Came to REXKL today for coffee…this place is certainly much more pleasant and fun to explore on a weekday.
Also stumbled upon some interesting graffitis here. Come here to see them yourself.
Urban rejuvenation underway, but the old school fruit sellers are still there. Many new cafes, but not all are excellent, so be sure to check the reviews!
Had a lovely spread at Palmierra, a new Malay restaurant located right across the road from Four Points. Delicious.
The kek batik has the texture that I like; gummy. Must try the asam pedas fish too.
This bakery at the Four Points building (occupies the ground floor facing ChoCha) really takes minimalism to the next level.
Kota Raya - the Little Manila at the heart of KL. Lots of Filipino restaurants here!
Muzium Telekom - didn’t walk in, but they have an exhibition coming up.
Continued the Chinatown adventure today; stumbled upon an old record store that boasts a stellar collection of Golden Era Cantopop records; Leslie Cheung etcetc.
Else KL, a new boutique hotel that took over the formerly derelict Lee Rubber Building.
Exquisitely decorated inside, art deco style.
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Groceries kat Malaysia sangatlah mahal kalau kita bandingkan dengan tahap gaji rakyat kebanyakan.
Restoran beli barang secara pukal, jadi kedai nasi campur, mamak, tomyam etc ada economies of scale. Kalau sorang2, makan luar lebih jimat dari memasak di rumah. This is a reality.
The high property prices are also pricing the youth out of the property market. Ramai menyewa dalam apartmen kecil, berkongsi dapur yang tak seberapa. Nak masak susah. Nak simpan makanan susah. Kalau students nak beli set periuk, oven, blender semua tak mampu.
Life is hard.
The propensity to eat out here isn’t a conscious decision that people make because Msians love food. Tapi sebab itulah cara yg paling sesuai untuk makan dan isi perut.
Singapore acknowledges this. That’s why gomen mereka focus on setting up cheap foodcourts for the people.
It wasn’t the liberal secularists who brought down the Shah. It was the clerics, who made an alliance of convenience with the leftists, who brought down the Shah in 1979.
And of course, after the Shah was deposed, the clerics got rid of the leftists too. Unceremoniously.
July 9, 1981 - two years after the Shah was deposed, Khomeini ordered a wipe-out of the leftist influence in the government & the military.
The leftists & the Marxists, who were former allies of the Ayatollah, were executed, shot on the Caspian Sea.
https://t.co/GYuqPXasXLnytimes.com/1981/07/10/wor…
The mass executions weren't something that most in Iran predicted in 1979.
Many professionals "returned to Iran just before or immediately after the revolution, ready to serve in the Islamic Republic of Iran, moved by the dream of a new age of freedom." nytimes.com/1979/10/14/arc…
Lumping all umrah travelers together, as if all, or a big portion of them skipped the vaccination process & disregarded SOPs, is problematic.
The people who cheated their vaccination status must deserve our scorn, granted, but to channel our disdain to all pilgrims is excessive.
Not everyone has the luxury to postpone their travel reservation during the last minute - the omicron wave was so ferocious and instantaneous that few travelers knew that it was going to get 'that' bad.
For some, that umrah trip was something that they dreamed about for years.
Now, considering the risk that we're dealing with, it's commendable of the govt to suspend all umrah visits. Doing this is a measured approach.
But not all umrah returnees can easily squeeze in that extra RM2-3k to their travel budget on last minute hotel quarantine.
Its GDP per capita is comparable with M’sia. Average salary, slightly below USD600 is also similar with MY.
KZ is multiracial, with a large Russian minority (20%, comparable with Chinese in MY).
KZ is O&G reliant, albeit more so than MY.
Also fascinating is how Nazarbayev took cues from Malaysia’s economic model to develop Kazakhstan. Megaprojects boosted the economy. KZ is also a major FDI center in the CIS - liberal, business friendly policies attracted investments.
Also, MY has Putrajaya, KZ has Astana.
“Almaty, the commercial capital of Kazakhstan, is the kind of mirage that oil-rich nations so often produce. It has all the trappings of comfort and consumer excess: swanky shopping malls, luxury car dealerships, high-end hotels”
The movement restriction and the lockdown will end, but the trauma will linger.
The world will never be the same again. The anxiety associated with being in a crowded place will linger. People will grow more conscious about their surrounding. Who they’re sitting next to.
Safe to say, it’ll take some time before people will go to a concert again. The way the society behaves will also be different. Even religious gatherings will have to evolve, in the way they’re being held.
The digital platform will become even more prominent. Career fairs will be a thing of the past, replaced by virtual meet-ups and digital mixers. Trade fairs and large exhibitions will be obsolete - it’ll take time to convince the people to feel entirely safe again.