Thursday, June 7, 2012

Walking the Streets of KL

Pakdokter broke the LCD screen of the BlackBerry handphone when it slipped off pakdokter's hand and went crashing down on to the floor. So, on Thursday morning, pakdokter took the Monorail from KLSentral to Imbi and from there walked to the Low Yat Plaza, KL's largest electronic mall. Yes, a replacement for the BB's LCD screen was available for RM250 and would be ready in an hour's time. 

From Low Yat Plaza, pakdokter then walked to Changkat Bukit Bintang where the 'Summit Holidays' travel and tour company office was located. Pakdokter had earlier bought a 'Safari' package to Kenya and Tanzania for August and now that all bookings have been confirmed, pakdokter had to settle the balance of the tour price.

With time to kill, pakdokter walked to Lot 10 and went to its Isetan Department Store to browse through its golf section. So many things were on sale - dedicated to the coming 'Father's Day' celebration. Realising that pakdokter already have 5 golf sets at home - pakdokter had to fight the urge to spend on things that pakdokter really did not need.

From Isetan, pakdokter walked back to Low Yat Plaza to collect the handphone. It was ready and worked perfectly. The almost 2-year old hnadphone is still working perfectly - and pakdokter was glad that pakdokter had only spent RM250 on the LCD screen instead of losing out to the temptation to buy a new up-to-date machine that would have cost RM2000!

From Low Yat Plaza pakdokter walked all the way on Jalan Bukit Bintang to the Pavillion. Pakdokter decided to have a Nasi Padang lunch at one of the food-stalls at its Food Republic Food Court. Rice and 3 dishes topped on the plate of rice - masak kuning nangka muda, masak gulai asam ikan yu, and thin slices of bitter gourd (peria) fried with egg - came to RM11. A similar choice of nasi campur at the Sooka Sentral Food Court near pakdokter's home would have cost only RM7 to RM8......The difference must be in the rental rates. Anyway, the dishes did not come to pakdokter's expectation, the servings at Sooka Sentral were any time better.

The Pavillion Mall is now connected to the KLCC by an elevated airconditoned walkway. The folks of the city have taken to this new facility quickly - walking along this walkway felt like walking along a busy Tokyo subway passages. Half-way along the elevated walkway, pakdokter saw the KL City Walk - a lane sandwiched between the highrise buildings opposite the KLCC. And pakdokter decided to check this out.

This is a nicely paved walkway - lined on one side by stalls mostly occupied by food and drinks outlets. Some boutiques and shoe shops have closed down. Only the food outlets could survive since this street was opened ( a year ago?). There is also a stage half-way down the street - the notice there said that live performances were staged there.

This street looked interesting and well thought out. But it needs more promotional effort. Pakdokter bets that not many KLites are aware of this street. Perhaps only office workers in the neighbourhood, residents of the nearby condominiums and tourists from the nearby hotels would have chanced upon this street.


DBKL ( City Hall) - if it is the one who developed this street - should look into how to enliven this street. Perhaps a flea market, bazzaar, art and craft market with live performances should be organised every Saturday and Sunday to draw the crowd here. Then perhaps most of the businesses here could have survived!

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