The Gardens Mall and the Trip Home

On Thursday - my favourite day of the week - Mom and Dad's maid Nympha comes. I disappear quickly off to the Gardens Mall for the day. There is a free shuttle that leaves at 10:15 just outside of the condo.

The mall is huge and filled with high end and local brands. Stores such as Esprit, The Gap, Aldo, Coach, Burberry, the Body Shop, and Louis Vuitton are just some of the more recognisable names. The Gardens Mall is attached to the Mid Valley Mall which has a carbon copy of all of the same stores. I am not sure why.

Anyways... long story short, the trip to and from the mall takes about 20 minutes. Today, I took SEVERAL shots on my way back so that you can see what KL looks like. It is truly a city in the middle of a jungle. I even saw a monkey today. 

Mont Kiara is the top pink arrow and the Gardens Mall is the bottom pink arrow. The two blue arrows are the Petronas Towers.

Leaving the Mall

A river. Usually there are plastic bags floating in it.

They are building something here... basically, the city is under construction.Under the trees are the tiny little "lean-tos" that the workers live in.

More construction

Yet another construction site. The soil here is an orange-brown colour.

Literally, jungle right beside the highway.

The Malaysians complain about traffic nearly as much as Canadians! It is pretty bad here too. A thunder storm is brewing in the background.

Just a jungle.

We stopped to pay the toll. As you can see there is an elevated highway going in the other direction above us.

The well manicured entrance to the Golf and Country Club. The Malaysian Open is coming up next weekend. I was talking to a gentleman in the elevator last week who said that the course is quite nice but HOT HOT HOT.

KL has numerous limestone embankments. They have blackened with the use of coal.

The polo club.

Sri Hartamas Blue Roofs. An interesting shopping area next to Mont Kiara. There are hundreds of little shops and spots in there. Much more local than most places I shop in and around. I don't believe there is a grocery store there, but there is a Starbucks. Next time I am at the Blue Roofs, I will take pictures.

The off ramp to Mont Kiara from the highway. The gentleman ahead of me was wearing a white hat.

The water filtration plant. In the very middle you can see the brown water that will be cleaned up and drinkable. Luckily here, the water is drinkable from the tap. In SE Asia, that is a treat.

This is at the very outskirts of the Mont Kiara area. I would guess that they are clearing the forest for more condos. This is where I saw today's monkey.

The lawns here are impeccable. There is always someone sweeping the lawns to get rid of debris - leaves, flowers, trash.

Mont Kiara Plaza. Seeing as it is Thursday, the night market is all set up. Vendors will sell everything from fruit and veg, to sausage and omelets to clothing. Mom and I are headed there as soon as she gets home or, if she is late, I will zip down there tonight (10 min walk) to get supper.

7-11. What can I say?

The Malaysian Ringgit

In Malaysia, they use the Malaysian Ringgit as their currency (no symbol, just MYR). The money here is just like ours - colourful with monarchy on it. Unlike ours, the bills get physically smaller as the denominations get smaller. The new 10s and 20s are very similar in colour as the 20s aren't quite as bright yellow. This is because like our money, Malaysia has decided to use PLASTIC money. Although you cannot tell, the 5 here is plastic.

Obviously, I didn't have much change. There are two 20 cent pieces (beside the 20 ringgit bill) and one 10 cent piece beside the 10 ringgit bill. I'm not sure which is the new 20 and which is the old 20 cent piece. There is a 50 cent piece (silver) about the size of a loonie and a 5 cent piece (silver) about the size of a dime. No penny :(

The Fronts

The backs of the bills which show a variety of places and things around Malaysia.

Malay

Obviously, I don't speak Malay. It is a lovely language related to other Indonesian languages. Many words are borrowed from other languages. I've captured a few and will send along more in a few days.

Taxi

National Textile Museum

School Bus (the suffix -lah follows many words just because it can)

Technique

Clinic Kesihatan

The Condo

A picture of the dining room. You can see the front door - as such  - in brown on the right.

The Living Room. It is on the other side of the dining room. The couch on the left is the same on you can see in the dining room shot.

The Kitchen. This is where the house geckos usually hang out. They love the warmth below the fridge.

Standing in front of the sink looking away from the living room. The "open windows" are from my bathroom. The clothes you can see are drying and waiting for the maid to iron.

My bedroom. Not exciting at all! I'm going to have to find some art work to spice it up.

The balcony. The pool in the background is from the condo next door. My bedroom overlooks it. The pool starts up around 5:45am and runs until 11:00pm. Therefore, I wake up to the sound of running water and birds.

The Condo faces east.

The Elevator

Ha! The elevator in our condo is always a source of joy. On the back of the wall in the elevator is a sign about pigeons and monkeys. Apparently, the monkeys could be carrying Jewish Rabbies. They are very strong those monkeys! People have been constantly correcting and commenting on that line in the elevators.

Asians are a generally superstitious group. In most languages, the word four is a homonym for the word death so it is bad luck to have a four in your telephone number, on your license plate or apparently, to live on that floor. Hence, the elevator here has 3A, 12B, 23A, and 33A instead of 4, 14, 24, and 34. In order to be inclusive, 13 has also been ruled out - 12A instead.

See the beginning of the third paragraph.

A few Cambodian extras.

Our tuk tuk driver Borin

Pitchers of Margaritas were $5 USD

Charles would love that pig's ear or even the pig's face for that matter.

A "so-so" temple according to our tuk tuk driver. We didn't stop.

TONS of foreigners in Siem Reap, especially on Pub Street