KUALA LUMPUR, July 4 — Clutching our maps and armed with curiosity, about 200 of us took to the streets of Brickfields one early June morning eager and ready to look and learn.

Even though Brickfields is no stranger to crowds of all sorts — after all, this is where many migrants made their homes decades ago and continue to do so today — we must have caused a few eyebrows to raise as we traipsed in and out of temples, churches and stood around taking in the sights, sounds, smells and in a few instances, flavours of the place.

We were part of the This KUL city: Discover Brickfields heritage walk organised by Badan Warisan Malaysia in collaboration with Think City and the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society.

Ready to take on Brickfields!

Unlike most guided tours where you have to stop and listen to a “mini lecture” of each place, this one was completely self-guided.

What does that mean? Well, we were given maps and after a brief welcome message at the Malaysian Association for the Blind headquarters or MAB (you didn’t know it’s in Brickfields?) by the organisers... we were “unleashed.”

We were free to take in as much (each of the stops had a banner giving a brief history of the place) or as little (you could have ignored the banners... or skipped some of the stops) as you desired.

I had gone with my friend Zakiah and photographer Choo Choy May but at the very first stop — the spectacular Sri Kandaswamy Temple which is just down the road from MAB — we “picked up” Jackie from New Zealand who was on the walk by herself.

That was the other great thing about the walk... you make friends!

On this self-guided walk, you can take pictures and not worry that you are holding up the group.

We loved that we were discovering Brickfields at our own pace and not holding anybody up when we chose to dawdle at some of the stops.

I have to say I enjoyed the walk immensely. Even for someone who is already familiar with Brickfields (I have wandered around here on my own many times over the years), it was still enlightening.

That morning, you could tell who was on the walk... by the map they were holding! The spectacular Sri Kandaswamy Temple is in the background.

I had not realised the red wall I passed by each time I drove along Jalan Thambypillai was the back wall of the Sam Kow Tong Temple! It’s been there since 1916; talk about “hidden” in plain sight.

It’s amazing that the small area we covered held so much history, culture and stories. Not to mention the yummy eats (and no, it is not just about Indian food here... there is also Sri Lankan, Chinese, snacks, sweets!).

The distinctive A-frame structure of the Tamil Methodist Church.

And as if all that was not enough, the organisers threw in a little “game”! We were given a list of nine tasks and the first 100 all-correct submissions were given prizes. It was completely optional and we did not do all of the tasks (got distracted!) but we found it totally charming.

Among the tasks: Type your name in Braille, take a selfie with the statue of Swami Vivekananda and folding a lotus flower at the Buddhist Maha Vihara!

Learning how to fold a lotus flower... one of the tasks on the list.

Another highlight for me was the blind participants. They were from MAB and were guided all along the route by volunteers who described each stop to them.

Brickfields is famous for its blind masseurs and it is almost impossible to drive through the area without spotting a blind person... but I daresay this was the first time they were shown the sights, as it were.

I wish the organisers would repeat this walk (making it a regular thing is an idea... maybe every two months?) but in the meantime, you can do this walk by yourself.

Volunteers with some of the blind participants that morning.

Go to http://badanwarisanmalaysia.org and download/print out the same map we used for the self-guided walk.

Sure, you won’t be able to “win” a prize as the task part of the walk will not apply any more but I reckon the walk itself and all that you see and learn is reward enough.

Go on then and discover #thiskulcity.

* There will be another #thiskulcity walk at the end of the year... this time in the heart of KL. Details as the time draws nearer.

** For those of you on Instagram, check out the pictures of the walk by the participants using the hashtag #thiskulcity.

I never knew till that morning that the Tamil Methodist Church had these three narrow stained glass windows.