Big Cock Coming

With the Year of the Rooster coming, most of the shopping malls were filled with giant cocks! Well, that didn't come out right I think ....

The builders were really raking them in as it was only a couple of weeks back that we celebrated Xmas, and by the end of the month, it would Chinese New Year. As with tradition, the malls were being decked up during this transition period.

The main foyer at Pavilion was being transformed at the moment with a huge flying rooster being hung right in the middle! It was et to be opened but the decorations by the main entrance was already up.

I had a couple of hours walking around Bukit Bintang this afternoon showing Anita around. I also took the chance to take some photos during the blue hours .....

Christmassy Pavilion

As usually the case, Pavilion always came out with the best decorations, be it Xmas, Chinese New Year, Hari Raya or Deepavali. It looked like their effort this year was not too shabby although the constructions at the main entrance made some of the features looked rather awkward.

The new building right opposite was encroaching into their famous fountain making access from the Bukit Bintang entrance not the smoothest. Add to that the poor traffic flow, heading in and out of the mall was not a joy at all.

There were Xmas trees and crystals aplenty, again with Swarovski being one of their main sponsors. It was both stunning and crowded and being a Sunday, the place was completely packed. On the day I visited, I was forced to park at KLCC, walking across via the linked walkway to Pavilion.

The area around the fountain also had a small train taking children for a ride around a tall Xmas tree erected there for the last few weeks. The main lobby on the other hand had a stage - for Santa of course - and a ride for children.

An enjoyable day out although I wouldn’t recommend going there on a Sunday afternoon. The place was just too crowded, plus the small matter of traffic ....

Pavilion Decorations

Nothing special seemed to be the operative word. The decorations were functional and not spectacular. There was no coherent theme although the phrase #SyukurSelalu seemed to be cropping up everywhere.

Guess that must have been the theme word. The economy was rather slow lately which explained the lack of exuberance at the place. There was also a recent court case when a lady dropped a yellow balloon - with a message of peace - at an event attended by PM Najib which was dismissed by the Courts. That took place last year at Pavilion.

I uploaded the spherical video and photo here.

The Pavilion Decorations

Kn the middle of the Pavilion foyer. Raya decorations for 2016 in full swing! - Spherical Image - RICOH THETA

I would write about this a bit more on another entry, but suffice to say that the decorations was functional and straight forward. There were no stalls and at one end, there was a stage which I was sure would host some dances at times. 

The place was crowded mainly with Filipino maids which I was sure on their Sunday outing. They were snapping away whicle the locals were going about teir shopping. For a Sunday, I was expecting the crowd to be bigger, and this is despite Raya only 10 days away. I guess people don't come to Pavilion for their Raya shopping then.

I also tried to dabble on a bit of video taking, but upon post-processing, I found the video to be rather wobbly and grainy. Not as sharp as I would have hoped for, but it was in VR mode. 

Lunch at Al Halabi

It was not often that a restaurant which looked good on the outside, served good food. At least not often here in Kuala Lumpur. So, Anita and I decided to be a bit more adventurous this Sunday lunchtime and for some reason, I fancied some Arab food. I passed by this particular restaurant on a newly opened section of Pavilion recently but it was too late for lunch then.

So, I decided to give this one a go. It was called Al Halabi, located on the seventh floor, through the escalator near Times Bookstore. It was part of a new section called Dining Loft.

It was spacious with a separate seating area in filled with natural light right at the back. A lot of shisha smoker back there, so we decided to take one of the seats in the main area. Very nice setting, true to Middle Eastern theme, with some of the waiters who were actually Arabic.

The cooks were definitely from the Middle East and they have a butcher there preparing fresh meat and ingredients, plus a baker who actually baked the puffs and bread traditionally. The grilling was also done in-house as well and the produce were displayed by the main counter as if you were sitting in a market. It was reminiscent of Marche.

What did we order? I started with some hummus with sliced grilled meat, and for the mains I had grilled pomfret while Anita had chicken tikka. We had some rice with them and I had some Arabic mint tea in the end.

I was impressed. I could feel the succulent fish melting in my mouth and the dips were amazing. Even the mint sauce tasted authentic - and made from real mint - while the rice was a joy. The mint in the tea was a touch to light to be honest and it finished up tasting rather bitter.

We gave up on desserts since we were just too full.

The seats were very comfortable as we were on a sofa, and I now understood why the patron seemed to sit down there for hours! We ended up sitting there for nearly a couple of hours, nibbling away at our food, before finally leaving the place. The staff were OK, although the Arabs struggled somewhat with their English. The other staffs who spoke English were Filipino or Bangladeshi. How I wished that the locals would work there, as I could see that most of the patron were locals.

Highly recommended although I hope that they could maintain their standard in the future. The place was still rather new when we visited.