Rustic Jugra

Jugra. As rustic and mysterious as the name sounds, so is the town.

Jugra was once the royal town of the Selangor Sultanate in 1875. We took a drive to Jugra, about 20 minutes away from Morib Saturday morning. The more than century old Jugra lighthouse is still standing proud today.

Visiting the Istana Bandar in royal Jugra was the highlight of our Saturday, a continuation of our stay in Morib. I had visited the palace once in 2001.

The palace is currently under restoration works (I sure hope it's an actual restoration and NOT renovation, if you know what I mean!)

I love old buildings and old places. It must have something to do with the old soul in me. I love history and learning about them, and so the visit to Istana Bandar made my day.

Getting to Jugra from Morib was easy. Road signs were everywhere. Once we approached Jugra, the rural roads of Morib transformed into rustic roads of Jugra. It was really something. It's as though time had stood still. I'm glad my cousins who went with me to Morib/Banting/Jugra like history and architecture too, so it was oohhhs and ahhhhs while the cameras went a clicking!!

Let me fill you in with a lil bit of history here. This palace was built by Sultan Sir Alaeddin, the grandfather of the current Sultan of Selangor. In fact, the late Sultan Salahuddin (father of current Sultan) was born in this 15-room palace.

Entering the palace, you immediately smell history.

As we walk through the halls, I picture the Sultan and his court in a musyawarah (what would be the correct Bahasa Istana term?)

As we entered through the rooms, I imagine princes and princesses in their finest clothing chatting away in Bahasa Melayu lama... that's just my imagination... entah-entah, those prince and princesses spoke English and wore imported clothes from England!! Very the possible...

I sure hope the respective Ministry will do a good job in restoring this beautiful old palace.



Just a few metres away from the palace is the Masjid Sultan Alaeddin, constructed between 1903 and 1905. I don't think I've ever seen a yellow mosque before...

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The Banting Cendol House

From Jugra, we drove back to Banting enroute to KL. We had a light lunch at the restaurant in the photo above.


We had been wondering if there was any makan place serving some authentic local dishes but couldn't find any. Well, come to think of it I've ever come across or heard 'masakan Selangor' unlike what we know of masakan Noghori, or assam pedas Melaka or budu Kelantan... that sort of thing, you know... so it was rojak and cendol and it was nevertheless sedaapp...

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The English Cottage

As we were driving out of Banting, we saw a quaint English cottage right smack in a kampung!! The lil' cottage looked like it came from an English countryside, honest! It was just ironic how the cottage sat next to a Malay kampung house!! I had to stop and take a peek, of course!!

The shop sells all things beautiful, and our wallets carried a few notes lesser when we walked out the door hehe...

And that was the end our our escapade to rural Morib, rustic Jugra and little town Banting. Mission accomplished and I got to breathe the non-KL air I oh! so needed!!