Today – I decided to go to watch a movie in the brand spanking new Aurum Cinema by GSC. I saw the advertisement for a couple of days ago and I decided to go and watch it. I thought they renovated the Gold Class but in fact, they completely transformed GSC Signature to Aurum Cinema. It was a huge transformation!
After you arrived, they will check your tickets and quickly you’ll be escorted to the dining area if you decide to dine first. Yes, the RM150 ticket comes with an Aurum pass which you will be entitled to a meal in Jin Gastrobar.
The Gastrobar looks posh. With dining tables and sofa for you to chill before the movie.
That was the “meal” that was provided. It was good. Very tasty. The menu is very limited now, but I presume that they will improve it over time.
The photo above shows the walkway towards the Gastrobar. I must say it is pretty cool. Check out the posters to the side.
The entrance to the suite. Confession – I actually watched the movie in Suite I but I was too lazy to walk back and take the picture. It looks the same.
The creme of the cinema. The seats (or is it a bed) itself. I must say, it was very comfortable. Reclining Getha bed with wireless remote control. Super comfy furry blanket to keep you warm. I was surprised that I did not fall asleep!
The side lamp has a dimming function, and those two round things are the remote control to call the attendants and the other is a wireless charger.
All in all, the experience was awesome. You are accompanied everywhere you go except when you are in the cinema. The service still needs to be improved but that will be in due time. Given that they just open, I bet it’ll improve.
I fully recommend this cinema for those long blockbuster movie. Probably not the short romantic comedy flick unless you plan to impress your friend.
Yesterday morning I woke up and felt that I needed some exercise. It’s not a golf weekend as I had to do something in the afternoon, therefore I either have to go for a run, hike or gym. Since I have not gone for a hike in a long time, when I opened my eyes yesterday – boom, its time for a hike!
First port of call, of course, is to find where should I hike. The first place came to mind is Taman Tugu. Taman Tugu is a new park that was opened earlier this year (I think!). It is located right smack in the middle of town. Somewhere near to Tugu Negara (National Monument), and not far away from Lake Gardens.
Drove to Taman Tugu, parked the car at the nursery entrance and quickly did a bit of stretch, and there I go! The first thing to do was to look at the map of the trails. The trails are properly documented, and by looking at it, I am confident that it is something that I can quickly conquer without much effort.
Map of the trails
The main trail itself is about 3km long, and I took approximately about 50 mins to complete. Not that difficult at all. Even the climbs were easy, but with my weak knees – I brought along a walking stick to help me ascend and descend.
The entrance to the main trail
The photo above shows the entrance to the main trails. Well placed signed to ensure that you won’t get lost. In fact, when I got there – I was a bit lost because I could not find where the entrance was. I asked the general workers and they pointed me to the entrance. Stupid me because I didn’t look properly while walking to the park.
The trails, very clean!
The trail itself is very clean and well maintained. Despite its the rainy season, the tracks were dry enough and my boots were sufficient to get traction.
Every few checkpoints, there were places where you can hang out on the swings and benches. Very good indeed. The trail was very easy, thus I didn’t have to hang around for a rest.
Gazebo
In addition to the swings, there were at least two gazebos that I saw along the way. Pretty cool indeed. If I do have all the time in the world, I would probably just chill here.
After completing the trails, I then exited and enjoyed a cup of joe from the food truck outside the trails.
The food truck also sells breakfast – so you won’t get hungry! I typically don’t eat breakfast, hence a cup of americano is more than sufficient for me!
Note – the toilet is very clean and well lit. It also comes with a shower with decent water pressure. No hot water though. Now the thinking in my mind is whether I should consider coming here before going to work. Perhaps can start by once a week then move into 2-3 times a week. A combination of circuit and trail walk/run will be good for my 2020 fitness goals!
This morning I had the opportunity to visit Segambut Dalam. Segambut Dalam is an area next to Mont Kiara, somewhere further up from Gardens International School and next to Kiara 1888 condominium.
I have passed by this place many times, but never had the inkling to visit as I don’t think it is any different from the kampungs that I’ve been too.
Moving into the kampung, I am greeted with a series of flags. I can sense the patriotism is very strong in this area. As we can see – there is a juxtapose of urban and kampung feel here.
As any other places – food places is an abundance here. This is the first restaurant that I’ve seen here. It is empty though. It is quite surprising that it is closed for Sunday morning. I would imagine that the restaurant will be filled with guests from both the kampung and outside.
