VIDEO DESCRIPTION:
Planet Doug is back, and this time we’re exploring Kuala Pilah, a charming historic town in Malaysia’s Negeri Sembilan state. After cycling 40 km from Seremban through brutal heat and holiday traffic, I decided to stay an extra day just to walk these streets.
In this video, I take you on a relaxed walking tour through Kuala Pilah’s old town, filled with pre-World War II shophouses, colorful temples, and a surprising mix of Chinese, Indian, and Malay heritage. Along the way, I stumble into an incredible piece of local history—the Chinese Pleasure Garden and a memorial arch dedicated to the British Resident Martin Lister. But the real highlight? Meeting a local historian who led the restoration of the garden and arch and shared stories of his family’s rubber shop, a 100-year-old handmade noodle factory, and the last traditional rubber shop in town.
I also check out a packed bicycle shop, cool off at Kopi Saigon with a mystery meal sent by a Planet Doug supporter, and wander down a jungle-like village lane by a hidden creek.
This isn’t a deep dive—it’s a real-time, honest walk through a town that surprised me with its friendliness, history, and slow-paced charm.
📍 In this video:
Arrival & hotel room tour (the deluxe king with windows that don’t close!)
Walking the old shophouses & temples
The Martin Lister memorial arch & Chinese Pleasure Garden
Meeting the Man behind the Restoration
Family history, rubber shops & handmade noodles
The last rubber shop & old town mystery
Shen Hong bicycle shop tour
A kampung lane & hidden creek
Kopi Saigon coffee & surprise lunch
Final thoughts on Kuala Pilah
VIDEO TRANSCRIPT:
Good morning. Welcome back to Planet Doug and welcome back to Planet Doug exploring Kuala Pilah. That’s the small town here in Malaysia where I’m staying right now. I cycled here yesterday from Seremban. It’s only about 40 km from Seremban to the town of Kuala Pilah, but the road does take you up a very long steady climb, maybe up 300 m or something like that, and then down the other side. And the road does go up and down, up and down quite a bit through some beautiful countryside. Some tremendous high bridges over these deep ravines. It was a very enjoyable ride despite the sun out there just trying to kill me all day long. I could just feel the sun out there just like it was trying to burn you alive. It was so hot. It’s just incredible. And the traffic yesterday was pretty wild. I thought the Raya celebrations would be winding down, but I guess winding down means everybody is on the move, going home, going back to KL, and the roads were just jammed with cars. So quite often I was going faster than the traffic. There was so much traffic on the road that it was just backed up and they came to a standstill and then I’m riding along the shoulder beside the cars and I’m actually going past them faster than the cars. So it was a pretty interesting day and I decided to book an extra night here just because I wanted to have a chance just to walk around the town a little bit. This isn’t going to be anything like a deep dive into the town. This is the kind of place where I could spend a week easily and then I think if you woke up early in the morning, you saw all the activity in the morning and you stayed up late, you’d see a different side of the town every day. Whether you go out in the morning, midday, evening, on the weekends, the local markets, you know, you need to spend time to really get to know it. I’m just going to do kind of a walk, basically a city walk, and then you can see what the place looks like.
My home, this is what my home looks like. The usual luggage explosion that happens on Planet Doug has taken place. All of my electronics and gear spread out on the bed and then my coffee and food station over here and more bicycle bags. Yeah, it’s quite a thing. And my room has windows. I actually ended up by accident, I didn’t book this room. I booked a standard double and somehow I ended up in a deluxe king. And I guess I was reading the descriptions yesterday and they said, “Well, what makes this a deluxe as opposed to a regular room? It says the windows open.” So yeah, they were right about that. So I actually have a window and the window opens and there right across where my camera is pointing, the corner building there. I think that’s what makes Kuala Pilah somewhat special. It has a lot of these very old shophouses dating back probably to like pre-World War II. I don’t know how old these buildings are, but the town got started with mining and then a lot of Chinese community grew up here running businesses to support the miners and the mines and they built these shophouses and they still exist today. So when I walked around yesterday it had a little bit of a Penang like Georgetown feel to it and I’m right downtown and I’m going to go for a walk around the streets. But anyway, that is my deluxe window that opens. It doesn’t actually close. So they put in these giant, I can’t really get a hold of this thing now. I can’t close the window. Paper clips. Yeah, paper clip handles. But the window doesn’t lock or anything. But I don’t think anybody can climb up on this roof to get into this room. But anyway, I’m going to have to figure out a way to pull that tighter ’cause mosquitoes are now going to get in.
