JUST TO SHARE (Lau Tai Onn): Half-day Downtown KL Tour on May 4, 2022

Inspired by a YouTube video by C Kology entitled “Chinatown Kuala Lumpur : The best 20 places your tour guide does not bring you (茨厂街吉隆坡 20 打卡处 ) “ https://youtu.be/dqncVEBpTuM received from a friend a week ago, I decided to make a half-day tour to Chinatown to visit a few of the places mentioned. I chose Wednesday, May 4, 2022 and later realized it was a mistake because it was a replacement public holiday for May 1 Labour Day and there were plenty of tourists this day.

My wife Soh Ai and I left home at 10.10am planning to take RapidKL Bus No. 590 straightaway to Hab Lebuh Pudu adajent to Chinatown. We saw the MRT Feeder Bus T453 approaching at 10.15am and didn’t wave to stop it and board. What a mistake we made as we waited until 11.00am and no RapidKL 590 came by at all.

At 11.00am, we took the MRT Feeder Bus T453 to Bukit Dukung MRT Station where we caught the MRT train in less than 5 minute upon reaching the station at 11.30am.

We arrived at Pasar Seni MRT Station at 12.00pm and began our tour of the city as follows:

1. Jalan Tun H.S. Lee - Guan Ti Temple Chinatown (关帝庙)/ Kwong Siew Association (广肇会馆) which is my clan association of which I am a life member.

2. Tian Jin Hotel 天井酒店 - Walked in to “look see look see”.

3. Jalan Sultan - REXKL. A nostalgic visit of the former REX Cinema where I watched many movies in the early days.

REXKL is now a community & cultural hub that occupies a historical site of one of the first theatres in the country before founded in 1947. After the first fire in 1972, Rex Cinema was rebuilt as a state of the art single-screen theatre with over a thousand seating capacity. In its heyday, the Shaw Brothers, and later on by Golden Screen Cinemas operated the theatre before another fire in 2002 that ended its glory days as a cinema. 17 years later, a group of creative entrepreneurs led by Shin Tseng and Shin Chang decided to re-activate this 60,000 sq.ft. building as part the mission to rejuvenate the forgotten part of KL by injecting new businesses, cultural agenda and creative programs into this otherwise dilapidated hidden gem.

REXKL features the city’s emerging craftsmen, restaurateurs and retailers, including Stellar Coffee, Lauk Pauk, Book Xcess, DH Paper Art, Outsider Bikes and etc. (Refer: https://www.rexkl.com/ ).

The most interesting facility is the unique BookXcess (Refer: https://www.thevibes.com/articles/culture/56137/bookxcess-rexkl-classic-cinema-reborn-as-a-bookstore-like-no-other). I have visited its branch in My Town Shopping Centre 2 days ago on Monday, May 2, 2022.

4. Fung Wong Biscuits - Walked in just to “look see look see”.

5. Nam Heong Chicken Rice - there were some diners when we first walked past. But by the time we wanted to patronize, the restaurant told us all food were sold out and they were about to close shop.

6. Jalan Petaling - One of my main objectives for the trip was to buy Duck Leg Wrap (鸭脚包) from Sze Ngan Chye Speciality Salty Duck (四眼仔咸鸭) but the stall was not open. The street was packed with tourists and very crowded.

1.50pm We took beef siloin wan tan mee (牛腩云吞面, RM10 each plate) and iced coffee (RM3/glass) at the coffee shop next to Kedai Kopi Lai Foong (丽丰茶餐室) amid large crowd of people.

We wanted to take RapidKL bus 590 at Hab Lebuh Pudu to return to Bandar Sungai Long, but after seeing the huge crowd of people especially foreign labourers, we decided to take MRT home. But I made a mistake in the direction and found some difficulty in walking to Pasar Seni MRT Station.

2.35pm Took MRT train from Pasar Seni and reached Bukit Dukung Station at 3.05pm.

3.30pm Feeder Bus T453 departed and we reached home at 3.40pm.