The station that still looks like a palace

People arrive in Kuala Lumpur expecting the Petronas Towers. The building that stays in the eye is older. The Kuala Lumpur railway station, finished in the early twentieth century, is a parade of horseshoe arches, domes, and minarets in pale stone. It was a British station dressed in a Mughal costume. The mixture is the city in one facade.

Trains still use the area, though the famous intercity platforms moved to a newer station nearby. You can stand on the lawn and look at the old one the way you look at a civic building, not a shopping mall. It is free. It photographs honestly. The towers are a skyline. This is a building you can walk up to.

Pair it with the Sultan Abdul Samad building and Masjid Jamek, the same family of arches along the river, and a morning in the old center makes more sense than a day spent only in the malls. The lifestyle on offer is walking between beautiful public rooms, then eating somewhere ordinary when you are done being impressed.