All right. So let’s head downstairs and head out. Yeah, it’s kind of an interesting hotel. It’s definitely got some age to it. This is an aging building that hasn’t been kept up very well. Everything is quite dirty and broken. But everything, well I was going to say everything works, but I can’t get the hot water heater to work. I can’t get any hot water out of that thing, no matter what I do. But that’s okay. I survive.
This is one of the first things I noticed when I arrived, the junk room because they’re doing, I’m sure they’re just doing renovations all the time. But yeah, as far as a hotel, it isn’t much of a hotel for the average person, but they kind of make up for it with some friendliness. What I mean is they have a little bit of a hostel vibe, which is interesting. You don’t see that very often where they turned the lobby area into kind of a hangout. So you’ve got tables and chairs. Well, one chair at the moment, but then they have water here, and they even provide little crackers. You can grab a cracker and they have a kettle over here so you can boil water and a sink cleaning area. So yeah, that’s kind of a hostel vibe to it combined with being a hotel. And then I had trouble finding a place to put my bike outside and they said, “Ah, no problem. Just put it in here.” But I’m not touching the bike today. This is strictly a walking day. Here’s the outside of the place. The orange hotel. It’s an OYO branded hotel. Doesn’t seem like it on the outside, but when you look it up online on Google Maps and Agoda, it says OYO. And it’s pretty confusing. I talked about that in my arrival video. They have two listings for the same hotel as far as I can figure out. And I have no idea why they have two listings on Agoda, two on Google Maps. Which one is which? Which one do you click on when you want to book a room? Where are you going to end up? It’s a little bit confusing, but it kind of worked out for me. Yeah, my original plan was to be out early in the morning when it was nice and cool and do some exploring, but that didn’t happen. So as always, Planet Doug poor planning lately. I’m stepping outside for the first time in the hottest time of the day. The sun is up there and yeah, you can see the sun is just baking the landscape and it’s going to bake me. But I don’t have plans to go very far.
I noticed this spot yesterday. Not tiny cafe, I think it’s called. Not fish and chips, buttermilk chicken, loaded fries, noodles. Very quaint. And then on this side of the road, got kind of a new building, there’s an ice cream shop right there, Artigula. So it’s got a real hip vibe here with like a tourism vibe, which is a kind of a nice surprise. Artigula. So yeah, if you stayed here for a few days, you could try out all these different places. Unfortunately, I won’t be here long enough to do that. Kopi Saigon. This looks like a real highlight of my neighborhood. I think after I do my walking, I’ll come back here just at least to get a cold drink. The young woman there waving. Hello. Yeah, they even have a bicycle logo up there. And I think they serve food as well. But anyway, that’s on my radar to check out. And I think a highlight of this town or for a normal visitor to this town, if you happen to have a car or a motorcycle, is that all around you’ve got the hills. The road that I followed to get here, it comes in kind of from this direction. It goes through a beautiful mountainous area. And if you’re on a bicycle, it’s like, whoa, you know, that’s so far away and it’s pretty difficult to go up and down those hills. So it’s not like today I can just hop on my bicycle and go exploring. But if you’re here with the car, you could set off for a day trip and see some very beautiful landscapes. There’s hiking trails, waterfalls, parks, all those all in these hills around. So I think it’d be a very nice town to base yourself. When I arrived yesterday, I got so confused because my pin on Google Maps brought me here. Says hotel orange. And I thought, “Oh, that must be the hotel.” But it didn’t look like the hotel. And then I tried to get in this door, but it’s locked. And there’s a doorbell, but nobody answered the doorbell. And I thought, “Oh, this must be the second location.” But in fact, it’s just the rear door to the hotel where I’m staying. So this is the back door, and the other side where I came out was the front door. Yeah. Look at all these shophouses here in the downtown core. Some of them more traditional than others.
I saw some beautiful examples of different types of temples and mosques here. There’s a very large Indian temple around the corner. And here we have a Buddhist temple and then right beside it a mosque. Very indicative of course of Malaysia. The three main cultures all coexisting side by side. I always love the bright colors and when they get incorporated into the mosques ’cause I tend to think of a mosque as being somewhat austere and quiet and then I love it when they just like okay let’s just make the domes bright yellow and it just sort of cheers the place up. Makes it much more bright and inviting. I like that.
Someone’s shouting. Hello. Hello. How are you?
