FOREIGN INVASION OF DOWNTOWN KL

Jalan Tun H.S. Lee in downtown KL is swarmed with foreigners on Sundays

If you haven't been in downtown Kuala Lumpur in quite a while, you will be surprised to find the old KL that we used to know no longer exists. Sure, most of the buildings are still there, but the inner city has lost much of its Malaysian identity.

Take a trip to the Kota Raya-Bangkok Bank area on Sunday, you will feel as if you are in Nepal or Myanmar as these pictures below show.

Businesses here cater mostly to the Myanmarese and Nepalese. There is a sizable population of Bangladeshis and Pakistanis too. The Indonesians are still the prevalent ethnic group in the Chow Kit area while the Filipinos hang out in the shopping malls in KLCC and in PJ.

Browsing their national papers in a retail outlet. DVDs, CDs and magazines are available
in several lingua franca.

A well-stocked mini-market. Enterprising shopkeepers supply foreign workers here
with almost anything they need from their homeland. 

Fresh produce for homecooked meals

Anyone for cow's head soup?

Don't be fooled by the display photos. This studio is patronized mainly by foreigners applying for work permits, passports, visas and who knows, MyKad as well?

The ladies are not forgotten. 

Banners are everywhere advertising all kinds of
services on the upper floors. This one is for air fares.

One of the few banners in English. I was told
this restaurant is popular with the Nepalese. 

Not sure if this ad is for funeral services or a football match!

For the younger workers - a hip-hop concert! 

Across the road from Kota Raya lies Chinatown. The stalls there are run by foreigners. It's a
matter of time before nearby Central Market is also taken over by non-Malaysians. Not too
far away is Bukit Bintang which is rapidly transforming into a Middle Eastern hot spot. 

Whether this foreign influx has a positive or negative spillover is debatable. But one thing is for certain, it won't be long before downtown KL becomes unrecognizable to local citizens.