Things to Do in Kuala Lumpur

Royal Selangor is one of the world’s largest pewter manufacturers, founded in 1885 by a young Chinese immigrant named Yong Koon. While it might not sound like a typical attraction, the Royal Selangor Pewter Factory and Visitor Centre offers fascinating insight into Malaysia’s cultural heritage through the lens of one of its most prominent crafts.

Guided tours through the facility educate visitors on tin mining, the properties of pewter and methods for transforming the resource into tools and gifts. An onsite pewter museum showcases Yong Koon’s original smithing tools and personal items, as well as some of his original pieces. The 18,000-square-foot (1,672-square-meter) retail space has thousands of Royal Selangor products for sale to take home as gifts or souvenirs. Visitors who want to better understand the process of manufacturing pewter can head to the visitor center, which offers two hands-on workshops, the 30-minute School of Hard Knocks.

Kuala Lumpur’s Central Market was established in 1888 as an open wet market for the local communities and ended up being so popular and conveniently located that it underwent several expansions and eventually moved into the Art-Deco structure it lives in today. The wet market moved out in the 1980s, but the Malaysian Heritage Society managed to save the original structure from demolition, instead renovating it into an arts center and heritage site.

Today, the beautifully restored building houses vendors selling handicrafts, souvenirs and artwork, as well as a batik emporium. The Annexe, located behind the main building, has gallery space for art exhibitions and film screenings, and a recently added covered pedestrian lane called Kasturi Walk lines the building’s exterior with even more kiosks and stalls to browse through. The Kasturi Walk is also a great place to sample some typical Malaysian street food as you shop.

An impressive six-tiered Chinese temple, Thean Hou Temple was opened in 1987 and is dedicated to Thean Hou, the heavenly mother.

It is the largest Chinese temple in Kuala Lumpur and sits atop Robson’s Hill 6 mi (8 km) from the city center offering excellent views back over the city. The prayer rooms are filled with bright golden statues and dedicated also to the Goddess of the Waterfront and the Buddhist Goddess of Mercy. Below the main prayer rooms are hawker stalls and souvenir stalls while outside there is a Chinese medicinal herbs garden and a tortoise pond. The celebrations at Chinese New Year are a riot of color and noise as revellers, wearing predominantly red (a lucky color), bang drums and clash symbols while watching the lions dance to ward off evil spirits.

The oldest mosque in Kuala Lumpur, Masjid Jamek, is also its most delightful. Large cream onion domes and red-and-white-striped minarets stand among a palm tree grove at the confluence of the Klang and Gombak Rivers. This was the site where Kuala Lumpur’s first settlers had their settlement.

It was built by the English architect Arthur Bennison Hubbock who was inspired by the Moorish style of Moghul mosques in India. It was opened in 1909. When visiting the mosque it is important to respect the rules of dressing, make sure your limbs are covered and women must wear a headscarf.

Malaysia’s National Museum (Muzium Negara), housed within a beautiful Minangkabau-style building in Kuala Lumpur, is one of the city’s best and an excellent place to learn about Malaysia’s long and rich multicultural heritage. Completed in 1961 and opened two years later, the museum takes visitors on a journey through time with beautifully curated displays divided into four themed galleries.

The Prehistory gallery displays stone tools and other Paleolithic artifacts dating back thousands of years, including the Perak Man, the oldest mostly intact human skeleton in Southeast Asia. The second gallery, The Malay Kingdoms, contains art and artifacts that trace the various people groups and kingdoms that once existed on the Malay Peninsula and in the Borneo Islands.

The colorful enclave of Little India is filled with the sounds and scents of India. Bright bangles and trinkets glitter from stalls and the scents of sandalwood and cumin fill the air. Fantastic Indian dishes are on offer at roadside stalls, Indian breads like chappati and prata and snacks like vadai and stringhoppers.

The sari shops are very popular with people looking to buy vibrant beautiful material and use the skilled tailors who work in this area. The Saturday night market is when this area is at its bustling best as vendors trade late into the night.

Bustling Petaling Street is the main thoroughfare of Kuala Lumpur’s Chinatown. The street is effectively one long market which specialises in counterfeit clothes, watches and shoes. It sets up mid-morning and is busy until almost dawn with locals and tourists haggling for cheap wares.

Look past the pirated goods stalls and you will see a heritage area of old Chinese shop houses selling spices and food stalls selling local dishes like Hainanese chicken rice and nasi lemak. The side streets leading from Petaling Street are where you will find wet markets and shops selling everything from spices to electronics to funereal wreaths. Other highlights of Chinatown besides shopping are the temples, some of the finest examples in Kuala Lumpur. There is the stunning Hindu temple Sri Mahamariamman and the two late 19th-Century Chinese temples Koon Yam and Chan See Shu Yuen.

Kuala Lumpur's Bird Park is the largest park of its type in the world with 20 acres (8.1 hectares) of free-flight aviary for the birds to enjoy. Around 3,000 birds live in the park from the small and vibrantly colored parrots to the impressive Indian Blue Peacock with its magnificent 5 foot (1.5 meter) long tail. Kids will love being able to feed the birds and the bird show at 12:30pm each day is a treat.

Aside from the free-flight aviary there is a special aviary for the parrots and for the fascinating oriental birds which features rare birds including the Greater Bird of Paradise and three special kinds of toucan. There is also the hornbill park and the flamingo pond where you can watch the gorgeous pink creatures patiently sunbathing standing on one leg.

The neighborhood known as Kuala Lumpur City Centre (KLCC) is quite literally the heart of the Malaysian capital and home to some of the country’s most recognizable landmarks, including the Petronas Twin Towers. A commercial development project that began in 1993 envisioned KLCC as “a city within a city,” one that would leave visitors to Kuala Lumpur feeling like they could quite comfortably never leave the area.

Besides housing myriad bars, restaurants and shops, Kuala Lumpur City Centre houses Suria KLCC, a massive six-floor shopping mall occupying the lower levels of the Petronas Twin Towers and filled with international retailers and an excellent supermarket. Those looking for a green escape from the bustle of Kuala Lumpur can find refuge in KLCC Park with its artificial lake, jogging paths, fountains and playgrounds. The neighborhood is also home to the beautiful and modern Assyakirin Mosque, set at the base of the world’s tallest twin towers.

Over 6,000 winged beauties live in the tropical rainforest surrounds of Kuala Lumpur's Butterfly Reserve. Wander along meandering paths as they flit and fly pausing occasionally to rest upon a lucky visitor.

Kids will love the chance to see the big and majestic Raja Brooke butterfly which is one of the special species in the reserve along with the Lime Butterfly and Malay Lacewing. Pick up a bag of feed at the counter so you can feed the koi that swim in the ponds. At the exit there is also an insect museum where you can marvel at Malaysia's giant centipedes and spiders.