I’m used to people saying hello when I’m on the bicycle, but not when I’m on foot. And I don’t really know what this is. Lister Lane. Lister Lane must be. It’s a little park, but it feels like it must have some sort of historic significance.
Did I just walk by the open gate? Let’s go see if the gate is open. I’m not even dressed for this weather to be honest. I don’t have any shorts that felt presentable, so I ended up wearing my one and only long pants. These are my hot long pants. And so here’s the main entrance. Oh, okay. I guess I missed it because the truck, I don’t think it’s closed. I don’t think it’s blocked or anything. So it is a memorial of some kind erected by a grateful people to the memory of the honorable Martin Lister who was British resident of Negeri Sembilan. Looks like they even have some maybe some history about the honorable Martin Lister on some plaques. I don’t think it’s very common to see a big memorial like this to a British resident. He must have done something very special for this state.
This doesn’t actually give much history. It just gives the almost like an official proclamation of when this land was set aside to become a park, a Chinese pleasure garden so long as it is used for that purpose only. 12,800 square ft. And they have one date the land enactment of 1897. The British resident declared this land in the village of Kuala Pilah to be a pleasure garden. And yeah, 12,800 ft² dated 1901.
Yeah, they’re doing some renovations, some building over there.
So this one is recording right now. Just tell me what you want to ask a few questions then I can do the interview. Okay. Yeah, that’s fine. Yeah, you can go to YouTube to see we have actually in English maybe mention about Martin Lister. Martin Lister. Yeah, I read that name. The British resident. Yes. Why does he get an archway in a park? What was so special about him? You see he actually you can see from here there’s an explanation from the Chinese. So you see here we mentioned about erected by the grateful people to the memorial of the honorable because he came actually he was a businessman. He tried to plant coffee, plant coffee, but not successful. Oh, maybe it’s because of the soil or the weather. Then he was very interested about the Malay custom. Then he was appointed as you know officer, land officer or something or in the municipal. Then he was actually became a resident is like a states minister or we call yeah what do you call that? Yeah. It’s not a prime minister for the nation but it’s the states you know here we call Negeri Sembilan. So he developed because Kuala Pilah actually the old city old town is there. Oh it’s the old over there is the old town. This isn’t the old town here. No, this is the new town. Oh, yeah. But now 100 years it’s called old town. Okay. Yeah. Okay. You see when he came so what is the development road then shops then rubber and during before that rubber was the tin. Oh okay. Tin mine. So Tong Yen came. Right. So talking about Tong Yen, why so great about him? He came because of Bloku. Do you know in KL? Yes, I do. Yep. He was appointed by Lo. He was the stakeholder. Oh, okay. He is very close with him. Mhm. Because they developed the township here. So then he was thinking to make a memorial arch for him. I see. He died due to the poison. He went to the jungle. I think poison. Then he on the way back to England. Then he passed away in the ship. So it was Tong Yen’s idea originally to build this to honor kind of his friend and maybe business partner as well. I see. I came home in 2019 to develop this area. I mean for beautifying and also to you know on top of the arch I like it so much because I travel a lot in US Europe and then in Asia country I see all these elements here so great but nobody realized right so then we hire the handmade everything is handmade they are in Penang Island all these masters so they came here to do restoration not renovation. Okay. So you said you’ve been working on the restoration for 3 years. Completion from now. Oh, it’s going to complete 3 years. When did you begin the project? I began my project 2019. So when Tong Yen came, so he start the temple because they have already mining there. So how do you put your workers when they came? So settle down here a few days and bring them to jungle. So this is the temple. Here was a school. So you can see also the plaque there on the signage plaque also mentioned about the temple. Yeah. You see the yellow. Yes. Later you can go in. But this temple closed 1:30. You have to go before 1:30. I see. So different management. So why we separated history? You cannot separate. After he build this, he build this of course the cement tree. Because people who work in the mining, you see the mining. Here’s a mining. Mhm. Yeah. It’s parit tin mining. Yeah. So but unfortunately this is in Mandarin. But you can go to our website. We have Kuala Pilah Chinese Pleasure Garden. You