KL New Skyline

IF you noticed lately, there has been some construction going around the KLCC area. The near completion Carigali Tower (find and dig?) is one of the building that topped the usual skyline of KL, making it the 3rd tallest building in Malaysia after the Petronas Twin Tower and the Telekom Tower

Located at Lot C of KLCC masterplan, this building consists of office space and also an extension to the existing Suria KLCC mall at the podium level.

There is also a Four Seasons Hotel to be built at the vacant lot between Maxis Tower and the old-looking Wisma Central, where the existing car park has been shut down for quite a while now. Once completed it will be the tallest Four Seasons Hotel in the world.

The initially planned two towers has been revised to a single tower (below)

The latest addition to the skyline will be the Landmark Tower designed by Buro Ole Scheeren, who designed the China's CCTV building in Beijing. As simple as it looks, the building compromises of a few different blocks stack on top of one another.

View from Jalan Ampang

I admire simplicity of the design which stands out among the buildings in context. This 65 storey building will accommodate hotel rooms, serviced apartments and retails. The sky pool will probably be the main feature of it and also a perfect spot for fireworks viewing during event celebrations.

Set for completion at 2016

Can't wait! =)

*All photos taken from internet sites and forums*

The Other Part of KL

This is in Kuala Lumpur, between Jalan Travers and Jalan Bangsar:

The area around KL Sentral

And this is in Tokyo, Japan:

See some similarities? =)

KL *SOOKA* Sentral

DURING my mid-sem break on the last three weeks, there was this flash mob kind of thing going on in KL Sentral. And I went there to kepoh.

KL Sentral

The title of that flash mob was called Reading While Waiting and the objective of it was to encourage more people reading whenever they wait and also to make people more conscious of whenever they are about to go somewhere and know that some waiting will be involved, bring something to read.

There were already quite some people around the area, holding a book, waiting for the exact time at 3pm when I reached there.

I see a girl taking photo of me *perasan* =p

At first I wanted to join them but after seeing it is not as many people as I hoped it would be, I thought I just snapped around some photo and that's it. Feeling a bit weird although I enjoy doing stuff people don't usually do sometimes.

So I went explore outside KL Sentral and came upon this unique building, SOOKA Sentral. I dunno how they got the name SOOKA. Maybe it rhymes to suka or something. Suka Sentral? KL suka center?

Haha whatever. I have no idea.

SOOKA Sentral

Anyway, SOOKA Sentral looks like a tortoise shell from the outside and inside it is actually an eating heaven and place to relax. There are quite some restaurants and spa as well as massage centre but the place looks kinda deserted. Probably because it was still new and part of it was still under construction.

And it even has one floor which is called the ladies zone. Hmm, very curious about that.

Like tortoise right??

Things got a little funny. I took the escalator from the ground floor to the first floor and then to the second and third. When I wanted to go up higher there were no more escalators and the only way up was by taking the bubble lift at the atrium.

An artist impression of SOOKA I found online

Feeling curious of what was up there, I pressed the highest floor number once entered the glass lift, and it went straight up to the top. To my surprise the lift brought me to the entrance of a gym & fitness club. When I say entrance it means IN FRONT of the counter wei! The counter was just right in front of the lift. Very sudden and scary wtf!

The two staff at the counter bar looked at me and gave me some look like

"Hey what is this fella holding a plastic bag doing up here?"

I could just smiled back at them, pressed the button and went back down again but I didn't. Since I came all my way up here I thought I should go look around. So I walked to the counter and asked for the rates for joining the club blablabla pretending that I was interested.

First, the guy introduced himself and later on showed me around the place and explained about the membership fee.

We didn’t chat much cuz he probably I knew I wasn’t keen on joining and probably I was just another guy who stumbled across the place. That’s what I thought.

But one thing about this heath club, it has a rock climbing sculpture and would be the first of its kind to provide such facilities in Malaysia.

So people, contact SynarGym if interested.

Have a nice Wednesday. =)

Photoshoot @ Bintang

LAST night Nicholas looked for me to have dinner together. It’s been a while since we last met. He brought his friend Kenneth along. The initial plan was to meet up with our senior in Ampang Park and we would have meal together around that area. However it seemed that she had a meeting to attend therefore there was a slight change of plan.

