Jalan Raja Chulan 2

An old bungalow still survives (except that it may not be a residence anymore) when all around are high-rise.

This piece of land seems to be clear of undergrowth. Is some building being planned here?

You can enter the Bukit Nanas Forest Reserve from here.

There used to be a cable car service which would take you above the forest. It's a long while since its been discontinued.

The St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church.

The Bursa KL (KL Stock Exchange) building.

Telecoms Malaysia (now TM)'s building. It used to be the head office before they moved to the Pantai area.

Another TM building.

The telecommunications museum.

Another TM building. This and the earlier building probably contains the 'exchange' equipment.

One of the office blocks in the area.

The pigeons were on some sort of mating ritual.

There is a large pigeon population between the Masjid India and the Court Hill Temple areas. Some people belief that feeding these birds add to their merits in this life.

Jalan Raja Chulan

Jalan Sultan continues until Jalan Imbi and now joins with Jalan Tun Razak. However we'll just turn off to Jalan Raja Chulan and walk to Jalan Pudu.

Istana Hotel.

Istana is Malay for palace. We used to have fun with the confusion it caused when this hotel first opened.

Wisma Lim Foo Yong.

One of the earlier high-rise buildings along this road. The ground floor used to be occupied by the Fitzpatrick's Supermarket.

Menara Affin. This is where I work.

The Weld.

It is now owned by Great Eastern Insurance. Up to the early 1980's this used to be the location of Weld Supermarket, the premier Supermarket in KL operating from a 2-storey building. Cold Storage and Giant supermarkets have had an outlet here at different times but closed due to poor support.

The KL Tower, towering above the rain forest.

An old government building. I'm not sure what it's used for these days.

This row of run-down houses used to be known as the Eurasian Row during it's heydays.

Jalan Sultan Ismail 2

The Concorde Kuala Lumpur.

This was the Kuala Lumpur Merlin. There used to be a bowling centre here, the Star Bowl, where I first learned to bowl. We had to keep score manually on pre-printed score sheets provided by the centre.

Hard Rock Cafe Kuala Lumpur.

This lot that looks like an abandoned used car lot has the address as No. 1, Jalan Sultan Ismail and was where the Elvis Presley fan club was located.

Menara Haw Par.

Founded by brothers Au Boon Haw (gentle tiger) and Au Boon Par (gentle leopard), Haw Par is famous for it's Tiger Balm. Refer to www.hawpar.com for information.


Shangri La Kuala Lumpur.

Menara Hap Seng along Jalan P. Ramlee.

Formely Jalan Parry, its been renamed after Tan Sri P. Ramlee (born Teuku Zakaria bin Teuku Nyak Puteh) Malaysia's legendary actor, director, singer and song writer.

Menara Hap Seng was formerly MUI Plaza and before that Oriental Plaza. This is where my office was when I first joined Affinbank, then known as Perwira Habib Bank.

Due to the large number of Arab tourists, road signs now contain Arabic.

Life Centre, one of the early entertainment outlets in the area.

An old bungalow house on the hill which has been converted to a pub/restaurant and has seen a number of change in management.

Menara MBf, formerly Wisma SPK.

SPK or Syarikat Permodalan Kebangsaan was a shareholder of Perwira Affin Bank and the bank's head office was in this building before moving to Menara Affin along Jalan Raja Chulan.

Hotel Equatorial next door, one of the landmarks along this stretch.

The MAS Building and Menara Dion on the oppersite side of the road.

The Crown Plaza Hotel. Originally this was the KL Hilton.

Wisma Genting.

The Lodge, one of the early hotels in the area.

The restaurant management has passed to the family of a former collegue of mine. The food is good and the price is reasonable.

A long time ago this place was famous for its Teo Chew Porridge and was a popular haunt of late nite pub crawlers.

Jalan Sultan Ismail

The Bank Islam building. Bank Islam Malaysia Berhad was the first Islamic Bank in the country.

When Bank Islam was incorporated in the 1980's it enjoyed a 10 year monopoly to allow it to establish itself. It was only after the 10 years that other banks were allowed to operate Islamic windows. These days most banks Islamic operations are through Islamic Banking subsidiaries.

This stretch of Jalan Sultan Ismail, from Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman till Jalan Ampang was non-existant in the 1960's. From Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman till Jalan Raja Laut and further, it was known as Broadrick Road. From Jalan Ampang till Jalan Imbi, it was Treacher Road.

SME Bank set up to assist small and medium enterprises.

SME Bank is a subsidiary of Bank Pembangunan, our industrial development bank.

University Kuala Lumpur's city campus.

The campus building is part of the larger 'Vision City' complex.

A large part of the complex is abandoned, awaiting confirmed buyers before construction is resumed.

This reminds me of the time in the early 1970's when this stretch was completed, it cut through an urban pioneer (a.k.a. squatter) settlement. When KL played host to the PATA (Pacific Area Travel Association) conference, both sides of this stretch was boarded up to prevent delegates to the conference from seeing 'the other side' of KL when passing this road.

The Menara DBKL 3 is sanwitched between the University and Bank Pembangunan buildings.

As you may recall the Menara DBKL 1 and 2 are in Jalan Raja Laut.


Some 'kampung' style wooden houses of Kampung Baru seen from Jalan Sultan Ismail.

What was to have been the Grand Hyatt Kuala Lumpur, still abandoned since the Asian Financial Crisis of 1997.

Renaissance Kuala Lumpur Hotel.

The KL Tower, raising majesticly atop the Bukit Nanas Forest Reserve.

Wariseni along Jalan Ampang. It lies on the pathway that connects the Bukit Nanas Monorail station to the Dang Wangi Kelana Jaya Line station.

A 'wakaf' or rest area at Wariseni.

An information map of the Bukit Nanas Forest Reserve.

I must admit that in all my life as a resident of KL, I have never ventured into the forest reserve. It is now one of the things included in my to-do list for this year.

Kota Raya and surroundings

This is the famous landmark - Kota Raya complex.

In the 1960's this area was only known as Foch Avenue with the Sri Jaya bus terminal on the opposite side of the road.

This building adjoining Kota Raya complex used to be The place to get cheap decorative accessories.

An old building along the street.

Although the Sri Jaya Transport Company doesn't exist anymore, buses still stop here and at certain times of the day the traffic is reduced to a crawl due to the buses taking up all lanes.

This was the site of food stalls serving the nearby Jalan Sultan Railway Station that used to exist before Pudu Raya was built.

The ice-kacang (multi flavoured syrup on shaved ice with peanuts and other condiments) here was excellent.


The stair way leading to the Weslley Church and Methodist Boys School.

This was our short-cut to the Stadium Merdeka and Stadium Negara.

Pudu Raya bus and taxi terminal.

Menara Maybank on top of Court Hill.

Cahaya Surya building.

The government dentist has been one of the original tenants here.

Mydin's at Sinar Kota.