go to website www.kualapilahchinesepleasuregarden.com. That is our website. Also can go to Facebook to see Kuala Pilah Chinese Pleasure Garden. Yeah. So he’s a great man and he not selfish. I would say he is doing the memorial for the British very unusual but he’s very great. He think that time was Jawi you know the writing is no Malay yet. So he put a Jawi there. English, Jawi and Mandarin because here is Malaysia. Then he put a big Chinese writing at the back here. I can explain you the meaning but you can go to my website or there’s some explanation even here the plaque here. I just heard I just learned about Jawi a few days ago for the first time. Actually it’s nice to learn all different language and culture. So I came home like actually I live here that I born here my house is here. So then I live 1985 for study in Kuala Lumpur. Then I go to doing my college then I work there about now 40 years. So I came home 2019 to ask the temple there’s a community there who taking care of here but unfortunately all fox and they don’t have idea and they just leave it here the glass was so long here was so dirty so you can see some old picture from the Facebook so how we do this project you need volunteer at first. We have to organize a volunteer. Then we have to fund raising then we asked the Chinese community to support. Yeah. So when you began renovating and fixing it up, what was here at that time? Was the wall here? Yeah, this wall here. It was here but in worse condition though. Yes. And here is already renovated in the newer but I tried to make it the original. Oh okay. Yeah. We see the picture from for example from here then you see all this has the wall there. Yeah. But this is the second time the first time was similar to this one. So a lot of thing to study because we hire architect who are in the heritage who came from Penang. Yeah. So not so easy. The book is like so much the drawing. So a lot of work. So 2013 I make a first letter right to them waited for 6 years. 2019 when the chairman saw me he said hey Mr. Please come. I’m getting old. Please help. Because when I brought to them, maybe they think I have intention. What happened? You guys went out to KL. Now you come home, you want to do something for your private. No, actually I have my own work own income. So I just want to do something for the hometown. Yeah. By the way, your name again? Douglas. Douglas. My name is Nin Heis. Okay. Nin Heis is our first your family name. Nin. Okay. So my name is very easy. T E K E. Oh, T. Okay. Okay. Okay. T family. So and you said this was your shop. No, this is my shop. Oh, that’s this shop is here. You can see. Oh, the one there. I was just taking a video of that building this morning. Very beautiful building. This is my relative. How old are these shophouses? 1927. You can see from 1927. Wow. It’s almost 100 years. Yeah, I was saying they dated from before World War II, but I wasn’t sure if I was correct or not. Yes, World War II. So I put up all this story here, then I translate it. Then now I also put a signage there or you call sign signage board. I try to make more also promoting. This is a rubber. You know what is rubber? Yes. Yes. Yes. This is rubber. So was 33 or 35 shop but now only left one. There’s only one left Jalanian at the back there. You can see this shop. Yeah, you can have a look. Interesting. Yes. The last rubber shop. Yes. I saw this kind of rubber in Sumatra. I was there recently. Yes. And they were collecting it, piling it. Actually, my shop also rubber shop. My grandpa. This shop here was rubber. Yes. It looks much fancier than a rubber shop. Actually was my parents’ marriage. Those are your parents? My father, my mom. Wow. My great grandmother, my great this is my grandfather. My grandma, the second grandma, then this my mother’s side. This is my mother’s side. I see. This is my father’s side. Yeah. All the siblings. Yeah. I was going to ask you are you in the picture but of course not. No, my parents is here. They’re just getting married. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. My mom was 18, my dad was 20. Wow. This is like year 19 if I’m not mistaken 1951 something like that. Here were mentioned here was mentioned 1952 that that picture was taken. Yes. Here also in English. English is here. So and do you still have the original photo or even the negative? No, maybe negative have to go to find but the photo is still there. Still there. Still there. I do a scan. I have put into my computer. Okay. That’s amazing. I was really lucky to meet you here today. So my intention here is to come back to do heritage protection and then also this is also 100 years noodles. Yeah. The factory is because handmade. See, for example, this is the noodles. They take a video recently how they make how they make this noodle. It’s really handmade. You cannot you have to order today then you get it tomorrow. I see. Then you go to restaurant.
