6 days in Malaysia- 6/16- 6/21/2024

Day 2 -City Tour, Kuala Lumpur-6/16/2024

Museum Negara

Today we are on a 4 hour city tour and our first stop was Muzium Negara, Malaysia’s National Museum. Set just outside the city center, the museum is designed in a traditional Malay architectural style, with sweeping roofs and detailed motifs that hint at the country’s long and layered history. It’s a fitting place to begin a visit, everything from ancient kingdoms to colonial times and modern independence is brought together here.

Our tour guide dropped us at the front gate.

And then we gathered outside as he explained our stay in Kuala Lumpur and gave us an overview of Malaysia’s past. Right away, our attention was drawn to the displays outdoors.

One highlight was the old train on the museum grounds, a historic steam locomotive that represents the era when railways played a crucial role in connecting tin mines, ports, and towns across Malaysia.

Standing next to it, you can almost imagine the sound of the engine and the importance of trains in shaping the country’s economic growth. After it was withdrawn from active service, the locomotive was donated to the National Museum (Muzium Negara) and has been preserved as an outdoor exhibit. Today it stands as a reminder of the early days of rail travel in Malaysia, a time when steam engines were the backbone of transporting people and goods across long distances.

This is a steam locomotive originally operated by the Federated Malay States Railways (FMSR), the colonial-era railway system that linked towns and ports across the Malay Peninsula. It was built in 1921 in England by Kitson & Co., a well-known locomotive manufacturer. Locomotive 531.01 served on Malaysia’s rail network, especially on the East Coast main line for many decades. Over its working life it covered about 1.5 million rail miles before being retired in 1969.

We are now entering the Museum.

Inside, another memorable sight was the yellow Rolls-Royce. The bright yellow color immediately stands out, it’s a royal color in Malaysia.

This luxurious car was used by the Malaysian royalty, symbolizing the nation’s constitutional monarchy and the blend of tradition and modernity. Seeing it up close felt like a quiet reminder of how history here isn’t just preserved in books, but also in objects that once moved through real ceremonies and moments of state.

After that, we moved on to a display of drums in many different sizes, arranged together so you could clearly see how important rhythm is in Malaysian culture. Some of the drums were large and imposing, while others were much smaller and more delicate

Nearby was a collection of traditional musical instruments , each reflecting the country’s cultural diversity.

The “Gamelan” room is dedicated to gamelan music, one of the most important traditional music forms in Malaysia and Southeast Asia.

Gamelan is an ensemble of instruments, mainly made up of bronze gongs, metallophones, drums, and sometimes flutes or string instruments. In Malaysia, gamelan music is closely associated with royal courts, especially in the states of Pahang and Terengganu. Historically, it was performed for palace ceremonies, royal celebrations, and formal events.

 A variety of traditional guitars on display.

This area is dedicated to people of Sarawak, one of the two Malaysian states on the island of Borneo, and it highlights how distinct their cultures are from those in Peninsular Malaysia.

We are now done with the visit and we are leaving the museum.  Overall, Muzium Negara made a calm and meaningful introduction to Kuala Lumpur, grounding our trip in history before heading back into the buzz of the city.

As we were leaving the museum, I looked across the street and saw a reddish train with the words “Keretapi Tanah Melayu” written along its side. This is Malaysia’s national railway company, often shortened to KTM. The name literally means “Railways of the Malay Land,” and it’s a reminder of how rail travel has long connected cities, towns, and rural areas throughout the country. Seeing the train there felt like a nice echo of the historic locomotive we had just seen inside Muzium Negara, past and present railways side by side.

Nearby, rising high into the sky, was a building that looked like a giant telephone. That striking structure is Menara Telekom, also known as Telekom Tower. Its design is inspired by a traditional bamboo shoot, but from certain angles it really does resemble a telephone or communications tower. It symbolizes Malaysia’s leap into the modern age of telecommunications and technology. The contrast between the red KTM train below and the futuristic tower above perfectly captured Kuala Lumpur’s mix of history and modern ambition.

NEXT...  Istana Negara/National Monument