Since we had no idea where to go, I suggested Thai cusine. I remember a place where Tiong brought me with Chiou Yann, Han Chee and Jenny few months back. So we took the LRT to Bukit Bintang and walked to the restaurant – Green Lotus.

Inside the restaurant

Meet Mr Nicholas

And that's me

With Kenneth (left) along

The restaurant is located in one of a shoplots at Jalan Walter Grenier, which is at the back of Lot 10 shopping mall. You may never realize there is a comfy place to hang out. A nice spot to bring your loved ones too. I personally like the Tom Yum soup there very much!!

 We ordered Mandalay and Chiang Mai set, which costs not more than RM20/set

After our meal, we went around snapping photos around Bukit Bintang area. First we headed to Pavilion, one of my favourite place in KL. Nice building, nice people, nice cinema, and what else? While I was happily posing for a shot, one security guard came to me...

Guard: Sini tak boleh pakai kaki.
Me: Huh? Kenapa?
Guard: Ini law...
Me: 0.o

The ‘kaki’ he was referring was actually Nicholas’ camera tripod. He talked to me nicely and so I didn’t screw him back. They didn’t allow us to take any photos using the kaki but luckily we managed to snap some earlier.

At the main entrance. My favourite!

Roll of ads

Moment of silence

Boutiques

LV across

Public facility

Next we crossed over the road to StarHill and continued snapping more pictures. Inside the gallery (since we only go there to SEE stuff and not able to afford buying anything) there are many nice restaurants with different themes and deco. The atmosphere inside is so pleasant. I swear to myself one day I am gonna dine in there, perhaps with that special someone. =)

CCTVs eyeing the LV bag

Inside StarHill

Rest stop

Too comfortable to even sleep in

The atrium and bubble lift

Jazz performers on stage

An alien in the light tunnel

So it was until almost 11pm that we decided to go back. LRT no open 24 hours.

Nightlifes of Bintang

The.End.

ps: some photos courtesy of Nicholas' Ricoh camera

Workbase Trip to Cameron

BEEN really busy lately for the final studio assignment. About ten drawings to be done...manually. We were given to choose between manual and computer. I chose to draw them by the old fashioned way because it might be our last chance during this five years architecture course. From second year onwards, we will have to do it all by computer.

Gotta sleep on the floor this time

What's even worse is that we are required to colour two of the drawings by WATERCOLOUR!! Oh God! After trying it out yesterday, I really suck at it! I have no talent and also no professional traning on using watercolour.

My designed house from computer image

Erm..I think the primary school kids are better than me

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Anyway, here's an update on my workbase trip to Cameron Highlands on the last two weeks. Well, it was fun and the weather was cool. The trip was supposed to be our site visit for our final studio project but since our tutor had changed to site to Urban Forest (in JB), we went there as a field trip. Some of the 2nd year seniors followed us together.

Briefing before the journey

The bus leave the campus on Friday morning. Our first stop was my hometown, KL. As we entered KL, we were welcomed by its famous traffic jam. All the way from Sg Besi airport to Bukit Bintang.

It was raining and our destination was the Craft Complex located at Jalan Conlay, which is nearby to Bukit Bintang. There was an exhibition about Malaysian traditional arts and craft going on and we were given tasks to interview and to do research on them.

Rain~ rain~

At the Craft Complex

A lenglui playing gu zheng

I was in charge of traditional food and my assigned partner was Shika. Well, she did most of the interviewing as she is more familiar with the Malay tradition stuff while I just snapped photos.

"Adakah makcik excited melihat kita dua orang ni?"

Learning how to anyam ketupat

At night we walked to Bukit Bintang for our dinner. As there were non-chinese among the group, we ended up eating McDonald's. Then some of them went to buy a cake nearby.

We didn't have much time to walk and shop around due to time constrain. So we rushed back to the craft complex but waited there for almost an hour before the bus came to pick us at bout 11pm. #$&*^+_#!@...

Mana bus??

