A Malay village in central Kuala Lumpur

Between getting sick and some last minute work coming in, we didn't manage to do most of the things we had planned for Kuala Lumpur. We were holed up in our airbnb apartment for most of our 2-week stay (we did have an infinity pool on the 33rd floor though, so don't feel too sorry for us...). But we did get to know our surrounding area, Kampung Baru, pretty well.

Kampung Baru is a Malay area in central Kuala Lumpur that has maintained its village feel despite the rapid development of the rest of the city. Community elders have held out against pressure from developers and refused to sell the land so that they can preserve the traditional Malay way of life here.

The village is made up of colourful low-rise wooden houses, restaurants and little shops, set against a backdrop of sky scrapers (the blue one was our favourite!).

Walking around this area is a great change of pace from the rest of Kuala Lumpur, there are chickens freely roaming the streets, lots of open green spaces and children shouting 'hello' from their porches. It's hard to believe that the city centre is just a 10-minute walk away.

Kampung Baru is an area that not many tourists make it to, but it's such an interesting and friendly place, well worth an afternoon of exploring.

To learn more about Malay culture in Kuala Lumpur, read about the traditional cooking class we took the next day.