Month: October 2009

My first visit to Labuan was in 1975 when I was a trainee at Gaya Teachers College in Kota Kinabalu. Together with my college mate, we fly on MAS Fokker Friendship F50 from Kota Kinabalu Airport to Labuan Airport. Labuan town was known as Victoria then. During that visit, I can still remember the we stop at a Malay barbershop at the roundabout on Jalan Merdeka, near the Labuan jetty now. The barber shop was owned by the father of our college friend who invited us to Labuan. The barber shop is no more at the location now but in its place is the Hong Leong Bank.

This picture below is the mentioned roundabout. Compare it with the Labuan Town map above. The barber shop I mentioned is somewhere near the tree on the left side of the photo. Of course the roundabout then was smaller than what can be seen today.

Another landmark that I can still remember is the Victoria Hotel. I am not sure whether it was the only hotel in the town then since we slept in our friends house. The hotel is depicted on the photo below.

In this posting, I am compiling all my blogs about my visit to Labuan. Just click on the links provided to read further.

The first time I visited Labuan after 1975 was in 2004. I was housed at the Sara Hotel at Jalan Dewan. The status is between luxury and budget and affordable to most people. One advantage of staying at Sara is the availability of a good Malay eating restaurant just next to the hotel. It is also just walking distance to the Ujana Kewangan the largest shopping complex on Labuan Island. The Labuan Tourism office and Labuan Museum is just 5 minutes walk away. Labuan library is also within walking distance. Round the corner is the nightspots for those who like to spend the night boozing.

In 2007 I came to Labuan again and stayed at the Labuan Waterfront. Read about my stay HERE.

One place that visitor must take the opportunity to visit is the chimney, a unique and historical landmark of Labuan. It is situated at Tanjung Krubong, Labuan. My journey with three other friends made a stop and it is my first visit to this landmark after a few visits to Labuan. The chimney is part of the effort to generate power using coal when the British was stay on the Island  in 1800s. The most visible sight of the chimney is it  is constructed using more than 34,000 blocks of red brick and was imported from England. 

This post might be out of the intention of this blog but generally can be considered as part of a travel through life. This posting is about the latest event to engrave the name of our pride and queen in sports. Whenever we talk about sports the general public will take football into account and we are ranked 6th among South East Asian countries. Sports is not about solitary game. Sports is varied and people get involve in sports based on different reasons. Maybe Malaysian football is not where it is supposed to be but Malaysian excel in other sports such as tenpin bowling, lawn bowl, badminton, cycling, archery and squash to name some.

Of the mentioned sports Malaysia area among the top nations in the world and we are also proud to be honoured with international sporting events where Kuala Lumpur being host city.

Being the capital of Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur has for years being selected as the venue for SEAP Games and then SEA Games. Kuala Lumpur has hosted 5 SEA Games 1965, 1971,1977, 1989,2001 and the next will be in 2015. During the 2001 SEA Games for the first time in history, Kuala Lumpur witness the Malaysian contingent emerged as the  overall champion collecting 111 Gold Medals. It was an honour and great achievement for Malaysia.

However the name Kuala Lumpur became more widely known to the world after hosting the Kuala Lumpur 98 Commonwealth Games in 1998 and being honoured as the best ever games organised. The KL98 Commonwealth Games too saw the best ever performance for Malaysian athletes bagging 10 Gold medals.

In 2006 Kuala Lumpur again was host to the FESPIC Games KL06.

Honour for Kuala Lumpur does not stop there. The National Sports Complex at Bukit Jalil see non ending acvitivites of variety of events. Eventhough its a sports complex but the door is open to non sports oriented activities. Concerts, Automobile Expos, Religious gatherings to business related functions show  the way that sports is not a close door activity.

Bukit Jalil is located about 25 km away from the city centre and can be reached by the Kuala Lumpur Seremban Highway or using the LRT and disembark at the Bukit Jalil Station. The nearest town is Bandar Baru Seri Petaling, Puchong and Bandar Kinrara. Not far from the Sports Complex is the Selangor Turf Club.

Ministry of Youth and Sports too who oversees the Sports Complex dedicated a square to youth activities. The square next to the Bukit Jalil LRT station will be a hive of activites for youths on Saturdays and Sundays with pre arranged programs. Futsal, Basketball, Rollerskating and skate boarding, shuffling, paintball, karaoke etc. were organised.

Automobile show

Youth fitness activities

Program for youth- shuffle

The latest development happening at the National Sports complex is naming the main squash court after Malaysian squash queen Nicol David and the official opening of the Nicol David Gallery at the National Squash Centre.

What is in the pipeline for Bukit Jalil? To turn it into a Sports City.

The tittle is literally translated from Bahasa Melayu, the official languange and mostly spoken in Malaysia, Jalan Jalan Kuala Lumpur. I am making this tittle as a series of blog post to enter the Blog4FT blog writing contest.

Kuala Lumpur has lots of thing to be presented to to locals and visitors alike and by being a guest to Kuala Lumpur means one can taste the Truly Malaysia experience because all is there in Kuala Lumpur.

Today I start my walk and my plan is to write about the birth of Kuala Lumpur. The journey begin and I left house at 2.30 after the zohor prayer. As usual I will take the LRT since it is the best option to travel into Kuala Lumpur from my place instead of driving and I can disembark at the Mesjid Jamek station. It is the nearest station to where Kuala Lumpur was born in 1857. The confluence of Sungai Gombak and Sungai Kelang. A LRT ride from Bukit Jalil station is RM1.90 for a single journey. Taking the LRT is a sure way to reach your destination on time irrespective of the traffic condition on the roads of Kuala Lumpur. From Bukit Jalil to Mesjid Jamek takes about 25-30 minutes.

As soon as leaving the station walk towards Jalan Mesjid India or popularly known as Little India. This is a place where KLites use to congregate especially during the month of Ramadhan to buy textiles for their baju kurungs. There are concentrations of shops selling varieties of baju kurung cloth and shoppers are usually lost of choice. At Mesjid India too there are shops belonging mostly Malays at the bazar where they sell Baju Melayu, the Malay traditional dress. I think I am not exagerating if I were to compare this area as the textile district in Los Angeles city, USA. This is because for Malays specifically, it is here to go and shop for clothes. Jalan Mesjid India is a more specific place to shop for Malays and Indians preparing for their religuous festivals. The existence of Indian shops within the vicinity is what attracts Indian shoppers to this area. The same goes for Malays with the present of shops selling textiles for tratitional baju kurungs.

Went to Affin Bank to withdraw some some money to pay my credit card and some money to spend while going on my journey. As I walk along Jalan Mesjid India took some photos. This area will be crowded with shoppers during festive shopping especially during the holy month of Ramadhan and before Deepavali.

Running parallel to Jalan Mesjid India is the famous Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman. It was one of the oldest main road in Kuala Lumpur city and was and still a popular shopping destination. Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman witness the growth of Kuala Lumpur with large individually owned shops some in pre-war era buildings such as the Kowloon Hotel and among the names popular are Globe Silk Store, Kamdar, GS Gill, Tang Ling etc. Stores along Jalan tunku Abdul Rahman still attract consumers because of the reasonable price offered and can be considered a budget concious shoppers paradise as compared to higher ends shopping complexes. More reference to Jalan Tunku Abdul Rahman.

One of the pre-war building that remains in Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman is the Colesium Theatre. It has been preserved and still screen mostly Indian movies.

Next to the building is the Tunku Abdul Rahman Square that house the KL Information Centre and what else…………………………….to satisfy the call of nature.

TO Be Continued…………… Coming Next Dataran Merdeka