Merdeka Square, Chinatown, Islamic Arts Museum and Batu Caves

Two kilometres south-west of the glass towers of KLCC lies the historic birthplace of Kuala Lumpur, where the Klang and Gombak rivers meet. Linked directly by the LRT Kelana Jaya Line (at Masjid Jamek and Pasar Seni stations) and the KTM Komuter rail line north to Batu Caves, this half of the city can be explored across a single day.

Merdeka Square, Masjid Jamek, Chinatown and the Islamic Arts Museum

Begin at Masjid Jamek (Sultan Abdul Samad Jamek Mosque, 1909), designed by Arthur Benison Hubback with onion domes and striped brick minarets right on the palm-fringed point where the two rivers join, landscaped as the River of Life promenade. Walk two minutes west onto the cricket green of Merdeka Square (Dataran Merdeka), where the Union Jack was lowered and the Malayan flag hoisted in 1957. Along the eastern flank stretches the 1897 Sultan Abdul Samad Building, a masterwork of Indo-Saracenic architecture crowned by copper domes and a 41-metre clock tower, opposite the Royal Selangor Club and KL City Gallery.

Follow the riverbank south into Chinatown: browse the pastel blue 1930s Art Deco Central Market (Pasar Seni), walk down lantern-draped Petaling Street, and duck into Kwai Chai Hong, a restored enclave of 1960s heritage shophouses painted with murals of old Chinatown life. On Jalan Tun H.S. Lee, two historic temples stand steps apart: the crimson 1888 Taoist Guan Di Temple and the five-tiered sculpted gopuram tower of 1873 Sri Mahamariamman Temple, the oldest Hindu temple in the city. From Chinatown, walk fifteen minutes south-west past the Moorish railway station and the pleated-roof National Mosque (Masjid Negara) into the Perdana Botanical Garden precinct to visit the Islamic Arts Museum Malaysia, whose turquoise domes shelter two floors of illuminated Qur'ans, Ottoman ceramics, Malay woodcarving and scale models of historic mosques.

Visiting Batu Caves by KTM Komuter train

Thirteen kilometres north of downtown rises a 400-million-year-old limestone hill riddled with caverns and dedicated since 1890 to Lord Murugan. Ride the KTM Komuter train from KL Sentral or Kuala Lumpur Station straight to Batu Caves Station: at the plaza stands a 42.7-metre golden statue of Lord Murugan beside the 272 rainbow-painted steps leading up into 100-metre-high Cathedral Cave, lit by natural shafts of sunlight. Go early in the morning, cover your knees, and keep all food zipped inside your bag away from the macaques before returning to town for lunch.