Shopping: The Ties That Bind

Wherever I go for training, a common question that I hear among the participants (especially among the ladies, most of the time) is: "Where is it good to shop?" It does not matter whether you are in Manila, Kuala Lumpur, or Bangkok -- whatever free time there is, it will be used to shop.

On our last trip to KL, there was hardly any time to go around. Our training would start at 9am and go all the way till 5pm. We had no extra day for sightseeing so we pretty much had to content ourselves with our evenings.

Dinner with the rest of the participants, dinner with friends -- that left us with one night to go elsewhere. We asked the locals on where to go and for awhile, we had narrowed down our choices to Mid Valley Megamall and 1 Utama. Mid Valley Megamall was said to have cheaper goods but it also had more food stalls, we were told. 1 Utama was located in Petaling Jaya (about 45 minutes from our hotel on a Friday night -- not as bad as we expected) and it had an old wing (with stores like Jusco) and a new wing (with more upscale stores and department stores like Parkson Grand). In the new wing, they have a Pet's World which should be interesting for kids and a Rainforest -- which I didn't even get to see as I was busy rushing to buy pasalubongs. There's an IKEA in Petaling Jaya also, very near 1 Utama but was not able to go there anymore. Well, another reason to go back to KL.

During our last visit by the way, we had dinner at KLCC Suria mall again. This time we tried Kelantan Delights. Madame Kwan serves much better food and it is also easier to talk to the people serving there. Anyway, at Kelantan, the Tom Yum and the bean sprouts were good so that's fine.

So wherever you find yourself, eat, drink, and shop!