End of the Road?

Since the closing of Bukit Bintang Plaza, its sister Sungai Wang Plaza seemed to have aged considerably. It was slowly turning into a dump unfortunately. Certainly it had not aged gracefully.

When I was there yesterday, quite a number of the business had closed. Some of them had moved across to Berjaya Time Square just along the road. Some of them had packed up while most of the IT vendors had moved to Low Yat next door.

It was a Sunday and usually the place was the buzz capital of townApparently the main foyer was occupied by a K-pop dance event. It was already done.In the past years, there were still plenty of vendors selling phones at the main foyer and walkway. It uses to be multiple floors of them. Yesterday, it was down to just a single floor. And even then, you can't get the really up to date gadget any longer.

This was one of the earliest "Famous Amos" store in the country. And still serve the best cookies.But it was depressing to look around everywhere ....I was convinced that its days are numbered. Maybe once the MRT station operational the situation might improve but at the rate it was going things were. It looking too good. The whole of the third floor was practically empty. I didn't even bother going up to the loft where there used to be a big eating area.

Time had certainly moved on ....

The KL Tower

The last time we had a meal at the revolving restaurant must have been a couple of years back. It was under a different management and the food then was better than when we visited recently.
On the plus side, there was a few new attractions - the old Blue Coral aquarium and F1 simulator were still there - including a new mini-zoo. There was also a new platform opened with shops and space for cultural dances and activities, dubber the 1Malaysia Cultural Village. There was also a crane pulling up a table for dinner should you wished to have your dinner dangled up in the air. Not my cup of tea however!

The Bukit Nanas Forest Reserve had now been reopened and one can walk down the hill via a jungle trail from the tower. Certainly the tower had plenty of things going for it at the moment.

Not much of a view unfortunately with the haze ...There are a few taller ones ....But, the management would have to be more slick. There was the perennial issue with parking which was a pain. Luckily this time around Julia booked a spot with the valet. And booking our table at Atmosphere 360 was a bit of an ordeal. I had to personally turn up there to finalise the booking as initially the management insisted on me paying the 50% deposit. I wouldn't mind paying the deposit but I had to either bank in the money into their account and email them the receipts, or alternatively give them my credit card details, which included a photocopy of the card front and back! That would be silly don't you think.

So, I might as well turn up there and pay up front. And then there was the surcharges for the window seatings and the fact that they could only accommodate up to 10 on a single table. We were in a party of 11! So we had to book 2 tables, and had to pay the surcharges twice!

Do not look at the sun!My Dad having a peekCoupled with a limited selection of food and lack of a la carte menu, bringing kids would not be much fun. The lunch buffet package cost around RM90, and dinner package cost twice that. I guess you would be paying for the novelty factor.

I wished that the management could get their activity streamlined fitting with their status as one of the premier destination in Kuala Lumpur. And another thing, I could see that although the locals made the majority of the front line staff members, there were plenty of foreigners about. What impression would this give to our visitors?

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.

Happy Sunday

I just can't help it. I woke up early after sleeping in front of the TV last night. The intention was to watch the ManYoo- West Brom game, but I guessed the lull of the pillow was too strong! I ended up being woken up by Anita after the game finished. 2 nil to United she said before I stumbled back to sleep in the bedroom.

So, I woke up just after Subuh this morning, at around the usual time I woke up during work days. ANd I just couldn't get back to sleep. I ended watching YouTube reviews and was quite interested in the latest offering from BlackBerry. The Android-powered Priv. It retained both the physical and the excellent software keyboards from the Z series. If the tide is ride, it could be a winner! It's not yet available in Malaysia. Maybe when it was released, I'd have a look.

It was still too early to get to the hospital for the morning rounds. But maybe I just have a shower and see what was for breakfast .... Good Sunday all!

Foodgasm Fest 2015

The weather proved to be both a blessing and a curse. On the one hand, the rain washed away what was left of the haze which had been blighted us lately. The sun was shining and the sunblock were off the cupboard for the first time in weeks - not for me of course! It was a feel good weather. Even a small ray of sunshine could lift the mood, coupled with it the promise of garden party with food galore in the middle of town, it seemed perfect! It sounded so good that it seemed like the whole of KL congregated at Dataran Petaling Jaya, opposite AmCorp Mall last Sunday for Foodgasm Fest 2015.

And with that, came the traffic horror story of almost epic proportion. With the traffic warden turning up well past their due in time to issue summons. It was gridlocked, but more on that later.

The rain also proved to be the architect for trouble at this festival. The grass field was filled with mud and one couldn't avoid them since the queue was so long and the terraces of food stalls sat right in the middle of the quagmire! It was slowly turning into a mudfest.

Back to the traffic! We should have turned back the moment we saw the line of cars stretching a couple of kilometers along the Federal Highway leading into Jalan Timur. We persevered and was rewarded with a one hour crawl. And even then we didn't manage to get a parking spot. People were parking their cars at their fancy and before long the whole of Jalan Timur turned into one giant parking lot! And there were no traffic warden in sight.

Anita and I decided to escape via Jalan Gasing, back towards our apartment and took the LRT for a couple of stops landing right next to Dataran PJ.

Looking at the length of the queue, we decided to have a quick bite at the A&W restaurant nearby. No such joy. The queue there stretched right out of the joint. We soldiered on onto the field. The wait for each stall was at least 30 minutes and some of them had run out of items and having problem replenishing them as their supply car were caught in the jam!

We circled around and the only place without a queue were the vape tents. They were the craze at the moment! There were mud everywhere and Anita scrapped the idea of opening her picnic mat. Journey ended!

Back to the LRT station, onto the car and onwards to the nearest restaurant for lunch. It was past 2pm by then ....

So, it was a missed opportunity firstly from the traffic point of view, and secondly the state of the field.

There were plenty of area at the edge of the field which were covered, but you still have to get your feet dirty to get to the food stalls. And to add to that, there was no guarantee that you would get what you wanted due to sheer number of people turning up! It was a great idea but the organiser should have encouraged the punters to use the LRT and have the traffic wardens on hand to prevent congestion.

Hopefully no more muddy field in next year's chapter because I would definitely be coming again - on an LRT that time of course! And preferably early in the morning. Great idea, but suspect execution!