In general Janet and I stay away from malls everywhere in the world. Shopping is not her hobby and I prefer the internet. On our first day in KL (a Sunday), the hotel concierge suggested we visit the local mall – Pavilion (one of the newest in KL – 18 months old). Nice, high end mall, could have been anywhere in the US. It is really the center of a complex – a proper mall and then restaurants, sound stage, etc surrounding the air conditioned (air con in Malaysia English) mall.
The place seemed to have every teenager in Malaysia hanging out. Overwhelming chaos – we did find a “Mexican restaurant” that wasn’t bad and had a fine meal. Our first experience with Malaysia dinner pricing. While you can spend more money on drinks than food anywhere in the world – when a beer is more than the entrée or a soft drink is 50% of the entrée it is not surprising that people will eat their meals out, sans drink. Luckily it was happy hour so we got two for one beer pricing and one beer apiece was only 1/3 of the price of the total meal.
As we talked with Malaysians we came to find out that the mall is “the” place to hang out and not just for teenagers. Our real estate agent told us as a kid on the weekends the whole family would come spend the day at the mall – the only air con place they could go. Malls have a larger percentage of space for eating areas and they are always packed because people eat out most of the time. Looking at the kitchens and using that as a deciding criteria for where to live is very Western. Malaysian’s don’t cook – the food is too cheap and the cost of setting up a kitchen is too high.
So, if you want to find a Malaysian the weekend – go to the mall - they will be there. Just don't ask for any cooking advice.
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