While on the highway, we gave Mr Fawaz, our tutor a suprise by celebrating his belated birthday in the bus. He was sleeping so we woke him up and showed him the cake that we bought earlier.

"Wat la, wake me up while just to blow one candle?!"

The birthday man

The journey up to Cameron was like a roller coaster ride. The driver was speeding as if he is Jay Chou in the Initial D movie. By the time we reached Brinchang town, it was about 3am. Then we stayed in the morning till the sun rise. Some went out to have some cool fresh air.

On the next morning, we washed and brushed our teeth at the Petronas station toilet since we haven't check in our hostel yet. After that, we a nice warm breakfast.

Next we went to Tanah Rata where we will checked in to our hostel. We reached there kinda early and only able to check in at 11am. So we went explored around the town.

The hostel we stay

The room we sleep

There was a 70 something year old Convent school located on top of a hill and there was a mini chapel inside. We were greeted by a sister and she showed our around the chapel and explained a little bit about the history of it.

Gothic style church

All of us were gathering for our first activity of the day as soon as we checked in the room. Mr Fawaz brief us on how to make a T-shirt print. We were then ask to deisgn our own after, with the given theme on nature.

"First of all, make sure you all wear a shirt"

Letting the paint to dry

And I did a very simple and lousy design. =/

Sun & Moon, which represents my name

In the evening, all of us were gatering and the bus brought us to Brinchang for night activities. There were a night market that night and we tried many food all along the way.

Jim, Vanessa, Jenny and I had steamboat for dinner. They charged us at RM12 person. It was nice to have steamboat at such a cold weather but we didn't manage to finish everything. Too full.Bought a strawberry, rose and chocolate ice cream on the way back to the bus. The ice cream guy even added some strawberries. The whole bus was waiting for four of us to return. Paiseh.


At night, we had workbases' performance. The 2nd year did some poem recitation and our workbase didn't have any idea until the very last minute. We decided to sing a song, a malay song. Then we had a very spontanous performance, a catwalk fashion show.

We wore the T-shirt that we design earlier and do some cat walk in front of the audiences.

The guys wear their own designed T-shirt

After the stupid activity, we went nearby for supper. Walked around Tanah Rata town but many of the shops were already closed as it was almost midnight. Not much night activities there.

Let's minum

The next morning, we went to the morning market at Kea Farm. It was just some distance up from Brinchang town. There were many tourists in that area as the Equatorial Hotel is just right beside it. You can find varieties of flowers, souveniors, strawberries, cactus etc. there.
Jenny, Jim and I shared to buy cactuses. Only RM10 for seven cactus.

BIG box of strawberries for only RM20

Our next visit was the Cactus Valley. There you can find alooooooooot of cactus with different kind of shapes and sizes. An entrance fees of RM3 was charged.

Once we entered inside..

We could see cactus

and cactus

more cactus

and more cactus

And even more cactus

This cactus has a very unique shape *Ouch*

Under the giant cactus

Next, we headed to the tea plantation. It is a must visit spot to in Cameron. You could see the whole valley is planted with tea plants and as we walked inside, the aroma of tea is so strong and nice.

You want tea? We HAVE tea

So nice

Like in Bollywood movies

Jenny, Jim, Vanessa and I had some bread and tea at the cafe, looking down the view of the valley. However we couldn't spend much time there as the bus driver started to rush us already.*^%!@#$*!\&....


It was time for us to leave Cameron, while on the way down. The driver stopped awhile at Lata Iskandar for us to visit its famous waterfall. There were also some stalls selling souverniors at the roadside. The weather there was not that cold anymore.


Took some photos and bought a comb of banana, one of my favourite fruit.


On the way down the hill, everbody was feeling tired and slept in the bus. Some were singing and playing the guitars. One of the member already mabuk.

Stopped at Tapah Rest Area for lunch then Restoran Jejantas Melaka for dinner. Met my parents there for awhile. They were on their way back to KL from Singapore.

Finally we got back to the campus at 12am Monday, about nine hours earlier than the schedule. First, we didn't get to visit some places in Cameron. And second, the driver speeds like nobody's business on the highway.

I feel lucky enough to arrive UTM, in one piece =)