The sewerage system in this place is rather non-existent. Honestly – I don’t know and too afraid to ask. The drains in between the houses are dirty and filled up with rubbish. I do not want to imagine the types of diseases one can be infected by such poor sanitation.
The picture below shows two male fixing a broken pipe. According to them the pipe was leaking and they had to break down the cement floor to reach the pipe. I guess they know what they need to do.
As I looked upwards, there was this lady who is hanging her laundry. By the look of it, it does seems like the house is big and spacious. I can attest that the house is bigger than mind. Thing to note is that the houses here are “temporary” and the land owner can take it at any time. Of course – we have heard so many stories on the “disputes” between land owner and the occupier. But I guess, time will tell whether such incidents will happen here. I hope not.
The photo below shows a middle aged man who has stayed in this kampung for more than 20 years. He is originally from Indonesia but has settled in Malaysia for that long. He holds a red IC – which is defined as permanent residence. I guess – he is still waiting for his time to get the blue IC. He did mentioned that his kids are all considered citizens as they are born here.
The scene is very typical, can see how close are the neighbours to each other.
The photo here taken right outside of their house. The lady invited us to a wedding reception – not far from this Kampung. I guess – it was too early before we can go there!
As we walked deeper into the Kampung, met this two females. One just “landed” in Malaysia (less than a year) while the other have stayed in this Kampung for more than 70 years. The older lady mentioned that she was born here and back in those days, the Kampung (and Mont Kiara included) are all rubber estates. Something that learnt. She also mentioned that she used to be a rubber tapper than but now there are no more rubber to tapped.
As we walked further in, bumped into this man. Very lively. Same as the lady – also born in the Kampung. He was sharing his experience on how he helped the father tapped the rubber back then. He also said that the big monsoon drain used to be a river, and he used to take a bath there before going to school. The river – of course used to be much more cleaner that what it is now.
We continued walking and boom – I saw a sundry shop. Saw a couple that was talking to each other. They said that they were from Keramat Permai before. A place not far from where my parents stayed. In fact – that place was just behind my primary school. That place no longer exists as development has taken place.
On the other side of the road, there were another bunch. It does looked like it was more “luxurious”, but that was just on the side of the road. As I ventured inside, I saw this guy who has a somewhat run down “hut”. He said that the house was used to be occupied by a whole bunch of Bangladeshi. He moved in to take over the house after the Bangladeshis left. He said that the water comes from the hill behind. Not sure how true is that!
As I walked in, I saw this chicken “farm”. Its just a whole bunch of cages filled with chickens. And of course there was a group of men who was just relaxing. I had a long chat with them. Most of them are from Indonesia and has settled in Malaysia for a long time. This is where they call home.
Following are just other photos that I took.
It was really a fun outing indeed. I had so much fun and of course sweat a bit given that I have not taken photo for a while. I need to visit this place again at night as I do like the effect of fluorescent lights. Will be very nice indeed 🙂
On Sunday – I went out for a walk. After a heavy brunch and Sangeetha, needed to walk off all the calories. Thank god I brought out my camera 🙂 Its one of those rare Sunday afternoon that I took my camera out. Partly due to the fact that I wanted to shoot more photos. I have not been using my camera much, thus bringing it out will push me to use it more often, rather than keeping in on my table (not even in a drybox, since my drybox died!). The following photo above is the Malaysian Flatiron, located not far from Petaling Street (Chinatown), few steps away from Pasar Karat. No idea what the significance of Pasar Karat though. Perhaps I need to do a bit more research.
The photo below is the original Flatiron. Shoot this photo back in 2008 – when I went to New York for a holiday. One of those days that I took 3 weeks off to spend hell a lot of money and ate hell a lot of food!
Obviously – not so the same, but almost the same 🙂 I guess given how small is the Malaysian Flatiron, the narrowest corner is definitely not usable 🙂
Markets in Malaysia(perhaps around the world too) start operating very early. I suspect it starts about 4 to 5 in the morning. It’s pretty early. One of these days, I should get my butt out and visit this market. One of my concern is safety. We’ve been hearing stories about mugging and robberies in KL, thus going alone very early during the day probably not the best idea. But we shall see!
Anyway – the picture in this post shows a person that is visibly tired. The time is probably about 9am, and the guy would have been working for more than 4 hours. Working in the market is hard labor. Despite having a lot of foreign workers, the owner definitely would need to put in the hours. I cannot imagine the days when one does not have any extra pair of hands to help him.