Okay. So this is my project and continue. I will do some training for already do once for tour guide. We want to do a town old town half a day tour to promote. So the old town is over there. Yeah. And yet this shop over here you say is like goes all the way back more than 100 years. So it’s already pretty old here. Yeah. Here the first shop first row here 1887. 1887 right over here. Yeah. Similar to here the temple but the mosque is only 1950 built 1950 so but we live in harmony so with your interest in your in the town the history your family’s history is it only you and your family or do other people in your family share your passion for this project yeah my brother is helping out a bit but to be honest because we also have you know family trees. This is family trace. Okay. So we have books that record our ancestor from maybe this is more than thousand years. I have 12 books that I go back to. I mean I born here. So our ancestors came from Fujian. So in one of the city called Yong Chun. So I’m recently go back there to meet my cousin. So and they came here to collect all oh when you born who is your sibling all these relative name we then we put in here. So I and completion about 15 years because from Hong Kong, Taiwan even Canada even Africa have a three families generation there. So because during this time China civil war or during the before the second world first world war they all came here to earn a living. Yeah. So for me very important is the local culture. We are born in Malaysia. We are Malaysian Chinese, right? So but we want to keep all these ancestor who pass on the heritage. If I don’t do it is nothing to do with me also. But I appreciate because he’s a great man. He’s a businessman. He have a ship. Then he can import all this material. And during this time I believe because British time they must be architect who draw this drawing. So because when I hire them to make this drawing take long time take me a year you know it’s they have to use the tools to sketch until the last layer to see the color. They have to find ways the broken they make all the report we call the dilapidations report or something like that. First report, second they make drawing, third they make proposal. So then they give proposal, then they give you a quotation. Then you have to think what you want to do, what you take out, what you follow exactly. But some work like this construction work we hire the local handmade everything the master from Penang they there are the whole group Chinese people already stationed settled down here 30 years so it’s like you go to Penang Island you see Kongsi all this temple have you been to Penang I have you have you know so why I mean because heritage is very huge it’s a United Nation protection is your family still involved in rubber? No. No. My brother changed concept to tourist about 25 years ago because rubber is like sunset. Sunset. Of course, rubber is still very important, but Thailand is very used to be Malaysia number one, number two, but now Thailand and Indonesia. Yeah. So we have rubber then grocery shop. Yeah. And now no more go to my website if you any question then you can text me I if you don’t feel I disturb I will send you some information you can delete it if you don’t want but you can keep it. Yeah that would be fantastic. Yeah I appreciate it. Yeah. Thank you very much. No problem for answering my questions. So that was a very lucky encounter for me to come here right at the time when the man who was behind this whole project happened to be here overseeing some work and he got to tell me a lot about the history of this place. Yeah. So since he left I’ve taken the time to read through all of the information here. It’s all very interesting. In particular the history of this building here and the man and the family that built it. And then of course reading about his family history and this amazing wedding photograph. I think that that’s extraordinary. What a family possession to have. And the last rubber shop, this would be of particular interest to me. It’s called Chin Chin Chun. And I don’t know exactly where it’s located, but as I walk around the city, it might be in the old town. I’m not sure, but maybe I can track that place down at some point. And of course the history of Tong Yen as he told me it was his idea to build the archway here in this Chinese pleasure garden to his friend and business partner the British resident Martin Lister. Very interesting story there. And then the story of the last handmade noodle shop in Kuala Pilah. It would be great to track that place down as well, but I don’t know where it is. And my new friend and guide, he encouraged me to go across the street and spend some time at this temple, but it closes at 1:30. It’s already closed now. Maybe I’ll stay another night and go there tomorrow.
Yeah. One thing I’m really curious about now is old town. I don’t know where it is. He said it’s old town is actually in this direction, but I don’t know how far away. When I look at Google Maps, it’s not clear to me that there is an old town over there. But if there is, maybe I can track it down tomorrow, go on my bicycle or something. For now, I’m going to stay inside the district where my hotel is. It’s what I think of as the old town. I feel like I’m in old town right now. So I’m going to turn around and then walk back through the streets here. I know there’s a big bicycle shop over there. Maybe I’ll stumble across some other interesting businesses. It was also interesting to hear from him the details and the artistry and craftsmanship that has gone into the design of all the symbolism, the paint and the renovation and reconstruction of all of that. And of course, I was quite interested to hear him say Jawi because I saw a sign in the train station and I was investigating the languages in the sign and I was given the impression that one of them was Jawi, but it turns out it wasn’t. And now it’s pretty obvious like up here, this writing here, that is classic Jawi up there. Yeah.
Yeah. Very lucky chance encounter for me just to be walking by this time. Got a group of visitors here and getting their selfies with the archway. That’s fascinating. A drone. They’re using a drone to take their family portrait on video, I assume. Yeah. Who would have thought that a drone would be a modern essential for a family going out on a tour?
On the other side. You can see how far the traffic has backed up. I think a lot of these people are heading back to KL today. And there’s this traffic on the highway is so slow that they’re backed up all the way into Kuala Pilah. Look at that. The traffic is just extending all the way down the street.
