Mid Valley/ The Gardens - 7th Sept 2008

My family spent almost 8 hours at Mid Valley and The Gardens today. I think that was the longest time we had ever spent in the shopping complex. Halfway through, Alex was already complaining that his feet was tired...... but they miraculously became okay again when he was told that I had permission from a sponsor to get him his Sony PSP today!!

We were at the shopping complex by 10.30am to avoid the lack of parking lots. Anytime you arrive after 12,30pm on a weekend, you can be assured of little or NO parking lots available. You would have to wait and hope that someone would be leaving near where you are waiting. These waits can be as long as an hour.

First we went to the GAP. I had RM1000.00 worth of vouchers to spend!! Won that some time back and then was told that I could not use it during sales (which was the whole of last month!). Alex and my wife managed to grab a few Tees, some socks and even a backpack. That came to RM802. Used RM800 of the vouchers and paid the difference in cash - all RM2 of it. Got a free water bottle and a free membership added to the whole deal. Okay I guess, since I only spend RM2 cash for everything.

Then we decided to explore the Gardens. We had never gone beyond the 1st floor on all our visits. We got something at Marks and Spencer. Walked into a couple of mobile phone shops. I was looking for a second phone for private use. The Gardens even had ketupat shaped lanterns hanging all over. Was this suppose to be Tanglung Raya?? Went all the way up to Borders (the bookshop) and the GSC Cinema level. By then Alex was thirsty, so we decided to try the "Delights of Gurney Drive" located on level 3 (use the middle escalators, not the ones at the Isetan or Robinsons ends). They had 16 hawker style stalls located all around the dining area offering authentic Penang fare. They claim that they had 16 chefs from Penang preparing the food. You can just make out some of the stalls behind my wife.

Alex and wife are not big eaters, so I ended up ordering Char Kway Teow and Sotong Kangkong (squid with morning glory), a glass of ice lemon tea (which was more lemon and little tea with lots of ice). Wife ordered what she thought was pig stomach noodles. Turns out to be Pig Intestines with kidney noodles. Food was good but pricey. As an example, Char Kway Teow was RM12.80 +10% (svc charge), which Little Penang Cafe in Mid valley only charged RM9.80 for the same thing. Of course the typical hawker only charges RM4 or so in most places.

After lunch, we popped over to Mid Valley. Walked on every 1st and 2nd floors of Jusco, Toys R'Us and so on and by then Alex was complaining of tired feet. According to my pedometer, we had only done about 8000 steps so far. So i suggested that we stopped over at Burger King for a rest and drinks. While he was resting, I popped over to the Samsung shop next to Besk Denki. After a big of haggling, decided on a Samsung SGH-L760 for my second phone. Very basic features - only MP3, 2M camera and 3G. Nothing fancy.

I had SMSed a sponsor if i could buy the PSP for Alex today, since we were there. Sponsor agreed and I told Alex. Eyes lit up immediately. No more tired feet. Made our way up to the 3rd floor. First shop which we had inquired previously had no stock of the Mint Green Slim and Lite PSP. So we went to a second shop. Package, including downloading up to 7 games onto a 4G memory card, came to RM979. By the time we were finished, it was almost 6pm!!

Loooong day!