What are you looking for when you first arrive in a new country?
Me: MAP! – Free map!
Most country provides map for tourists. Some of them are free, some need to be bought. Malaysia gives free map. You can get it at the airport or, in some cases, at the hotel. Years ago when I first arrived in Malaysia, I took the free map but never really used it. Now I have the chance to actually look at the free map I took from the hotel and plan my city walking tour! 😀
Looking at the map, there are 5 walking tour routes provided. I checked the destination and decided to do either Route 1 or Route 3 of the walking tour. Route 1 will take you around Chinatown and Route 3 attracts me mainly because it starts from Perdana Botanical Garden. Hihihi. Give me a (beautiful) garden and I’d easily be happy. 😀
Chat with two Malaysian Bloggers (who, I was sure, never go on a walking tour in their own city); I invited them to join me and they said okay. We met at Maharajalela Station and started the walking tour from there. First stop was Guan Yin Temple. That temple is uberclose to the station, we only needed to take the stairs down from the monorail platform, turned around and tadaaaa! Arrived! Hihi. It applies free entrance and although it’s just a small one-room temple, but it’s still in a good condition and somehow, very photogenic. After that temple, we crossed the street to find a majestic clan house named Chan See Shue Yen. This house is big and colorful but sadly, when we arrived, it was under construction and there were many cars parked right in front of its beautiful gate so, kinda awkward to really enjoy looking around. Finished fast, we walked again following the map to find an old tea house.
The Old Tea House turns out to be very nice inside. It gives a great strong ambiance of old China like the one in the kung fu movie! Checking the price, I wanted to go inside but Madi and Moka, my two sweet friends, looked rather doubt. I asked why and Madi pointed the words ‘Non-Halal’ in the menu list. I told him I just wanted to taste the tea and he still looked hesitate. But of course we ended up going inside. Me tasting the tea and both Madi and Moka had Coca Cola. 😀
After the old tea house, we walked towards Petaling Street‘s big fancy gate. Made a few stop on some shops I bought two belts and some knicknacks you don’t want to know and turned left before the gate then turned right at the big street after Pacific Hotel to find Sri Maha Mariamman Temple. Looking at this temple somehow reminds me of a temple in Singapore. I think it is of the same name too. The gopuram (tower) is so tall and meticulously decorated with Gods sculptures. We didn’t go inside but I managed to get a good snap of a prayer who just went out. He posed for me. Hollah! 😀
Not far from Sri Maha Mariamman Temple, we found Guan Di Temple which turned out to be one of the oldest temple in Malaysia. Finished at Tun HS Lee street, we strolled again to find a living heritage – Old Indian Style Barber Shop. Funny thing is, we walked past that barber shop and didn’t manage to find it the first time, so we walked and walked again in confusion (and found Sze Ya Temple, passed Kasturi Walk and Dutch Patrician Style Shophouses on the way) and I was so keen to find that barbershop we went around one big block to find out that we passed the barber shop already! Hahaha. WT*!
Feeling so hungry and a bit cranky because of the super hot weather, we cut the walking tour route and went straight to Petaling Street bazaar where we saw something new like the chestnut roasting. We even got free samples we couldn’t turned off! Hihihi.
Passing the famous Petaling Street without buying anything, I certainly pat my back and agreed to give some appreciation by buying something later. (I know, smart, aye!) 😀
Finishing the first Kuala Lumpur Walking Tour route in just several hours, we decided to continue with the second route. I will write the story about it in another post.
Doing walking tour always makes me happy. It is cheap yet so enriching and so easy to do! The only will to own is just to walk!
Smile! 🙂
Have you ever done any walking tour, UberFriends?
Have you ever done any walking tour, UberFriends? …… yes i have!! when busway lama tak datang datang 😀 tapi gak jadi,karna trotoarnya banyak tukang pecel lele dan motor yg nyerobot.if you know what i mean…. 😀
btw nice experience and nice shoot mba uber moon *thumbs up*
Hahaha Ubay ih! Pagi-pagi aku ngakak baca komen kamu.
I visited Kuala Lumpur last year. In fact, I stayed in a hostel close to Maharajalela station. We went to Petronas tower, Chinatown, Batu Cave and of ocurse lots of food at Jalan Alor. We could have done more, we only stayed there for a couple of days before heading to Penang.
It was interesting to see 3 cultures (Malay, Chinese and Indian) living side by side.
True about the blending of 3 cultures! Come again and do the walking tour, you may see more than what I’ve written here. 😉
nanti kalo ke KL lagi, aku tahulah siapa yg bisa diajak berjalan kaki 😉
ME ME ME!! 😀