Just happened to walk by this fascinating shop here. It looks like they do some work with bicycles. Yeah, they have like children’s bicycles. Hello. How are you? Yeah. Oh, look at that. So they have some tires and children’s bicycles. Look at that. I could have probably gotten my entire bike rebuilt here and some secondhand bicycles. What a great little shop. They even have an air hose here. All kinds of spare parts. Yeah. Classic old workshop pumps. Spare parts. Huh. Thank you.
I have to pay attention to the street names now to get oriented. I don’t usually do that in Malaysia because the street names don’t mean a lot to me. They’re hard to commit to memory. But apparently there’s a Martin Lister street and then the I forget the name already. The man who built the arch, he has a street named after him. Here’s a little shop sign.
Yeah, I just happened to be walking by. Just looked very quaint, very old-fashioned.
Look at that. Planet Doug broomsticks. If I ever needed a more solid one, these yeah, these are heavy though, I would go for the smaller lightweight ones. Yeah, look at that. You want to put a GoPro on your bicycle, this is the place to come.
And walking around this town also is reminiscent of the time I spent in on a recent tour by car with some friends of mine. An old town felt very similar to this with the old shophouses.
And it feels like Kuala Pilah is also fairly popular with local tourists. And I think over time it’s probably going to develop more and more.
Kuala Pilah over there across the road.
This is what I mean about street names never really sticking with me. If I see that, you know, Jalan Dato Abdul Manab, I’m never going to remember that in a million years. So I’ve kind of stopped paying attention to street names in general.
Beautiful building over there with the green color. I like that.
Oh, yeah. Another farming gardening hardware shop. Again, feels very traditional and old school.
Oh, and there’s a Shenhong bicycle. I wanted to check that place out. Just as I walked by, the traffic started moving. You can see they’re all turning right. That’s the main street. You turn there to head back to Kuala Lumpur. And I was just chatting with some friendly people in a car. They were parked at the side of the road and they were welcoming me to Kuala Pilah, warning me about the heat. And they said they saw me on the big bridge yesterday on my bicycle. So they kind of knew who I was. I stopped on the bridge to take some pictures and across the road. But I just have to wait for the traffic to get backed up so that I can cross.
Almost there.
Finally.
Man, that’s an amazing selection. Bicycles for tiny kids. There’s so many of them here. That’s incredible.
Very well stocked place. They even have some extra frames up there. They can build a bike to order, I guess. Look at these fancy rims, scooters, pumps. Oh, look at this. Tires.
I was just chatting with him about my bicycle problems and getting it all fixed in Seremban. And yeah, look at all the tires. I easily could have found appropriate tires here. I was commenting on how much stuff there is here and he was saying it’s for online sales. So they have all of this in stock, but as you can see, they pack it all up for online sales and they ship it out. That’s how things work these days. Look at this place. It’s huge.
Trinx bicycles. I think that’s a Malaysian brand. I think I remember that. Look at this.
I doubt that they would have like a dedicated touring bike. That is a very that’s a specialty area. Most people these days just buy an off-the-shelf mountain bike and then they put some racks on it and then they go touring that way. Seems to be pretty common these days. The high-end touring bikes that go into the thousands of dollars. Those the stores that deal in those are few and far between. Yeah. Not very common.
Yeah. More tires here. Training wheels for the little young tikes.
I’m trying to think, is there anything else that I need? If I need something else for my bike, well, this is the place, right?
Oh, yeah. And a selection of road bikes up here with the more traditional drop handlebars. I really like that style of handlebars.
I was just commenting on how in a lot of these towns that I visited, you see areas like this are pretty common with a lot of the shophouses. The businesses have closed. So I was walking down this street here, still on the main street and shop after shop after shop. It has a sign on it for rent to let all the way down there. They’re all closed. So I think that’s one reason a lot of these towns can turn to tourism for another source of income if the local businesses have trouble staying open. Seems like a bustling place at least bustling during the holiday times. Lot of cars parked everywhere. Imagine it’ll be a little bit different. Yeah, there’s a very friendly holiday feeling to the town right now. So many people are here on vacation and everybody saying hi to me on the streets and shouting hello from their cars. Yeah, it’s very pleasant. Oh, that looks like a very nice area. You see that? All that greenery. I was looking at the maps and I didn’t see any rivers. That might be one thing that this town lacks. Rivers and lakes. Those can really make a city or a town very pleasant to live in. I didn’t see any on Google Maps, but a ravine like this usually means that there’s a river of some kind. Maybe a small creek. Or maybe not. Just because we’re in a hilly area, I guess the land drops down here. And look at that. A gorgeous traditional laneway. Very kampung look to it. And it feels like there must be some sort of a creek down there. Let’s yeah, just for fun, let’s I wasn’t intending to go for long walks, but I can’t resist that little lane there. Now that I’m here, I’m going to walk down there. Looks like there’s a bridge, and I’ll bet you there’s a creek there. My money is on the existence of a creek.
