Museum sights in Kuala Lumpur
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A
Islamic Arts Museum
Containing one of the best collections of Islamic decorative arts in the world is KL’s outstanding Islamic Arts Museum. Aside from the quality of the exhibits, which include fabulous textiles, carpets, jewellery, calligraphy-inscribed pottery and an amazing reconstruction of an ornate Ottoman room, the building itself is a stunner, with beautifully decorated domes and glazed tilework. There’s a Lebanese restaurant offering a set lunch (RM43; closed Monday) and a well-stocked shop selling beautiful high-quality crafts products and art books.
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B
Lake Gardens Park
Just a few hundred metres from busy Chinatown, the urban landscape gives way to sculpted parks and dense tropical jungle. Covering 92 hectares, the Lake Gardens were created during the colonial era as an urban retreat where the British administrators could escape the hurly burly of downtown (as well as people of other races).
This park is pleasantly restful; it covers a huge area, planted with a variety of native plants, trees and shrubs - it's hard to believe that this calm open space exists just a few hundred metres from the main train station. In the middle is a huge children's adventure playground and nearby is the sprawling lake for which the gardens are named. You c…
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C
Royal Malaysia Police Museum
Between the Islamic Arts Museum and the Planetarium is the surprisingly interesting Royal Malaysia Police Museum. Inside you can see police uniforms and vehicles, a collection of old swords, cannons and kris, plus some sinister-looking handmade guns and knives seized from members of Malaysia's shady 'secret societies', responsible for most of the organised crime in Malaysia.
These forerunners to the modern-day Triads accumulated vast fortunes from smuggling and racketeering, carrying out robberies and assassinations, stage-managing strikes and riots, and pushing forward the political agenda of the Hokkien and Hakka communities. Their reach extended across Malaya and Singa…
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D
Badan Warisan Malaysia
Find out about the work of built heritage preservation society Badan Warisan Malaysia at its head office in a 1925 colonial bungalow in the shadow the Petronas Towers. The property’s grounds contain the Rumah Penghulu, a handsome example of a restored Malay-style wooden house from Kedah. Tours of the house are held at 11am and 3pm Monday to Saturday (suggested donation of RM5). The trust also holds exhibitions in the bungalow, where you’ll find a good bookshop and an excellent gift store stocking wooden antique furniture and local handcrafted items.
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E
National Museum
A major renovation and creation of an entirely new gallery has breathed new life into the National Museum, which is packed with interesting displays on Malaysia’s history, economy, arts, crafts and various cultures. It’s worth timing your visit to coincide with one of the free guided tours. The building has a distinctive Minangkabau-styled roof and two beautiful front murals made of Italian mosaic glass depicting Malaysian life. A walkway over the highway connects the museum with the southern stretch of the Lake Gardens.
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F
National History Museum
At the south end of the Merdeka Square is the National History Museum, which covers Malaysian history from prehistoric times to the present day. The building was constructed in 1888 and originally housed the first bank in Kuala Lumpur. Inside you can see relics and treasures from the various cultures that preceded the British colonial administration, including the Hindu and Buddhist kingdoms that existed here before the rise of Islam.
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G
Numismatic Museum
On the ground floor of the Menara Maybank, the Numismatic Museum has a small display of Malaysian coins and banknotes, including early Chinese 'coin trees'. While Europeans preferred to strike coins, the Chinese cast their coins in ceramic moulds, leaving a tree of washer-shaped coins attached to metal 'branches'. The coins were then snapped off and carried around looped on strings.
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H
Muzium Telekom
A few blocks north of the Numismatic Museum, in a striking colonial building housing the Telekom Malaysia office, the reasonably diverting Muzium Telekom has exhibits on the history of telecommunications in Malaysia, with an English or Bahasa commentary on old-fashioned phone handsets.
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I
National Planetarium
The quirky National Planetarium shows short generic international science films (RM1 to RM6) in the theatre at regular intervals throughout the day. It’s an interesting place to take children for a fun educational experience.
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Philately Museum
The philately museum is on the same level as the main entrance of Pos Malaysia.
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K
Petrosains
All the family will enjoy the interactive science discovery centre Petrosains.
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