Pre-Raya Celebration @ Mid Valley Megamall

It’s already the fourth week in the fasting month and I haven’t done any shopping at all. Not a norm for me, as I’m the type that loves to prepare early. But not this year. This year is different.

Arabian Bazaar in KL?

What’s so different about it, you may ask. Well, normally at the same time last year, I would just browsing the shopping malls with my family, with nothing more to find. What to find if you already bought your stuffs months ago? And to see other people scrambling for last minute shoppings really pissed me off. If you don’t like that, then you do your shopping early, innit?

Nice theme

I was at the Mid Valley Megamall yesterday not to do my shopping, but to accompany Had to do her facial. Well, waiting for her without having to eat, drink or smoke, is a bummer. So to pass my time, I armed myself with my cameraphone and snapped some photos in the complex.

Find your accessories for Raya here!

This year’s celebration by Mid Valley Megamall is quite a sober one. The setting is like a bazaar in an Arab country (you can pick one, they’re almost the same), complete with decorations, the colour of the buildings and palm trees. The only thing missing? The camels.

Check out the lantern-like (or is it lotus-like?) decorations

I really like the simple setting. It looks authentic, there’s room for browsing and variety of items for sale. From robes to dates, they have it all. Price-wise, a bit expensive from the normal shops. Probably to compensate for the high rentals. Probably.

Come, come!

Well, if you want a piece of Arabian Nights for your Hari Raya celebration, head off to Mid Valley Megamall and taste it yourself.

An Experience: Staying at INTEKMA Resort

INTEKMA Resort's apartment complex

I’ve got a chance to spend a night at the INTEKMA Resort last weekend, and boy, it was a weird and surreal experience! Don’t get me wrong, it’s nothing wrong with the resort whatsoever, haunted or not. It’s just that, the experience reminded me of my childhood back in the 70’s. Wanna know more? Please read on.

Hall

INTEKMA Resort & Convention Centre is a 3-star hotel cum apartment, nested quite deep in Section 7 Shah Alam. If you’re not familiar with Shah Alam area, I tell you, you’re sure will get lost. Landmark? My old alma mater, UiTM Shah Alam.

Comfy sofas

If you look at the photos here, you’ll see that the apartment (RM160/night) is split into two levels, which is a nice touch, in my opinion. The hall is very, very spacious with an attached kitchen, a balcony with a view (see below), dining table and large split aircon unit.

What makes me so surreal is, the settings in the apartment is something like a decoration in a 70’s house. Seriously. Check out the sofas, cabinets, kitchen with swinging door (and a round window!) and the beds! How 70’s can you get?

What a view!

The balcony offers a commanding view of the rich and famous’ houses in Section 7. And UiTM too!

WTF?

Have you seen this kind of electricity set-up in a house anymore? Not since the 80’s, I guess. But it’s in the apartment.

Are we in a ship or what?

Check out the round window on the door to the kitchen. My parents’ house in Ipoh used to have this kind of kitchen door. And it’s swinging too. But that’s way back in the 70’s. Nice touch here, nevertheless.

The kitchen

The kitchen is full of basic amenities: kettle, fridge, washers and plenty of cupboard spaces. Only thing missing is a washing machine, a semi-auto one, if you insist to keep to the 70’s theme.

Swirling stairs (going up)

The stairs to the bedroom really makes me shudder with excitement. The stairs are made of steel, while the handles are from bamboos. Bamboos, you say? Hell yeah!

Swirling stairs (going down)

It’s quite difficult for a big guy like me to climb the stairs this small. I had to turn slightly sideway in order to fit and climb. Definitely dangerous for small kids. Hey, back in the 70’s, they don’t give a damn about kid’s safety!

Queen bed

The top floor consists of three beds (one queen and two singles), a toilet, a TV, a cupboard and some small tables.

Two single beds

The top floor is not as large as the ground floor ,but it’s spacious enough for three beds. I guess the design of the apartment calls for a single room apartment, or a studio apartment.

Wardrobe malfunction?

Depending on how much clothes you have, the cupboard might not fit your wardrobe.

T.O.I.L.E.T.

Toilet is clean but small. Just ‘ngam2‘ can fit me…

TV? What TV?

Pros: Reasonably priced clean apartment; nice set-up (if you dig 70’s themed hotel); friendly staff; good food; quiet place, cool swimming pool.

