The Streets Of The City

Getting out of your car and exploring a city’s streets on foot can reveal a great deal about the area. Photojournalist David Bowden puts on a comfy pair of shoes and strolls around three very different streets in Kuala Lumpur to learn their stories.

- David Bowden

Faith, commerce, and budget travel. If that sounds like a rather curious trinity, consider the three streets I explored in Kuala Lumpur – each focusing to some degree on one of those subjects. (Whether by accident or design is a different story, however.)

With a camera, a trusted pair of shoes, and a vigilant spirit – it is the inner city, after all – I found each of these three streets (one more a collection of streets than a single thoroughfare) to be remarkable and enjoyable to explore, each in a different way.

JALAN GEREJA

 This is possibly one of the shortest streets in Kuala Lumpur but a special one, especially for its Roman Catholic citizens and visitors, as it leads to the Church of St. John the Evangelist, Kuala Lumpur’s Roman Catholic Cathedral, and also the seat of the its Archbishop. Interestingly, the cathedral is not actually on Church Street but set a little above it on Jalan Bukit Nanas. Jalan Gereja extends for 100 metres or so from Jalan Raja Chulan, near the Muzium Telekom and the Maybank Headquarters, to where it seemingly morphs into Jalan Ampang at the Leboh Ampang intersection. However, Church Street provides access to the cathedral and the immediate area, which is an interesting enclave of colonial buildings and Indian curry houses that becomes a hive of activity on Sunday morning as parishioners attend morning mass.

Bukit Nanas (Pineapple Hill) is a fascinating part of Kuala Lumpur, with the southeastern side of the small hill being a forest reserve called Hutan Lipur Bukit Nanas, which supports one of the last remaining patches of primary forest in or around Kuala Lumpur.