When my hiking friend Pek Foong invited me for a drink at the Royal Lake Club, she suggested that we could combine it with a walk in the Lake Gardens. Have you ever visited the Tun Razak Memorial there, she asked. I told her that I didn’t even know it existed. Oh, then I will show you the house where Najib grew up, she said.

At 4 pm she picked me up from home and we drove to the Lake gardens where she parked her car near an attractive building. This was the private residence of Tun Abdul Razak, the 2nd PM of Malaysia. He lived here with his family from 1962 until his death in 1976.

It is now part of the Tun Razak Memorial. Free access, after registration, open until 5pm.We noticed one guard only, probably there will be CCTV. We were the only visitors, I am sure that also many Malaysians are not aware of this mansion.

It is an elegant building of two storeys. The ground floor has spacious living and dining rooms , upstairs there are bedrooms for the family.

There is an attractive courtyard. Pity that the pond was empty.

There are several display cases, one with krisses and another with walking sticks. Did Tun Razak collect them? We used the reflection in the glass for a selfie 😉 .

The first floor contains bedrooms. Left the master bedroom, right the bedroom of their eldest son, Najib Razak, the sixth PM of Malaysia, now enjoying accommodation in the Kajang prison because of his role in the 1MDB scandal.

The bedrooms of the other boys, Tun Razak had five sons and no daughters.

The house looks like a (luxury) private home. There is a home trainer and the safe is a sign that the family had money.

A traditional ironing table. On the ground floor there is a Quran recitation room. Not clear why there is an extra bed in that room. The story is that Najib had to pass the recitation test before his parents gave him permission to go to the UK for his studies.

From the house there is a nice view of the Merdeka 118 skyscraper. The other picture shows the second building of the Tun Razak Memorial, which we did not visit.

We walked from the house to the Orchid Garden.

Here is a collection of orchids that we saw during our walk.

The gardens are well designed. Although the rocks are fake, the fish are real.

We could have continued our walk to the Lake Club, but Pek Foong decided to drive there by car. Here is the main entrance of the Royal Lake Club, a huge complex, not far from the Lake Gardens.

For many parts of the club there is a dress code, but not for the Sunset bar near the swimming pools.

There we met Peter Leong, another hiking friend, for a couple of beers and nice food.

Here is a GE image of the Lake Gardens. I have marked the places where we have been, and also the location of the Royal Selangor Club, the other club in KL. For orientation I have also indicated the Pasar Seni.

It was a nice outing, I am looking forward to a repeat.