4 December 2005
Shopping in Shah Alam
At 11 a.m. things seemed to open! so I ventured out once more, in the hotel lobby, there was a family gathering of some sort, with kittens???? there were women in muslim dress carrying kittens all over the lobby for no apparent reason, they seemed to be quite wealthy, covered in gold chains, and the kittens seemed to be pure bred, perhaps some sort of swap meet for kittens? Unfortunately, I could not get any photos.
There were two malls within walking distance from the hotel, one appeared to be really fancy and bright, the other older and darker, I went to the fancy one first.
The fancier of the two malls
I walked around for a while, noting that I was the only person wearing shorts in the whole place, eventually I saw a couple more people, with muslim women, so I felt more comfortable.
I found a guitar shop, and went in, and was immediately questioned non stop by the entire staff of the store, by the time I left without buying anything, we agreed that Steve Vai was god, fenders are overpriced and that I have really cool hair (No pics sorry!)
I decided it was time for lunch, all the local fare was deep fried, and I didnt feel like double fried honey chicken with fried noodles, so I went to Nando's and had a grilled chicken burger, and coke, with ice! Now I have broken 2 eating rules, the burger had lettuce and the coke had ice, but the store was so spotless, the staff all wearing gloves and hair nets, and a sign saying their water was produced via reverse osmosis....we shall see!
The flash mall was quite boring, many brand stores like nokia, samsung, but they didnt have much stock, and no prices displayed, So I thought the darker mall would be a better choice.
The outside of the darker, dirty looking Alam Sentral Mall
Well, it was still immaculately clean, I guess the whole city is kept clean as it is where the sultan lives, apparently there are no cinemas because the Sultan does not want society corrupted by western influence, he has no problem with malls though....
Until today, I thought Kenny Rogers chicken was invented in Seinfeld
The metal shop! they were blasting non other than akercocke, then zyklon, the cd's were expensive, about $15 Australian, so no bargains to be had, all stores have p.a. speakers out the front playing music.
A view from the top floor of alam sentral.
On the way out, I spotted this bakery, but resisted - those cakes in the window are about $5 each.
I remembered that my hotel in India is advertising that they have free wifi, and I have no wifi card, so I found a computer store and commenced the bargaining, I got a card for about $15 Australian, it appears new, it was sealed in plastic, but they also had second hand laptops sealed in plastic so who knows, I have installed it and it seems to work, although I cant detect a network at my present location.
Still with time to spare before needing to go back to my hotel, I walked around some of the official buildings, and snapped a couple more shots of interesting landmarks.
As far as I can tell, they have erected a grandstand to watch the traffic go past! It really is just a grandstand facing the road for no reason.
Another view of the famous mosque