Parkamaya

For the last few months, I have been trying to figure out what was going on on the third floor of Fahrenheit 88 in Bukit Bintang. The advert outside the building indicated that there were rows of shops there, called Parkamaya with a Japanese motif. Interesting I thought, but I never had the time to venture there.

A couple of weeks ago, I saw another advert in the local newspaper as part of KL Fashion Week, basically showing pictures of the place. That got me interested again.

Since I got some time last weekend, I headed over there to take a peek. Yes, it was basically a bazaar but it was nicely laid out and the items there were reasonably priced.

Unfortunately, I was not in the mood to carry any shopping that afternoon. I was keener to cruise around taking shots and stopping for quick meals. After all shopping were for girls..... lol!

For a Sunday afternoon, the place was subdued and there were hardly any customers. The place was tucked away on the upper floors making stumbling into the shops hard. You really had to make an effort to find the place or otherwise you'd miss it. It would've been much better if the bazaar was on the ground, or even the basement. And this was despite Fahrenheit erecting plenty of billboard showing where the place was located.

I just got a sneaky feeling that the place would not be around for that much longer. So, if you happened to be around Bukit Bintang vicinity in the coming months and you have some spare change, do give Parkamaya a visit. The place might be gone before you knew it .......

Packed KLCC

I had some me time earlier and I used it to have a browse at Kinokuniya, and a quick meal. I noticed that the place was packed. Not with locals. But with foreign visitors from the Middle East as well as Indonesia of all places.

The Middle Eastern visitors looked distinctive with the women in long black overcoat and their face covered in niqab, plus their husbands in shorts and sandals. It was a couple of weeks before Ramadan and I was sure they were here for a quick holidays before returning home during the fasting month.

And oh boy, do these lot like to shop?

Serravalle Outlet

The outlet we went to on the way to the airport was at Serraville, outside Milan and I was glad that we went there. The outlet there were a lot bigger, more selections and the best part, cheaper!

I got the stuffs for Anita within minutes, and had to stop myself from spending more as I don't want to use my savings. It was that good.

And the place reminded me of Johor Premier Outlet. The architecture was almost alike, although it was much bigger here.

Since we were rushing against the Saturday afternoon traffic into Milan, we could only.spare a couple of hours there. Personally, I could spend an extra couple of hours to really explore the place. Put it this way, there were three separate Burberry shops alone!

The one that took my fancy was the Prada outlet. Very wide selection, but the queue at the cashier was just too long. One of my colleague spent a good half hour just to buy an item.

Would blog more about the place. Would also need to rearrange some of my luggage items to put in my shopping. A quick nap before reaching the airport was in order ..... Ciao!

Collections of photographs from this retail outlet can be seen here.

A Long Day

I was really exhausted by the time I wrote this entry. I did a quick walk in the village near ny hotel after breakfast, hopped onto the bus to the Congress Hall. Managed to walk across town on the way to the Congress Centre and really had a feel of what Lugano was all about.

I then listened to a few lectures and then followed my colleagues to Fox Town retail outlet which I blogged about earlier.

I then turned back to the Congress Hall for anothed session before taking a late afternoon stroll into town. Did some more shopping before taking the tram up the hill to get to my bus stop before finally heading home.

Luckily we had planned for a quiet dinner back at the hotel. All of us as a group. We could then chill out, do the packing before heading to Milan tomorrow morning after breakfast.

Feeling sticky now after I was sure almost 10 km of walking. My legs were aching and I could do with a long hot shower. Shame that my room didn't come with a bath tub .. ..

Photos from the day walk can be seen here.

Off for Shopping

After I settled in for the morning lecture, my colleague contacted me. They planned to head out of town to a retail park doing some retailing themselves. I just tagged along.

The place we went to was called Fox Town. Don't ask me how they coined the name of the place. There were hardly any foxes in the place. Getting there was rather tricky as well. A bus ride to the train station and taking a regional train five stops away. And then a walk in bright sunlight onto the shopping mall about 15 minutes away.

Setting off by the famous Swiss train serviceThe journey took a total of 5 stopsFinally thereNow, where to go first?Exhausted, we went straight to have lunch before the assault to the shops begin. For me, I didn't buy much. Just some chocolates and clothes for my children. The branded stuff were way too expensive despite the discounts and tax-free offer. I gave it a miss, since we planned to do a bit more shipping tomorrow in Milan. Hopefully the stuff there would be cheaper.

This didn't stop my colleagues buying though. Saying that, a few items caught ny fancy. The Ferragamo ties for example. Much cheaper than in KL and the selection was very good for a retail outlet. The Burberry shop wasn't that bad either although the stuffs there were still too expensive.

To be honest, I was quite disappointed when I arrived at the place as I was expecting much more. One if my colleague said that during a previous trip to Milan, his group organised a special trip to the retail park. He didn't buy much then either.

Let's wait until tomorrow then ......