city explorer

yesterday, mom woke me up at 1030am as they're about to leave home for brunch and some shoppings for my aunty in new zealand. i didn't really have enough sleep as me and my cousin had a late night the previous day watching SPL on dvd. it's definitely a good movies and that's the only time i've ever watched sammo hung as a bad guy. highly recommeneded. i was quite grumpy at first as i only went to bed around 430am. oh well, aunty and cousin is around, better to join the fun than sitting alone at home. after cleaning up myself and off we go to bukit bintang area where sg wang is our first destination.

it was jammed packed with cars and people everywhere around that area. me and my cousin dropped the rest off at sg wang while we went looking for a park as most of it is filled. we then decided to park at lot 10 and to our surprised, they still have tons of spaces left. maybe there's still a lot of people didn't know the parking rate on weekends and public holidays is charged per entry. to me, it's one of the cheapest place to park in bukit bintang area apart from times square. had lunch at this malay restaurant called 'restoran bintang' at the roof top food court of sg wang before our shopping starts. we were supposed to look for a blouse from this magazine cut-out and it's very british india or east india type of design. went to a couple of boutiques in sg wang and metrojaya but unfortunately, there wasn't any or probably out of the season.

later, my cousin suggested those shops in jalan masjid india as sometimes it can be found there. we then took a monorail ride from lot 10 to medan tuanku station and it cost rm1.40 each. this is the first time i ever been on a monorail since it's service started for sometime. as usual, it's packed in and out of the train and even the station. the ride to medan tuanku was smooth except some minor vibrations when going into corners. we hopped off at medan tuanku and continue walking towards jalan tuanku abdul rahman where sogo and pertama complex is situated. the weather was humid but luckily it isn't bright, sunny and flaming hot. as we strolled along jalan tuanku abdul rahman, i saw this caterpillar excavator with a t-rex jaw demolishing a high rise building. the amazing thing is that how did they managed to get the giant machine that weighs more than 50 tonnes up to the top of the building. can a helicopter do that? well, i don't think so. we stood there for a couple of minutes looking at the building been torn apart. we then continued our look around until we reached jalan masjid india on foot. went to couple of stores there as well and we just can't find what we're looking for.

at the end of jalan masjid india, there was this bazaar that sells exactly the same items as in petaling st. there were a lot of foreigners selling items such as clothing, household equipments, bags, leather goods and etc etc along the back alley of a main road that leads you to jalan tun perak. apart from the chinese community setting up their business in petaling st, this is where the malay and indians do business on the other side of the city. besides the bazaar, all along jalan tuanku abdul rahman and jalan masjid india were filled with stores that sells textiles, clothing and most of them were quite middle-eastern to indian type of designs. they even have turkish scarfs and persian carpets. well, if you're looking for something like that, head down to that area.

as we approach jalan tun perak, we catch a lrt service from masjid jamek station and got off at hang tuah station. our lrt conditions were ok and rubbish is at minimal level. after we got off from the lrt, we strolled along the pudu jail till we reached times square. along pudu jail, there were parts of the barb wires that left hanging by the wall, my cousin checked them out and they're still as sharp as razor blade. we then stopped by at borders in times square for a quick look around for books before heading back to lot 10 for dinner. we went to this restaurant called 'Crystal Jade La Mian Xiao Long Bao' that serves chinese authentics such as dim sums. they even served variety of ramens that tasted simply delicious. i first tried their ramen last week in takashimaya, singapore and got to know they have an outlet in kl. it's really bad that i didn't managed to take any photos due to my mobile ran out of battery.

after dinner, we realised that we actually did what a normal city people wouldn't do by exploring the other side of the city by foot and rail for hours on a humid day. i reckon that it's really a good experience though especially you get to see different kinds of people and the things they sell. i think for the whole day, we spend about 8 to 9 hours without using our own transportation which is a good achievement on not relying on self-owned transport.