Away from the shiny edifices of the Kuala Lumpur City Center driving in a general northerly direction will bring you to Kepong, a former tough guy township and now inner city suburb that shows off best the city’s authentic side. It is the twin faces of urban blight and buzz that is familiar to folks in KL except tidy expatriates and middle class families who spend most of their lives in the air-conditioned malls of Bangsar and Bandar Utama (two of the city’s more affluent suburbs). Like the barrios and favelas of Latin America, Kepong is at once menacing and reassuring. Even on an overcast and lazy Saturday morning the place fascinates more than any other part of KL I know.
The streets appear disheveled but well-swept in the morning before descended upon by heat, traffic and people
Off to work on a Saturday morning
Chinese have traditionally been the dominant ethnic community here
Immigrants from unfamiliar continents have brought their cuisine to Kepong
a mobile phone shop caged behind bars- a rare sight in a city where violent crime is perceived to be low
I have never fully understood why Punjabi is officially used in Malaysia only on multi-lingual sign warning of eletrocution
A recycling bin doubles as a community notice board
- All images copyright Kerk Boon Leng September 2013
Kerk Boon Leng Photographs & Notes 
Hi Kerk, Good show. I do miss KL and all those nice places that you have mentioned.. Thanks for these nice pictures ; where I have never been. I love to go to such simple places without the cosmetic, as you have mentioned. They are the original places. When is your next trip to Lahore ? Best of luck. Seraj ul Haq.