala Lumpur manifest itself in various forms and sizes ranging from ceiling light, benches and an 800kg heavy I *heart* KL right outside the gallery for visitors to camwhore.

On Friday 16 Nov with the help of a local guide in the form of Tate's coursemate, we venture further into the hidden hinterland of Kuala Lumpur...

To be precised, the urban forest of Taman Tasik Perdana. We started our journey from Pasar Seni LRT Station, walked across the pedestrian bridge to KTM station and walk a little bit more before reaching National Mosque (left). There are other sights dotted around the massive park (signboard, 2nd from left. Most of it requires entrance fee unfortunately) but one particular intriguing "sight" I would say is Bukit Aman, Polis Diraja Malaysia's headquarter occupying a sizable corner of Taman Tasik Perdana and now with an addition of gleaming skyscrapers as office building (3rd from the left). I wonder what espionage and CSI is going on inside building...or how the public's tax money is spent. At a far corner (but usually inaccessible by public) is the modernist 1960's Parliament of Malaysia Building. 

Some where right the middle of Taman Tasik Perdana on top of a hill is Tugu Negara or National Monument, commemorating all fallen soldiers during WWII and Communist Insurgency. The monument compound actually consist of two parts: the front part (1st and 2nd from left) is the post-Merdeka (1966 by Felix de Weldon) creation featuring the heroic imagery of soldiers raising the Malaysian flag despite many of his comrades has fallen. Curiously enough though, the coat of arm featured at the base of the post-Merdeka monument is actually of Malaya (i.e. without Sabah, Sarawak and Singapore and still features billingual motto of Bersatu Bertambah Mutu (in Jawi)/Unity is Strength.) despite the fact that Malaysia has already been formed for three years by the time the monument is completed. No effort to amend it either I suppose. The back part (3rd from left) is a pre-Independence cenotaph commemorating the fallen soldiers of WWI, WWII and Communist Insurgency with emphasis on WWI soldiers of Federated Malay States fighting for the British Empire complete with four  bronze plaque listing down all the names of fallen soldiers on all four faces of the cenotaph. It's also the one with poppy wreath laid down by visitors. In between the two monuments is a pavillion with its ceiling adorned with all the insignia of armed regiments/battalion/troops from Malaysia, Britain and Commonwealth that saw battle in WWI. WWII or Communist Insurgency.

Taman Tasik Perdana itself. (1st from left): an encounter with an unfamiliar word. According to PRPM, siarkaki is actually an old Malay coinage for pedestrian path/sidewalk. It made me wonder though, how many coined Malay words has actually fallen into disuse because lack of effort by Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka while those language vanguards keep on  moaning and harping about the state of our national language. 2nd from left: a barrier with a story. According to my local guide, it was actually made of wooden sleeper from dismantled railway lines. At least it's a new lease of life rather than being chucked away. 3rd and 4th from left: a long walk in the park. After our time at Tugu Negara, we continued walking about to another end of Taman Tasik Negara....

...reaching National Museum/Muzium Negara. Turns out there's another way to go to Muzium Negara, located at the most nonstrategic of all places being surrounded by highways. I didn't enter it either because I need to pay for it so we hang around museum compound for its outdoor exhibition. Nationalism in post-colonial countries means that any connection to the former colonial master must be diminished...hence the bust of King Edward VII (2nd from right) and Statue of Frank Swettenham (right) being nestled in between tent for exotic animals and trees, unattended and forgotten.

The oversize outdoor exhibits featuring vintage fire engines and locomotives is much more interesting for a rail fan like me. Unfortunately however at this point of time, a part of the museum compound is under renovation especially with MRT KL Sentral Station in construction encroaching the compound.

...which also means that Muzium Negara is at the corner of the massive KL Sentral. Walking from Muzium Negara to KL Sentral however is a challenge with a inconspicuous pathway right beside a six lane highway leading up to an on ramp which then the pathway disappear and one has to go resort to walking along the yellow line in order to reach the entrance safely. Rested for a while with soft drink machine that sells RM1 Pepsi and mozzarella cheese finger from Burger King which is located right in front of KLIA Transit ticket counter (top right). Turns out KLIA Transit wants its share of pie on the LCCT passenger business (competing with the shuttle bus service departing from KL Sentral) by offering a combined KLIA Transit and Shuttle Bus service from Nilai. After catching a breather, we went off to Taman Jaya via Kelana Jaya Line LRT for lunch at Amcorp Mall (more on that later). Went past a few other architectural sights such as Telekom Tower (lower right) and Angkasapuri of RTM headquarters.

That's all for sights and sounds of Kuala Lumpur. Stay tuned for one more post about my time in KL!