I’m entering a kampung setting village in the middle of the city.
Here’s the bridge.
And yeah, there has to be a small creek here anyway. Yep. So there is some water flowing through this town. It’s just not a very big river. So it doesn’t have riverside parks or anything like that. And riverside parks are always very nice for a town trying to develop tourism. But yeah, something could happen down here in this little creek valley. Nice hill up there that could be developed.
Yeah, I feel like I’m in the middle of a jungle. All of a sudden, a jungle village. It’s beautiful down here.
Yeah. From here, you can see that the hillside I was talking about. Got a couple of houses up there as well.
But since I’m wearing long pants and the sun, there it is up there. The sun that does not like me at all. This is as far as I’m going to go and the walk back into town. Maybe it’s time to get that cold coffee I was talking about at the what was it called? Kopi Saigon. I think that place very near my hotel. I might head back in that direction. I don’t know if it means anything, but I have also picked up on a trend in Malaysia where a lot of businesses seem to be just closed in general. I was thinking about this yesterday when I was cycling because I was really keeping my eyes open for cold drinks and I didn’t find any at all. But as I was scanning everything around me, looking for a place that sold cold drinks, I noticed like roadside eateries, just one after another after another after another. And they have everything there, the tables, the chairs, the signs, and they’re just not open. They’re not open. And I see that a lot. There are so many businesses everywhere where it has all the trappings of a business, but then they’re just not open. And I kept thinking, well, it is a holiday today, one of the busiest days of the year in terms of traffic. If they were going to be open on any day, it would be today. I mean, you could say that, well, they’re just not open now, but maybe they’re open on the weekend, but a lot of the businesses just seem to maybe the family starts them up, keeps them going for a while, and then if they don’t have like a roaring success financially, they just stop running it. But all the business trappings are still there and it gives the impression kind of that it’s open and yet never seems to open. But of course there is also the fact that as a foreigner I’m just not accustomed to the schedules and the routines. So even this place here that I already walked by food court. I mean this clearly is still an ongoing business but it’s not like I don’t feel like I could go in there and order something to eat. I mean, I don’t think it’s open now, but I have no instinct that tells me when it will be open.
Yeah, a lot of outside visitors today. A lot of Malaysian families coming here. It’s a very popular tourist town and I can see why.
It’s pretty small place though and there wouldn’t be that many places for them to check out like traditional tourist attractions. So I’m not sure how they would spend their day here. For someone like me, it’s a very interesting town. All I need to do is walk around, look at these interesting buildings, get a sense of the atmosphere, and I find that interesting. But for a family coming here on a holiday, you feel like they’d want more. A bustling market somewhere with all kinds of local snacks and drinks, toys for the kids, souvenirs, things like that. But I haven’t seen anything like that here.
And here’s another food court. Medan selera. One or two places that are open, but most are closed.
I mentioned the other day the large Indian temple here in town or at least I think I brought it up and it’s just up ahead here on the left.
A large pedestrian bridge there which I always appreciate. And that’s another one of the main streets in this part of Kuala Pilah. That’s where my hotel is down there to the end. And turn right. I’ve already walked up and down that street a couple of times.
And the temple very colorful, very beautiful outside wall here.
There’s the name of it and the gate. In my experience with Hindu temples is if you want to go inside early in the morning is the key. If you come here pretty much at dawn, just after dawn, you’ll find the gates open and they will have music playing inside and then that’s when local people come here. Foreigners like me that never seem to get out until midday. The Hindu temples are usually closed and you can’t really go inside.
But from the outside, you can see some beautiful design.
