Day 2: KL Evening by Simi
16. juli, Malaysia ⋅ ☁️ 32 °C
We walked along to the River of Life.
It is a major urban waterfront regeneration project located at the historic confluence of the Klang and Gombak Rivers—the exact birthplace of Kuala Lumpur. It’s a bit of a weird place if I’m honest but maybe in the next few years there will be more stuff going on but currently with its neon lights highlighting the dirty river and banks and lack of maintenance .
We went via the Rover of Life to go to the Dataran Merdeka (Merdeka Square) is named after the independence proclamation of Malaya (later Malaysia). It was here, at midnight on 31 August 1957, that the Union Jack was lowered and the Malayan flag hoisted for the first time, signifying the end of British colonial rule of the peninsula. This iconic public square features a massive 95-meter flagpole—one of the tallest in the world—and a pristine green lawn surrounded by striking colonial-era architecture.
The most obvious landmarks in Dataran Merdeka are the British colonial buildings who had centred their government administration around a cricket lawn. And that’s basically what Dataran Merdeka was: the field, or padang, of the Selangor Club just opposite the Government Offices. The British architects at the time drew heavily from architecture in British India and other colonial territories of similar climate. The result is an interesting and uniquely colonial style, which gives Dataran Merdeka its iconic look.
The centuries-old colonial buildings, minarets, spires and arches of the area are a stunning reminder of the past and in great contrast to the modern skyline that people generally associate with Kuala Lumpur.
That brings me nicely to just mentioning the towers here in KL. We caught glimpses of them all whilst walking in the city but didn’t get a photo with all the skyline.
Kuala Lumpur is famous for its soaring skyline, anchored by the iconic Petronas Twin Towers, the panoramic KL Tower, and the new megatall Merdeka 118. In actually fact there is something that is dubbed
as the Super 4 and we aren’t talking about a marvel movie .
The Super 4 of Kuala Lumpur are Merdeka 118, Exchange 106 @ TRX, Petronas Twin Towers and the Kuala Lumpur Tower, which you can see in the photo here on the blog.. not taken by us sadly .
Merdeka 118 – Formerly, this megastructure went through three different names, Menara Warisan Merdeka, KL 118 and PNB 118; it is now finally called Merdeka 118 and is a 118-story mega-tall skyscraper in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. At 678.9 m tall, it is the second-tallest building and structure in the world. (as of Oct 2023)
Exchange 106 – This skyscraper was formerly known as the Signature Tower and is a 453.6-meter-tall supertall skyscraper in the TRX area of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. It is Malaysia’s second-tallest building and Southeast Asia’s third-tallest building.
The Petronas Twin Towers – This interlinked pair of 88-storey supertall skyscrapers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, stands at 451.9 metres (1,483 feet). From 1998 to 2004, they were officially designated as the tallest buildings in the world until they were surpassed by the completion of the Taipei 101 in 2004.
Kuala Lumpur Tower – Often referred to as KL Tower, this is a 6-storey, 421-metre-tall (1,381 ft) telecommunication tower in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. It is the world’s seventh-tallest tower and Malaysia and Southeast Asia’s second-tallest tower, and was completed in 1994 and was the only one here on Matt and my last visit to KL in 1997!
Anyway back to our day. As we hadn’t got enough time for Batu caves we headed towards a beautiful Indian temple.The Sri Maha Mariamman Temple is the oldest functioning Hindu temple in Kuala Lumpur. It is famous for its towering 22.9-meter raja gopuram (entrance tower) adorned with intricate sculptures of Hindu deities.
From there we grabbed our first “grab “ as we were getting a bit tired. Grab is Asia’s equivalent to our uber so mega efficient and cheap and headed to the Pavillion shopping centre- a rather bougie high-end shopping mall. From there you can walk to the KLCC park where you get a great view of the Petronas towers as well as a sound and light show using the fountains in the park. The towers were impressive and changed colour whilst we were there . The fountains with the music was all a bit cheesy but still a nice place to rest our weary feet and watch all the people posing for their perfect shot whether it was with their hats / bags/ cocked faces / bodies in weird positions . We grabbed food from the Mall and headed back home . It was about 11 by the time we got back and England would be playing in the semifinals vs Argentina at 3am! Who was going to get up for it ?Læs mere