KL hotspots

Blue mosque

Sultan-Salahuddin-Abdul-Aziz-Shah-Mosque, also called Blue Mosque owing to its blue dome, located in Shah Alam, is Malaysia’s largest and Southeast Asia’s second largest mosque. It has the distinction of having the largest religious dome in the world, it measures 51.2 m in diameter and reaches 106.7 m above ground level. The four minarets, each reaching 142.3 m above ground level are the 2nd tallest in the world, after being supplanted by the 210m minaret at the Hassan II Mosque in Casablanca in 1993.

In our opinion it is a must have on your visit list for a Malaysia trip. Our taxi driver dropped us at a side entrance of the building, so we could get in without being recognized by the security. It was prayer time and maybe we looked like some muslims, so we just walked in, leaving our shoes at the bottom of the stairs, apparently following the voice reading out of the Koran. So we had the possibility to explore the mosque by our own, taking some pictures inside the dome, which is strictly forbidden, even entering the dome for non-muslims. But the spectacular view and atmosphere was worth taking the risk, death penalty we think…

 




 

Chinatown

Right in the middle of KL, between MRT Sultan Sulaiman and Bus station Puduraya, the famous Petaling Street can be found. It is the main street of Chinatown, a very lively, colourful and busy part of KL. Sleepy at morning hours, the Petaling Street awakens in the afternoon hours with a mixture of crumbling shophouses, uncountable market stands on both sides and the middle of the street, selling all kind of stuff definitely not produced by the brand shown on the labels and it becomes the center of frenetic trading and haggling. The streets are transformed into an open-air market and food stalls are selling Chinese, Indian and Malay delicacies next to copy watches, leather bags and all kind of shirts and jerseys. By entering some of the small side streets of China Town you have the possibility to get an insight into the life beside tourism, with some curiosities in food and flavours, not every European nose used to e.g. slaughtered cats and giant frogs.

There are a lot of prominent Chinese temples in the Chinatown area. The elaborate Chan See Shu Yuen Temple, at the southernmost end of Petaling Street, was built in 1906 and has the typical paintings, woodcarvings and ceramic sculptures decorating the façade. It serves both as a place of worship and as a community centre.

Twin towers

Placed between several modern skyscrapers, the Petronas Twin Towers are the maybe best known symbols of Malaysia. At north of a park with little lakes, groups of trees and nice small pagodas where you have a great chance to enjoy the absolutely amazing view on the Towers, they can be seen from almost every location of the city. Two glancing and light blue to silver shining scepters rising out of KL. Really great experience especially at night.

Exploring KL

 

First of all we have to say that there are several ways to explore KL. There are two main railroads (KTM) leading through KL, one beginning at port Klang and ending at the Batu caves, the other connecting the two airports of Kuala Lumpur, KLIA(Kuala Lumpur International Airport) and Abdul Shah Aziz airport, located in Subang Jaya. A Monorail (MRT) connects S-shaped almost all hotspots in KL-city and bus stations are to be found at nearly every road in town. For all other places you want to visit or simply need to go there faster than with public transportation, there are uncountable taxis (teksi) spreaded all over the city with which it’s possible to reach even far distanced locations for a, compared to european standarts, moderate fare, provided that they drive with taxometer.

KTM

The railroad is a cheap alternative to driving by taxi for long distances. The fares for getting from Shah Alam (where our University UiTM is located) to Subang Jaya (where we live) is about 2 Ringgit per person, what is about 0,50€. The same distance (20km) by taxi normally costs about 25 Ringgit, even more during nighttime or when there’s a lot of traffic jam, which normally happens when we have to get to university.

The trains are usually heavy crowded, not as bad as it’s shown in some documentaries of indian trains (nobody is sitting on the roof), but sometimes there are real fights between passengers to get into the train. This may be increased by the extra coaches only for ladies, wich sometimes are very empty, but no man will ever dare going inside a ladies coach here. Purses and other important and valuable things should be stored in a trouser pocket in the front secured by putting the hands in it.

 

MRT

KL’s monorail is a nice way to travel, on one hand it’s also very cheap (RM1,10 for 3 stations), on the other hand you have a great view over KL’s hotspots like the twin towers or Chinatown out of it because the monorail was built up about 7-10 meters above the streets.

Bus

Travelling by bus is the cheapest way in whole Malaysia, not only in KL. There is a huge variety of busses offered and luxury goes from wooden benches up to single massage seats with flatscreens.

If you have enough time we will definitely recommend travelling by bus. In KL it is about RM1 to travel around and it seems more to be a contribution towards expenses than a fare.