Jalan Bukit Bintang... eat, shop and stay awhile...

One of the most popular KFC restaurants is in Bukit Bintang. It operates 24 hours a day.
City Hall's (DBKL) mobile office is often parked outside the restaurant.
Across the road from the restaurant is the BB Plaza, one of the more popular shopping destinations in KL.
UDA (Urban Development Authority) building adjoins the BB Plaza Complex.
The Selangor Foundation building is next door at the corner. Maybank, the largest local bank has a branch here.
'The Ship' restaurant which advertises as serving the 'best steak in town' is along Bukit Bintang.

Next door to BB Plaza, along Jalan Sultan Ismail, is the Sungei Wang Plaza Complex.

When inside the building, the only way to know when you have left one complex and gone into the other, is to look at the floor - they are different, color and design.

Across the road (Jalan Sultan Ismail) from Sungei Wang is the Park Royal Hotel. This hotel started as the Regent Kuala Lumpur.

The Lot 10 complex is also here.

As mentioned in my earlier post, there are many Middle-Eastern restaurants here.

Here's another one...

... and another one.

The Grand Millennium, which was also at one time the Regent Kuala Lumpur.

Many buildings which started as office complexes have been converted to cater to the changing times.
The KL Plaza, a residential cum shopping complex. The shopping has all but stopped here due to the stiff competition of the neighboring complexes.

It houses the popular Planet Hollywood.

The Marriott at Star Hill.

The Star Hill has evolved to serve an exclusive niche clientele.

The grand entrance to the Marriott.

The Westin is next door.

Menara Keck Seng is next door. This building is host to the Singapore Visitors Centre.
The Pavilion, among the latest of the mega complexes in KL.

The Pavilion stands at the site of the BBGS (Bukit Bintang Girls School). It is said that former students of BBGS are not to visit this complex and are to spit at it when they pass this way.

The golden bull that stands outside the Pavilion at the junction of Jalan Bukit Bintang and Jalan Raja Culan. It was to commemorate the year of the bull.

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.