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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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.
Your stall sells nasi lemak ayam & nasi lemak telur. Nasi lemak ayam is expensive, many left unsold everyday.
Your cheaper nasi lemak telur is a massive hit. Sold out in 15mins.
If you were a developer, you'd increase high-margin nasi lemak ayam production & ask govt to help.
The govt would then come up with measures to encourage people to buy nasi lemak ayam. Your stall would begin taking credit cards. People who couldn’t afford a daily fix of RM5 nasi lemak ayam would receive an easy access to credit - money they’d have to pay back eventually.
Buoyed by the amazingly high margin, the nasi lemak seller would eventually sell exclusively nasi lemak ayam, sotong, kerang & stop selling nasi lemak telur.
Eventually, people with not much cash would either use their credit to buy fancy nasi lemak, or not eat nasi lemak at all
So much money spent on the car, the fuel, the tolls. Now imagine, a life in KL where you don’t have to wait for 20mins for a bus, and where the LRT covers nearly all major commercial & office precincts.
We could save so much money once car ownership became no longer necessary
A more transit-oriented lifestyle could potentially put more money in the B40 & M40 pockets actually. Instead of contributing to the profit of toll concessionaries, Msians will have more cash to spent on other things - food, books, entertainment, hobbies...bolstering the economy.
And when the B40 & M40 begin to embrace public transport, we’ll see less motorbikes on the road - a significant portion of fatal accidents involve motorcyclists.
These accidents and injuries cost millions of losses to the nation’s GDP annually due to the lost productivity.