Jukebox's mini-adventure - Part 1 - Pavilion KL

Read this if you're extremely free. In this post I'll talk about how I wasted a day. It will be in a semi-diary-essay, semi-rojak style of writing. I think it wIll probably come under a lot of criticism.

This is not originally intended to rival HK's longest post but it somehow ended up like double that length. Therefore, I've decided to split the post into two parts. In short, here's a boring post (or two) to bore them all. Without further ado, let the boredom begin!

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Intro (this is a boring part, you can skip to the next subheading if you want)

One fine morning with no classes to attend, rather than go Monash, I decided to try something different. Pavilion KL and The Gardens opened recently. Instead of choosing which one to go to, I decided to visit both of them, since I have the whole day free.
Knowing that a certain engineering student will be busy with assignments, and the rest of the (Malaysian contingent of) Jedi Council members will probably be in school or still asleep, I've decided to set off on the "mini-adventure" alone (I'm not a Liverpool fan, so it's ok). The time was 9.20a.m.

9.20a.m.
So, I drove off from my house. Took 5 minutes to reach the first destination.... where else than the Bukit Jalil stadium carpark? (Of course I decided not to drive to town, crazy parking rates!). Upon approaching the entrance, I saw a small signboard. Wow.. Flat rate of RM1.50 only, even cheaper than Monash carpark. I parked my car and made my way towards the LRT station.

9.50a.m.
This was actually the time when the train came. Walking from my car to the station required about 5 minutes, but waiting for the train took more than 15 minutes. As a result, the first half-an-hour of the adventure has passed.

10.08a.m.
A brief stop at Hang Tuah station to interchange with the KL Monorail.

10.18a.m.
Reached the Raja Chulan station, which is located right outside Wisma Genting. Not knowing where exactly Pavilion KL is, I've decided to try my luck (I only know it's somewhere around the station). Turned out it was only three buildings away, across the road. That was fairly easy to find.

I crossed the busy road and arrived at the exterior of the mall - the capital letters "PAVILION" displayed across the building. The building seemed to be still undergoing some construction work, and didn't look as grand as I expected. I was trying to find the main entrance, then it suddenly struck me that I was on the other side of the building (main entrance is at Jalan Bukit Bintang, I was at Jalan Raja Chulan). Never mind, I just entered via one of the side entrances. All still had scaffolding and didn't look like proper entrances.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Pavilion KL

10.25a.m.
First step into the Pavilion. I was surprised by the lack of crowd (well, not really, considering the time and it was also a weekday). I strode past clothes store after clothes store before reaching the centre of the building - Bintang Square. Impressive view - wide steps leading from the entrance to the big centre stage, and zig-zag escalator design. Difficult to describe without pictures actually, and since I didn't own a camera phone nor did I brought my camera, I'll put some pictures I obtained from other people's blogs.

Zig-zag escalators

Went to the nearest Concierge and grabbed a brochure (mall/shopping direrctory). I glanced through the directory and saw that I was on the 2nd floor of the 7-storey building. The main entrance (Bukit Bintang side) was on the 3rd floor. Next, I scanned the long list of tenants. Ok...hardly any familiar names, guess they are mostly new brands. The anchor tenants are Parkson, Mercato (supermarket) and Tangs.

As always, I was more interested in the F&B section. Four fast food restaurants were available, and all four were familiar names - Nando's, KFC, Pizza Hut, and to my surprise - Carl's Jr. I thought they had ended operations in M'sia already. Great, I made a mental note to have lunch there.

So, next was to plan my adventure route (rather than randomly walking). This mall has a fairly simple layout, with a round centre and two "wings" spreading out.

Mall layout









One of the "wings"

Escalators were available at both ends, and each floor has similar design. I guess the route was already made out for me. Walk to one end, take the escalator up, walk to the other end, escalator up, and repeat the process for every floor. Then, take the lift down to cover areas that are not covered. The F&B section was at the lowest floor, beneath the entrance floor, I decide to cover that last. As they say, save the best for last!

Many shops still under renovation. Doesn't really look like the mall is ready for business yet. Many of these signs:

An inspiring sign that (impliedly) says: "We're not ready for business yet. Please try again next month."

