Kuala Lumpur Day 1 – We finally got out of our rooms in Tune Hotels and we meet up with www.RebeccaSaw.com that day in Publika Mall. We’re not familiar yet going to some places in KL because we haven’t started yet our adventure after checking in our hotel. The three of us just stayed in the room for some hours and chat via Facebook, then I got the idea to send a message to Rebecca aka Becky via Twitter to let her know that we are in KL, there might be a good tip from her about the best food and places to visit here in KL, I like to check out the latest here in KL and not the tourist spot which usually been visited by everyone, we want to go to a place that is not a common place for tourist like us, but we are very thankful that Becky agreed to meet us and her suggestion is to meet us here in Publika Mall. I did some Google Maps searches and found that there’s no bus or train going to that area, and its far from our hotel, but Becky suggested that we take a taxi cab and it will be just minutes away from our hotel.
Publika Mall is located at Kuala Lumpur. Solaris Dutamas. Kuala Lumpur, its like the Greenhills area and the mall is very beautiful inside, its not the ordinary mall, but it’s a creative retail mall that gives access to arts for everyone. Here we experienced not the regular mall ambiance, but its like a mall with big art galleries inside.
according to their website : http://www.publika.com.my/publika/home/
”Publika is creative retail.It is the new mall that stands out from the rest by sheer innovation.
By creating an urban center for creative activity, we attract life and life, as always, attract life and life, as always, attracts commerce. Novel products, original concepts, a fresh niche market, a brand in evolution and merchandising with a difference.
This is what Publika is all about.
Publika, bringing art to life... Publika, brining life to art.”
Here's how our day started and the unexpected meet up with www.RebeccaSaw.com
@popazrael cool! in KL for? event? holiday? review?
— Rebecca Saw (@wackybecky) September 22, 2013
We have to postpone our tour for the moment here in KL, and we went out of the hotel at around 4:30pm, the sun is still up and shining with all its might and here we spotted the KL tower waving us a “hello” and that Beri Laluan sign which means “give way”.
We were advised that we should take the normal taxi here in KL and not the taxi limo, because the rate is much expensive, the taxi limos are like mini vans that can fit 5 person. Infront of Tune Hotels, we called a taxi cab and we told the driver to take us to Publika Mall, the taxi driver didn’t know the location of Publika Mall and he is not familiar with the name of the mall, I gave him the address and later on the taxi driver pops out his smartphone and used Google Maps app and My Teksi app to search for the location of Publika Mall and then he used WAZE app for GPS direction.
We arrived in Publika mall in just 15 minutes and we are so thankful to our taxi driver of the day for taking us there and showing off his tech savvyness and skills.
When we arrived in Publika Mall, it was a great timing to meet Becky at the entrance of the mall, I’m surprised to see her that she changed her looks already and I’m not updated yet that she’s already a short haired girl, I’m a subscriber of her blog and I know what she looks like and I’m aware back then that she had a long hair. I’m so glad that she recognized me too hahaha.
Publika Mall reminds me of our high end mall here in Manila, it was like a fusion of Glorietta mall, Greenbelt mall and Powerplant mall. They have see through glass ceiling for natural lighting, store space are big, they utilize every available space by inserting cafes and mini stores, they put up an art gallery at the ground floor that shuffles every month and there’s an alternative space for arts, music and culture outside Publika mall.
Large scale art photo hanging in the middle section of Publika Mall
Art installation, the artist recycled a wooden item and turn it into an art piece.
I thought at first that these are crabs ahahaha, but it’s a bunch of surgical gloves with air and the artist pile them all together in one corner, it could be shock art but its funny to look at it.
Here’s another art installation that resembles a classroom style. The black board is a freedom wall that lets the shopper to write anything on the black board by using a chalk.
Stones are colored and painted and it resembles some kind of shoes.
Different clothing are hanged in the middle of the grounds of the mall. This is not a part of the store, but its one of their latest art installation.
After a short tour within Publika Mall, our Malaysian blogger friend Becky and Kevin brought us here at Swich Cafe
We met here the owner of Swich Café, Mrs. Lim Cheng Cheng. The café’s specialty are cakes with fresh fruits. I love the Durian and Mangosteen cake that was served to us that day. (watch out for my separate food blog post featuring this café )
In an unexpected meet up, we met the NYC jazz artist Ezra Brown here in Publika Mall, he just approached Enzo and inquired about his Canon’s prime lens, and then later on we found out that he’s a jazz artist who was invited to perform here in Malaysia for a Jazz fest that was held few nights ago.
