Sunday morning in the city
42 kilometres
That’s what I drove this morning from Taman Tun Dr Ismail into the city and back to my little place in Damansara Perdana.
It’s ages since I’ve been into the heart of Kuala Lumpur (Chinatown area) so this morning, finding myself bright eyed and alert at 9:30 a.m., I decided to lock por (Cantonese phrase for “going into town” ) and just drive around.
Oh, on the way, I went by my new office just to check out the parking situation so I know where to find parking when I eventually move there. So, from TTDI, I drove through the private KLGCC road to get to Jalan Damansara, past Medan Damansara and into a little known part of the Damansara area where I literally drove around the hub of shophouses and the new office building to look at where I could park during office hours.
Having found what I wanted to know, I went on my way, past Jalan Beringin and down Jalan Semantan to get into the city. At the bottom of the flyover joining Jalan Duta, a traffic policeman stopped the cars to let some runners pass. Runners could only mean one thing – marathon. True enough, later on, I saw messages on the overhead electronic sign boards (the ones positioned in the middle of roads for drivers to see) about road closures in various parts of the city between 4:00 a.m. and 11:00 a.m. due to the KL International Marathon.
Road closures?
Yup, and I encountered at least two during my drive into the city this morning.
At the far end of Jalan Duta, going up the flyover to get on Jalan Parliamen – that was closed. I ended up driving some road that I don’t know the name of except along the way, there was a turn-off that led into Jalan Bangsar (but heading out of the city, not where I want to go), and from there onto Brickfields and into the city. Yay!
In the city, I found myself with Central Market on my left, and for a moment, I debated whether to turn into the car park, leave my car there and walk around the Chinatown area. I decided not to, and carried on driving.
I was in the heart of the city, where the Sri Jaya buses used to terminate their run at Foch Avenue and take on a new load of passengers for the return journey out of the city. Even at that early hour, the city was already packed with cars on the road, and people on foot.
I kept to the left and followed the road onto Jalan Tun Perak (formerly known as Mountbatten Road). At a red light, I looked around and saw OCBC Bank on my right. This is where Robinsons used to be, I found myself thinking and took up my handphone to take a picture.
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Robinsons was the one and only department store in the city when I was growing up. It was where I used to hang out on Saturday mornings. In it was a music store (I think it was called Music City) where my friends would go to look for me if I wandered off from them while in Robinson’s. But I digress …
With the handphone in camera mode, I looked around me and took some shots of the scene right in front of my windscreen, including this one here:
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Overhead, an LRT line; behind it, a cluster of buildings, the tallest of which is the DBKL (or Dewan Bandaraya Kuala Lumpur, i.e., Kuala Lumpur City Hall); to the left, next to the traffic light, the beginning of the Court buildings.
I’d meant to turn left to find my way into the city again, but when the light turned green and the vehicles started moving, I found the road blocked for, you guessed it, the marathon runners.
So there was nothing to do but drive back to where I’d come from.
42 kilometres in less than two hours. A waste of petrol or time? Not at all. It helped me to get to know the various roads and to “own” my beloved city once again.
