Mid Valley Gardens Decor

Gardens at Mid Valley has always portrayed itself as an upmarket outlet. When it comes to decorations for festivities, they were always classy and understated. For this year's Raya, they concentrated more on details, and left the more elaborate decor to its sister mall next door, the Mid Valley Megamall.

The central gallery, where the main boutique outlets were located, were filled with small decorations and there were also some lightings hanging down, with more Aidilfitri motifs. One thing I have noticed, they have taken away some of the seatings at the main walkways, which make stopping for a breather especially while fasting a bit of a nag.

I was glad that the walkways and foyers were left empty rather than filled up by tacky stalls selling clothes and cookies. They obviously remained consistent in concentrating on the small things.

1Utama Decorations

After picking up Irfan from school this afternoon - Idlan was absent today, even though the fever was now gone - we headed out to 1Utama shopping complex as Anita wanted to get some presents for a friend's birthday. I took the opportunity to look at the decorations they had there.

I only had the time to venture around the lobby at the new wing. Being Ramadhan, we decided not to be too adventurous. The main foyer was transformed into one big stage. Themewise? Hmm … on the flowery side. I can imagine it being a blossom, with the petals forming a canopy for the little stalls they had there.

The main stage

Apart from that, there were nothing spectacular - like the winter wonderland from two Christmasses ago, or the famous sawah padi in the middle of the foyer, which was a big hit last Raya. I guessed things were pretty subdued everywhere …..

For those who are curious, this is the link to last year's sawah. And the video as well.

Suria KLCC Ramadhan 2011

Irfan finished his kindergarten classes at around noon, while Idlan at 3. So, this three hours today was spent taking Irfan for lunch at KLCC. He wanted pizza. We stopped at Pizza Hut. Since it was still Ramadhan, I spent the half-hour staring at him gobbling the round cheesy thing down.

Right after, I had the chance to explore the decorations on offer at KLCC. A couple of years ago, Suriar KLCC enrolled the brilliance of Dato' Lat for the decor, and the result was unforgettable. Just peruse this link just in case you dis not have the chance to experience it.

This year, things were scaled back. I mean waaaay back. But it was not as lame as Mid Valley. They had a replica Malay kampung house - with a gamelan troupe playing during lunchtime. There were of course, the obligatory stalls around it - again selling food, biscuits and clothing items as with other venues.

According to the information at the counter, they had activities all through the month reflecting the local Aidilfitri celebration. I was sure they had the tourists in mind.

View from the third floorPersonally, I did not think it was worth the effort making a special trip to look at the decor. The one featuring Lat from two years ago was definitely a one-off. As a central tourist attraction in the Capital, I thought they could have done a lot more. For God's sake, they even had a four-story Christmas tree a few years back ......

Mid Valley Raya Decor

I was actually expecting more from Mid Valley. I remembered their spectacular Raya decors of yesteryears. Their amazing Chinese New Year effort, as well as Christmas. I went to Mid Valley this morning, armed with my camera with high hopes.

I parked at Gardens, and made my way across via the Lower Ground Floor walkway. At the middle area, where the corridors met, were filled with stalls selling mooncakes. It was nice and colourful, and so I ventured forth to the main foyer. And what did I see?

A lame effort to turn the central gallery into some sort of an Arab Market. It was basically a collection of stalls - around a dozen of them - selling cookies and clothes. The kind of things that you can easily pick up at bazaars. And the collection the sold there was not really that exclusive either. At least not as exclusive as Bangsar Village. Right at the centre is a small island with date trees - supposedly. Err .... That was about it.

Told you that the mooncake stalls were much more interestingThere was a small stage - it being morning I wasn't expecting a show or anything - tucked on one side. I can't see much attraction there at all. They ought to put more effort I guess. I actually enjoyed the spectacles at the mooncake stalls more than the Raya decor. Thumbs down, most definitely.

The Secret of Raya at Pavilion

We ventured out to Pavilion after Iftar this evening. The Raya decor was being installed and for that evening, they had a 60s themed event, with dancers doing the twist. Really couldn't figure out how that actually fit in with Ramadhan. The dancers managed to get a few of the Arabs to dance along with them. Hopefully those Arabs did not get the idea that the twist was a national Malaysian fair.

I was not very sure what the overall theme was but it centered around the Secret of Raya, whatever that was. There was a big poster at the background, similar to the one you see at the cinema. So, may be it was like a mini movie, set in the 60s. Since the music was blaring out loud, the boys was not keen to go to the main foyer, so,I was not able to find out a bit more about the event. It was also drizzling outside, so we did not venture towards the fountain area.

Doing the twistWe finally left Pavilion just after ten, with a long queue forming at the exit. Even at that hour, Bukit Bintang was still buzzing. I was rather peckish and had to stop at KFC on the way, waiting for a good 20 minutes for my order. Anita and the boys were in the car enjoying the Boboi Boy DVD we just bought.