Ezra Brown gave us his calling card and also a copy of his CD album ‘The Journey’
Here’s Ezra Brown teaching Raffy how to hold the saxophone
Ezra Brown brought out his saxophone for us, and then he played a live music, name of the music is “Sendai”, one of the music included in the album. Also we met Jasmine Low, the indie queen of Malaysia and guitar musician Az Samad and PR pro Yin. After this meet up, our introduction to each other continued in Facebook and Twitter. There in Facebook we found out some mutual friends connected to each other and to us…. cool networking!
Here’s a view of Publika Mall’s ground floor
A gallery of print, photo, digital and traditional art.
Mix media art, photo with some kind of cotton and wires
The ad simple shows one of the target markets of Publika Mall.
I love this doodle slice of life art posted in the walls of the mall.
More freedom wall spotted
Here’s Raffy writing his blog url hahahaha.
A metallic art chair – yes..it’s a chair..
see ??? it’s a chair hahahaha.
Robotic mash up art made up of recyclable materials
Brass and fiber glass art
Look above!!!
photo art print
Going to the basement.. the mall is vig, the entire basement is filled with lots of stores and the food court is located here. The comfort rooms are located near the parking lot.
Food Village, its Publika mall’s own food court.
EAT!!
I’m very impressed on the food offerings here in Food Village, for me its more than just a food court. Food stalls sells lots of authentic Malaysian food. I super love eating here and the price was okay and I’m comfortable with the size of the food serving.
Me, Raffy, Enzo, Kevin and Becky – in foodie mode
photo first before eating hahhahaa.
After we dined in at Food Village, Becky left us for awhile and she said we will follow her at another restaurant. There we met the organizer of the KL Restaurant Week 2013.
KL Restaurant Week 2013 is a restaurant week fest featuring different restaurants in KL offering the best of their specialty and menu, it’s a start of an awesome gastronomical adventure. Booking period just start from Sept 9-29, 2013 and the resto week will start on Oct 4-11, 2013. Visit http://klrestaurantweek.com/
After a short chat with the organizer of KL Restaurant Week, our new friends brought us to the night life spot located outside Publika Mall. When I saw this area, I felt that I am in Eastwood City or Greenbelt 3.
There’s an art scene happening here and I caught up some highlights of the event, like this Volks van with lots of art graffiti
Live performance
A took a photo of Yin’s friend performing… I got attracted to her voice and guitar strums
Spotted on the floor are some kind of short poems
They ask us where do we want to hang out, we told Kevin and Marco that we just need to relax and drink some good beer, so here we decided to check out that bar at the other side of the mall.
Art bazaar
I just wish that we can stay for a month here in KL….there are lots of festivals happening in every corner of KL
We arrived here at the Bee bar, it’s a music bar venue, I heard that Ezra Brown performed here the other night
uy… Live shows hahahaha!
The menu
Here we met Mark, a fellow Filipino who works here at The Bee bar as a waiter. Its awesome that he recognize us Filipinos too and he started speaking our own language when he approach us for our order.
Here’s Raffy…..got tipsy after a half mug of Guinness beer hahaha.
A snapshot of Becky, so busy blogging while on the go, Kevin took this photo as he test my Olympus E-PL1, also I noticed that he uses Olympus too.
I took a photo of Fatboy’s because I like the artwork posted on their glass window
Because I spotted a silhouette figure of a super robot – UFO Grendizer
announcement board….
me and Kevin
It’s a long way back to the hotel and thanks to Marco for giving us a lift back to the hotel. It was a nice turn of events for us and this is just day 1 here in KL, we haven’t tour around, but now we are confident to go out on our own because we met the coolest people here in Malaysia. So we got Marco’s calling card, we can dial him anytime if ever we got lost or need some help.
Watch out for our day 2 adventure!!! in the next blog post of our Lost in Malaysia blog series!
If you are in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and you’re traveling in a budget..then I suggest you
Check in at Tune Hotels Downtown KL
http://www.tunehotels.com/my/en/our-hotels/downtown-kl/
1. After arriving in LCCT or KLIA , take a train or bus going to KL Sentral (bus ride approx 1 hour to KL)
2. At KL Sentral, walk out of the terminal and head to KL Sentral Monorail, located outside the KL Sentral terminal
3. in KL Sentral Monorail station, buy a token going to Medan Tuanku station, price is at 2RM
4. At Medan Tuanku station, you can walk via the elevated walkway or the sidewalk street going to Tune Hotels Downtown KL
You can also ride the taxi from KL Sentral, but riding the Monorail is much more fun, convenient and affordable.
take note: some taxi drivers at KL Sentral will propose to you a 40RM ride going to Medan Tuanku area. I suggest just take the Monorail, of if you are in a hurry or traveling with your family with child, you can take the special taxis offering a ride with special price.
At Tune Hotels, single bed price is around 45RM per night (Php 700 per night)
Tune Hotel - Downtown KL
316 Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman,
50100 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
