A stroll through the town can be a pleasant experience. You are mostly protected from the elements by the arcades on both sides of the road, a typical architectural feature in most Southeast Asian towns. Some of the older buildings have retained their stucco façades with picturesque wooden shutters. Sticking out incongruously amongst these traditional two-storey brick and plaster buildings are more modern buildings, some of them rising four or five storeys. The bluish-green hills of the Bintang Range, their summits often shrouded in cloud, are visible everywhere from the town when you look east. As you stroll in that direction, the urban landscape quickly gives way to the refreshing view of the Lake Gardens, with the hills still dominating the background.