Cons: Old design furnitures and fixtures; parking might be a problem; place is far from shops; I’m checking out at 12pm but housekeeping came knocking at 11.ooam (WTF?); some fixtures seriously in need of fixing;

Actually, I really enjoyed my stay at the INTEKMA Resort. And the experience living in a 70’s themes (intended or not) hotel apartment is priceless to me. How I wish my apartment is like this.

You can find  INTEKMA Resort at Persiaran Raja Muda, Seksyen 7, 40000 Shah Alam, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia (Tel: +603 5522 5000, Fax: +603 5522 5004), or set your GPS at: 3°04’37.73″ N/101°30’17.69″ E.

Breaking Fast @ SN Sinar Nasi Padang

Photo courtesy of SN Sinar

I was longing for some Nasi Padangs but I don’t want to travel far for it. And moreover, I don’t eat that much to justify the distance to travel to that particular place just to eat. In my opinion, if you travel too far just to eat, the journey home would make you hungry again.

There is an Indonesian restaurant in the vicinity of my neighborhood. The food is not bad and very reasonably priced. The place is called ‘Restoren SN Sinar Nasi Padang‘. During Ramadhan, the restaurant has provided some buffet services other than the normal ‘Ayam Penyet‘, ‘Soto Ayam‘, ‘Mee Ayam Bakso‘, ‘Gado-Gado‘, ‘Coto Makassar‘ and ‘Pecal Lele‘.

The serving area and counter

Buffet is offered for RM19.90 (Adult) and RM12.00 (Children). It was stated that the restaurant has over 28 variety of dishes for the buffet, and most of it are not presented on the counter, due to lack of space. You have to order like  a’la carte for other dishes. But if you like me, you’ll opted for the a’la carte dishes, which is easier to customise according to your taste and budget.

My choice

I’m not too picky in choosing my food, but since I don’t take beef or mutton, my choices is limited to chicken and seafood. Rice is a must, and so is chicken. So, chicken curry is my choice, taken together with cockles (chilly, of course), cili hijou (green chillies) and lots of gravy.

Had's choice

Had would take a greater amount of food than me. She got the rice with chilly fried fish, cili hijou, fried egg, chilly cuttlefish and vegetable.

Salted fish crackers?

I don’t really know what this is. Looking at it, it was something like a salted fish crackers, or keropok ikan masin in Malay. But I really like it very much, and I took a whole plate of ’em! Nice to take it with rice, just like the normal keropok.

Iced tea with milk

Nothing like a cold iced tea with milk to hose down your food and quench your thirst. The teas are rather good, considering it came from a restaurant specialising in Indonesian food.

Pros: Food is quite good and authentically Indonesian; reasonably priced; teh botol is available for sale; WiFi is available but ask the owner for assistance; clean environment and well lighted.

Cons: Parking is difficult on weekdays; cost of food is counted at counter (rather than beforehand); restaurant a bit small; small food counter, some food could do with more seasonings (the cili hijou is not hot at all).

You can find SN Sinar Nasi Padang at G19, USJ Sentral 1, USJ 1 Subang Jaya (call for reservation at 03-74500181/017-3326757). The place is quite easy to find, as USJ Sentral is exactly in front of the old Giant USJ 1 and a stone throw away from Mydin Hypermarket USJ 1 (set your GPS at: 3°03’23.05″ N/101°35’40.37″ E).

Pre-Raya Celebration @ Empire

I was browsing around at Empire Shopping Gallery at Subang Jaya when I noticed that the Gallery management has put out a themed mock-up of a traditional Malay house right smack in the middle of the shopping centre.

Kampong (sic) Nostalgia

The theme was called ‘Kampong Nostalgia”, which simply means nostalgic village. It was meant to bring out the Raya celebration mood to shoppers, and also for them to reminiscent the childhood days that they have left behind (or going back to during Raya).

Authentic settings

The mock-up ‘kampong’ is decorated with synthetic coconut trees, a bicycle, some flowers decorations and decorative pots.

You can buy stuff here too

Around the house, people are setting up stalls selling traditional Malay ‘baju kurongs’, ‘baju Melayu’, sarongs and festive cookies.

Miss your 'kampong' already?

This setting is by far the most original and accurate of any mock-up Malay traditional house set up by any shopping centres in KL. Kudos to the Empire Gallery management!

A notable message from the loo…Part 2

Thanks to Dino for the photo...

As per my previous post here, there’s another wall message courtesy of the men’s toilet at Sunway Pyramid.

This message istargeted to the people who loves to litter their cig butts everywhere, even in the toilet.

Do you know that it takes three flushes to get the butt(s) down the toilet? I know ’cause I’ve tried.