There’s the Hindu temple across the road. A lot of the traffic that comes in from outside, it gets funneled, does a right-hand turn or left-hand turn here to head into the town itself. And I’m heading for the Kopi Saigon for my midday or mid-afternoon now coffee time. And a Planet Doug subscriber and supporter just reached out to me and they placed an order or they said they were going to try to place an order for a meal for me at Kopi Saigon for a pickup grab pickup kind of deal. Yeah, I saw this last night as well. Again, this would only be open at night. Wouldn’t be open during the day. Yeah, look at all the food stalls around the edges. I wonder how busy it gets. How many of them actually open?
Yeah, very interesting town. Very pleasant town.
Great place to hang out if you’re interested in this sort of traditional style place. A little bit of history, a little bit of natural beauty.
Everywhere you look, interesting signage, interesting design on the buildings.
Corner buildings are always the most interesting. You get a surface on the corner part and then two flat on each street. So you always end up with an interesting design like this one here. And then another one just across the road here. And the really famous one, the one that’s been restored beautifully is just over here somewhere.
I think I can walk by it on my way to Kopi Saigon.
This is the building right here that the man I was talking to told me about the history of it and I was reading I don’t remember all the details right now but yeah just looking at the outside you can get a sense of how special it is and a very popular attraction for local people. You can see a family there getting their pictures there.
Yeah, seems like it could be one of these buildings that could open as a museum if the interior has been restored. We are on Jalan Lister. At least that’s a name that I can remember, a simple one. Here is Artigula that I walked by this morning. I thought it was just an ice cream parlor, but it’s also a coffee shop, a cafe. But I’m heading next door to Kopi Saigon right over here.
Hey.
I have my Kopi Saigon. They served it up really quickly. I barely had time to take a picture of the interior and sit down. I hadn’t even sat down yet and my coffee was already ready.
And considering that coffee is their specialty, I’m sure it’s going to be absolutely fine.
Yeah, it’s nice. She did ask if I wanted sugar or not, you know, and I just got it the regular way with sugar and milk and everything. So it’s pretty sweet, but I don’t mind that. And my Planet Doug mystery benefactor is trying to place an order from India to this shop using Grab and then I can just pick it up at the counter. That’s amazing. We’ll see how it works. Everything seems to have gone smoothly. The order went through and then my friend Planet Doug supporter just sent me the link to the, you know, your order is ready, come pick it up link. And then I just went up to the counter and showed it to them. And boom, I have this. I don’t know what it is yet. It’s a complete surprise. Ooh, it’s one of their pastas. A classic like tomato meat sauce pasta for lunch. Very exciting.
Let’s try some of the meat sauce first.
M.
Yeah. Just a regular meat, tomato sauce, meat sauce, spaghetti sauce. Been so long since I’ve had spaghetti. I can’t even remember the last time.
Just leaving from Kopi Saigon. Yeah, it was good. The coffee was good. Environment, very friendly. This is one of the nicest, friendliest towns I’ve ever been in in Malaysia. Maybe it’s the effect of the holiday. I don’t know what it is, but everybody here just has a big smile on their face. Everybody wants to talk to me. Yeah, it’s unusual. I guess it’s because it’s a small town compared to KL. People aren’t quite as busy here. Life is a little bit slower and everybody has a smile for me and wants to stop have a little chat which is kind of cool. And I was just looking through the door of Artigula this place. It also looks very nice. So I booked another night here at the hotel. So I’m going to spend tomorrow here as well. More about that in the next video perhaps. But yeah, I guess I think I’ll be coming back here just to try out Artigula to check out the interior of that place. But unless I go out exploring tonight, maybe some of the markets that I saw set up for some food in the evening. Unless I head out there, this might be the end of today’s small adventures and today’s video. It’s getting later in the afternoon. Sun is actually getting much lower in the sky, so it is a lot more comfortable, not quite as hot. There’s my hotel right behind me, the orange hotel. So yeah, I hope you enjoyed that little tour of this town. I was very lucky, as I said already a couple of times, to meet that man who is behind the renovations and the rebuilding of the archway over there. Yeah, he had a lot of insight into the community, the community leaders and what it takes to get the funding and the permission and the public interest going in a renovation like that. Very interesting man to talk to. He has had a lot of real-world experience which I lack you know so it’s very interesting to talk with him and just walking around the streets here very interesting very pleasant town so I’ll be shutting down the video here and if you as always so if you’ve watched this all the way to the end you watch a Planet Doug video all the way to the end well that makes you a member of the Planet Doug crunch club put CC in the comments to let me know you’re now a member of the crunch club. So that is it. Shutting down for now and I’ll see you in the next video.