A day in Setia Mall

Went to Setia Mall last Saturday, I was disappointed by the lack of preparation of the mall. If it weren't due to the Parkson 5x Bonuslink and its location (close to my side of the town), I wouldn't be there.

The map on the newspaper advertisement is amazingly simple, without road sign and landmarks.

There weren't a single sign board from highway/main road etc. leading to Setia Mall.
There weren't even a road sign around the mall.

Lots of illegal parking around the peripheral access road. (that's how we identified the entrance...)

The carpark floor was not epoxy coated, very dusty and still have the concrete cement smell.
Signage in the carpark was poor, lack of floor directories.

The glass panels were not cleaned, there were still some construction smudges all over the place.
The wood handles were not polished.

The mall was not properly lit, the air conditioning broken down, dusty floor, some shops still had those chemical smell of new renovation -- so strong it made me tear. Most shops had no internet line, phone line, as a result, they couldn't take credit card.

Parkson was one of the better prepared shop in the mall, but the brands in Parkson wasn't as complete as other Parkson in town. I visited the Ladies department, the clothing taste and brand location was disorganised -- you don't know if they are targeting youngsters, young adults, or mature adults.

I have to say Padini concept store has better fashion jewelleries than Parkson.

I didn't get to visit Uniqlo though, from the outside, they look well organised and prepared to do business in this new location.

I was glad that Setia Mall management decided to give out free parking for that day due to the dysfunctional air conditioning.

It has been a while

I have not been able to access to this blog for a long while. Just got back from a long postponed honeymoon to Cambodia. Loaded some photos to Facebook.

Cambodia is generally poor, Siem Reap is considered their pretty good town,but it is about 30-50 year behind some of our South East Asian countries. Nonetheless I love Cambodia for its people, they still have some basic human trusts among the crowd. They aren still some very precious human interactions and instinct that will soon be lost as the country advances.

Things are not cheap in Siem Reap, everythings starts from USD1, from fridge magnets to a pencil. Otherwise, it would be USD 20....nothing in between. But it is relatively easy to haggle compared to China.

Perhaps we visited the market pretty early (around noon) so they are superstitious about getting the first deal than making good profits.

Food and drinks are considered expensive, judging from the average local income (USD 140 a month.). A meal in local hawker stall next to the road, not by any tourist hot spot cost about USD5.

We went to Angkor Wat, entrance is USD 20 per person for 1 day and USD40 for 3 days. Most of the attractive stuffs are in the small circuit. The grand circuit consists mainly small temples and barriered archeology sites.

The main attractions are Angkor Wat, Bayon temple and Ta Phorm, which means main temple in local language. Those huge trees that grow in between the temple structures are impressive, it shows the age of the temples, but it also destroys the temple through time. It somehow shows the Buddhist believe - nothing stays or gone forever.

In the trip to Tonle Sap lake, we witnessed some poor lives,but it made me wonder if they would be any happier if they were richer.... We lost many things to get rich and developed, but in the end all we asked for are the same old basic things.

I am sure there are a lot more pitiful stuffs happening in Cambodia, especially with their rich mineral-precious gems. I hope they will learn to protect themselves better.