New Medan Pasar

The clock tower to the north of Central Market used to mark the bus stop in the middle of town. It was a hub, signalling destination was reached and time to alight and sample the city centre.

The clock tower was now bare, meaning no more hustling busses stopping nearby. The whole area was transformed into a pedestrian walkway to good effect.

Nice art deco pattern at the base of the clock towerNow, the central area could use some original attraction or two. It was just too bare. The surrounding area also could use some redevelopment. Some nice old building were out there, and the walkways were being upgraded as well.

I see potential in this place. But first, we must figure out what to do with the Bangladeshi and Nepalese crowd around there. It was starting to feel like a foreign country.

KL City Gallery

This was something new that I discovered. Not exactly a museum, but a showroom for the local handicraft company ARCH - famous for wooden gifts - to promote their products. But it was done tastefully in the form of man exhibition centre.

Located right opposite Dataran Merdeka famous flagpole, this converted colonial building host a gallery about KL in the past as well as a unique model of the town the size of a room.

They served plenty of information - could be more - as well as promote local events such as walks and bus rides. The great location could certainly be a hub for tourist activities but the promotions was pretty basic. I stumbled into it after seeing the bright red 'I live KL' sign sitting at its door. Cool stuff indeed.

A room-sized model of Kuala LumpurModel of Bangunan Sultan Abdul SamadA great idea but something which should have been done by the local tourism board rather than a private company due to a clear conflict of interest. The collection of old artifact was pretty basic. I felt that more effort should have been made for it to carry the title of a city gallery. This was more of a showroom. Can't blame ARCH though. It was a genuine effort on their part to start all this.

Central Market Today

It had been a while since in last visited the Market. And it was even longer for Anita. She wanted to buy some gifts and after looking at some items at Jonker Street, she wondered how much was the difference in price between Melaka and KL. Suffice to say that it was a lot.

The place was pretty quite which was expected this being a Tuesday. A few tourists about but January was hardly a peak time for visitors in KL. Still, things remained very expensive.

The huge way motif overlying Kasturi Walk Do come inAlways had this thing about the tiles at Central MarketThe Kasturi Walk was now fully ready. It was still being erected when I last ventured here. But one thing certain about the place was the impression that the visitors would get. They would think that Malaysia and Indonesia shared the same dialect. Most of the vendors here employed Indonesian to man their shops. Something that the authority should into very seriously.

The restaurant at the second floor still served a mean tom yam. But again, only a couple of the staffs there were local.

Some of my previous entries on Central Market can be read here and here.

Walk in Town

I ended up in town accompanying Puan Anita earlier this afternoon. Luckily I got my camera along, giving me time to snap away while waiting. And the weather was gorgeous.

I ended up doing a long circuit, ending up going to Dataran Merdeka and back.

Will be posting the photos later as some of them were still being cooked and some were already on Flickr. Plenty to go through.

School Begun

The havoc from this morning had subsided. Registration went smoothly, things were all organised, the boys met up with their buddies after the school holidays were over.

Look at the size of the bagsThe usual crying were there but mainly at the kindie - one of our friends just sent their daughter there this morning and has yet to let go. I stood chatting with some of the fathers while the children it themselves settle down.

Irfan settling into his classWeather was not as nice as yesterday. It was threatening to rain all morning. And the mood was made worse after learning about one of my patients not doing well at the hospital. My sifu was covering for me and I was sure I couldn't contribute much more.

I still got plenty of things to do and organise. It would have to start after breakfast...