Stand in the execution block of the Malaysia Prison Museum
The gallows and the mortuary trolleys
The national prison museum, in the 1860 Banda Hilir prison on Jalan Parameswara, about 1.5 km south of Dutch Square. The condemned block, the cells and the hard-labour equipment are all still in place.
Why it's unique
Banda Hilir Prison was built in 1860, ran as a jail and then as a Henry Gurney school, and closed in 2010. It reopened in 2014 as the national prison museum, and unlike most prison museums it keeps its condemned block: a two-storey execution room with the gallows and the metal mortuary trolleys still in place, the death-row cells beside it, a replica whipping frame, and the iron cannonball shackles used for hard labour. Some cells are left exactly as they were, graffiti and stains included.
This is Malaysia's national prison museum and the only place in the country where you can stand inside an execution chamber that was in use. Items from Pudu Prison in Kuala Lumpur, which was demolished, are displayed here, so several of them survive nowhere else.
Before you go
It is the white-and-green colonial building set back from Jalan Parameswara and it is easy to drive past.
The gallows block is at the back and unsignposted from the entrance, so ask. A lot of visitors do the uniform-and-handcuff displays and leave without ever finding it. Entry is cheap and it opens daily. It is not suitable for young children.