Photosophize: KL Trip - Shopping at Kuala Lumpur

Had struck with this entry for weeks. Not that there is nothing to write about, but there are just too many things to write that I don't know where to start with. In my opinon, KL had too many outstanding shopping centres and on top of the Great Malaysian Sales, the bargain is just too hard to resist.

Day One

As I have said, there is nothing much to buy at Pertaling St, mostly sightseeing and local food tasting. We spend about 1 and half hour there before dropping off at Jalan Bukit Bintang which is equvalent to "Orchard Rd" of KL where streets are linedwith endless shopping centres.

The first stop we went to is Berjaya Times Square. One of the supersized shopping centres in KL. We did not manage to buy much from there, but I would strongly suggest to stop by. There are quite a number of stores located at the first few floors - Metrojaya, a FOS at the basement, Mango, G2000, Dickies Jeans etc. For those who has never went there before, there is even an amusement park with indoor rollar coaster located few floors up.

However, the shopping centre is no longer as glamour when it first opened. I had read that it had even attracted an UK shopping centre chain to set up store there when it had first opened, but it have since closed down. Most of the stores located upper floors are either vacant or filled with weird shops like handphone stores you would see in the neighbourhood centres. I find that a pity.

Then we walked over to the main shopping district at Sungei Wang area which has Sungei Wang Plaza, BB centre etc. It has only been one year since I last went, but there are a lot of changes. Always crowded, the street just attracted more and more people with the opening of a new shopping centre - Pavilion at the end of the street. What's more interesting was that the old shopping centres have also underwent so facelift to attract new customers. For example, the very small FOS store at Sungei Wang plaza had moved to the basement and revamped. It became bigger, almost comparable with the one at Mid-Valley! I bought most of my tops there.

Outside Pavilion - the newest shopping centre in KL city area. It was one of capital land investment and there is a Tangs outlet in it. Very posh settings. Not sure how different the prices are, but as the exchange rates is in our favour, things might be slightly cheaper compared to Singapore.

As it was Malaysia Sales, all the shopping outlets offered great discounts. I find the difference between Singapore sales and Malaysia one was that Malaysia offered bigger discount to newer items, whereas Singapore's sale items tend to be from older collection.

Parkson is a Malaysian household shopping centre name. Their store at Pavilion was giantic! I spotted two nice looking Liz Claiborne handbag at 40 % discount, thus bought one for my mum and one for myself. :) My friends were shocked when saw the shopping bags. They have earlier scolded me for buying too much and that how am I going to bring them back home.

My friend got a better deal. United Colours of Benetton had 70% off some of their collection! She bought 7 tops for like $60 sing dollars! Also, there was 40% discount at Marc Jacobs store. She was wondering whether to buy their jeans or not. It cost $200 plus sing dollars after discount almost comparable to Levis, but its more branded than it. If only, I could carry more, I would have get some tops for my brothers!

They got a lot of stores, some of which not available in Singapore...

I like the layout of the stores. It gave the impression that they are spacious and the whole place is brightly lited.

Sad... KL Plaza F.O.S is moving out.

Streets at Jalan Bintang was lited with lightings. It is not Christmas, but some middle-east festival. We almost could not get a hotel room as it was Middle-East Summer Holiday. Speaking of which, KL attracted a lot of Middle-East tourists and it is common to see a lot of women with vail walking in the streets.

There are a lot of newly opened bars at KL. Planet Hollywood is one of the oldest pub on the street.

Day Two

Mid-Valley Shopping Centre is one of the must go shopping centres in KL. It is supposedly one of the biggest shopping mall in South-East Asia and needless to say the variety of shops there are endless.

I particularly love their F.O.S as it was one of the biggest in Malaysia. Walked past Bobbi Brown counter, I realised that some of their products cost cheaper than Singapore due to the conversion rates! They even carried items not available in Singapore e.g. 2 way foundation powder.

I was also very touched by Bobbi Brown KL's service quality. While recommending their products, the make-up artist also gave me a simple make-up, something which I was very grateful of. I only had my eye brow and concealer on then and was very concious about it. Most importantly, she taught me a few tips that I realised I had put on make-up wrongly. (Will share some with you all next time.)

I was particular impressed when the lady corrected me when I told her that I applied concealer on my top eye lid because of dark circle. She said " Bobbi never teach people to do that~. The concealer is too heavy and will make your eyes looked droopy. You should correct it with eye shadow. " Speaking which, she introduced me to pearly pink shade which really lighted my eye lid's dark circle and gave a more natural effect than apply concealer on. Someone in Bobby Brown should give her a raise, please! I was so impressed by her professionalism and service. Btw, her name was June Tea.

Then next to the mega-mall, there was another newly-opened mega-mall named "The Gardens". Different from Mid-Valley, this shopping mall is much more "atas"and is aiming towards the very high-end direction. The decoration is magnificant and there are a lot of branded names stores. One of the interesting thing is that they charge $5 dollars RM per entry into their washrooms.

The Gardens and Mid-Valley Mall are linked and are within walking distance.

As it happens to be sales period, look at their sales decoration. As we have been walking non-stop for like 4 hours, we stopped for tea at one of the cafe.

Eat. Drink. Break. and then shop again~! Not a minute should be wasted in KL...

I ordered chrysthemum tea to quench thirst.

Then after much needed break, we went to KLCC aka Petronas Twin Tower - One of the tallest building in the world. As my friends had not been there before, thus we stopped there. There is nothing much to buy there, I find. I will probably skip the area the next time round. Btw, did I mention that I saw some people protest inside the building? Not sure what they are protesting about as I cannot see their banner. A whole row of people held poster and stick it to the window at the foodcourt. The demostration was not chaotic and was quite peaceful. They disassembled after a group of security guards came.

In comparison, see how "atas" The Garden is. KLCC only charge RM 2 for their premier toilet.