Ok.. I think it's best to put in point form, very tedious to read and tedious to type also:

A couple of stores I came across (divided into categories for no apparent reason):

• Cafés: Baskin Robbins, Starbucks, Coffee Bean
• Restaurants: Madam Kwan's, Rain Nudle House (thai), Tony Roma's
• Snacks & Confectionery: Bread Talk, Kiew Brothers, Milky Lane (esp. for KK =p)
• Fashion: Guess, MNG Mango
• Home Décor: Room
• IT/Electricals: Maxis, Harvey Norman

• Urban Leisure: GSC, Red Box Plus, True Fitness, Times Bookshop (Out of these four, only Times Bookshop is open)

• I also saw this store named BCBGMAXAZRIA. At first glance, I was like, wtf?! How do you pronouned that? Later I found out that you can just call it BCBG. lol.

And then there's also the famous donut shop that HK mentioned briefly in his blog. Found one interesting [blog] about J.Co donuts (better than Dunkins?)


And now, some random comments:

• Design: I think it's pretty good. Extremely spacious. Liked the centre stage and atrium (Bintang Circle). I'll give it 8/10.

• Size: Looks very big. Maybe it's an illusion. Can be quite tiring to walk all the walkways. 9/10

• Number of outlets: Reports say 450 stores, but looked more like 50 to me. Reason being many still not opened yet. 7/10

• Food outlets: in terms of number, not bad. Lots of variety. Most of them on the lowest floor. (Highlight: Yo! Sushi - conveyor belt plates at RM3, 5, 8, 10, 14,16). 8/10

• Cinema: got one big GSC on the 5th and 6th floor. Opening at end of year. Have to wait and see. ?/10

• Precincts: Cool names. But unlike zones, not every store is in a precinct. (Highlight: Seventh Heaven is on the seventh floor, isolated spot with only one lift and one escalator leading to it. However, both these accesses are in parts of the building still under construction.) 7/10

• Crowd density: Very low as it was a weekday morning. Most are in pairs, got some gwai lous also. However, there are quite a number, who, like me, are walking around alone also. Most had the brochure in their hands. I keep running into this Indian guy with a cap.. lol..

• The four fast food outlets are located side-by-side, direct competition?

• Carl's Junior "opening soon" - disappointment. Guess I'll see what The Gardens has to offer before deciding my lunch location.

• Oh, they also have some service staff scattered around the mall handing out brochures and helping out shoppers. Good service.

• The view from the 6th floor at the centre circle is excellent. See pics.

can see KL Plaza and Lot 10 opposite













View of interior of mall

A visit's not complete without a trip to the restrooms. So...

• Restrooms: Cubicles nothing special. Satisfactory cleaniness. Wash area quite large. Basins on one side, tissue disposal bins on the other, about 10 feet away (waste of space).

Finished walking every walkway by approximately 11.30 . That was fast. Had originally allocated two hours for this mall. Probably because not many shops were opened and therefore not many spots to stop by, and I also did not enter the departmental store. Anyway I didn't intend to purchase anything, was just strolling around (if there's such a phrase) to see what's new. Window shopping is just like a walk in the park, literally, minus the greens.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Next, I walked to the Bukit Bintang monorail station, passed by KL Plaza, Lot 10 and BB Plaza on the way. Took me 7 minutes. Got a rare sight of a double-decker bus on Jalan Bukit Bintang while waiting for the train.

12.10p.m.
Reached KL Sentral. Had to transfer to KTM. With a combination of luck and the "efficiency" of KTM services, the next train to Mid Valley (i.e. Seremban bound) will only be arriving at 12.29p.m. . 20 minutes to spare, ok, a visit to McD's for a RM1.05 sundae. Finished eating, still had time, so grabbed free The Sun newspaper. Read sports section. Announcement: "Tren ke Seremban akan tiba di platform enam..". Rushed to ticket barrier. With Touch n Go, no fuss. (Get one at your nearest authorised Touch n Go dealers today!) Hopped onto train, packed like sardines.

Citation:Photos, excluding the floor plan, were obtained from the blogs of [my greg] and [yowazzup]

(to be continued...)