Escape! to Urbanscapes

(Welcome to Urbanscapes)

Im stuck in the house doing some modelling. (The excel kind, not the fashion kind). I returned to work on Monday to be informed that I had been placed on a due diligence. A kind of case that usually means you dont see friends and families and sleep until it ends. Yes, that means late late nights (or mornings) and weekend work. So much for trying to have a life as a corporate person huh.

But, luckily, I managed to finish my work in time to head out and check out Urbanscape. Essentially sponsored by KLue magazine, I find it to be the melting pot and hodgepodge of artiste, musicians, and entrepreneurs (though my sister assured me there were also some comedians there as well)

Getting there itself, was a pain. Deciding to go at about 3 p.m. was stupid as I ended up stuck in a massive traffic jam heading there. I was shocked when I saw cars parked right at the entrance of KLPac, because honestly, its quite a walk from the entrance. Especially on a super hot day. So, parking was a bitch. But you walk in and are greeted by a massive marketplace. Which was great coz you get art AND clothes if youre smart enough.


(one of the fun stores. Roar!)


(Sports as a form of art. Im sure you guys have played with this as a kid. Theyre calling this/ or the club Kendama)

If you manage to make your way through the crowd, you'll probably enter the KLPac building (if not just for the a/c). Some interesting art installation here. The KL 24 hour photography was deff interesting (and good!) as well as the fish installation and music installation at the very entrance of the building which I presume flabbergasted far more people than myself.


(Art in the park)

The park was also broken into two parts. One, a concert area with great musicians and the other a market/ food stall location as well as a separate smaller free music area.


(KLPac transformed)

It was good nice fun. I guess its been growing momentum every year its been put up. So next year when it comes along again (and it will) check out KLue magazine for signs for this, should drop by just for a drink and walk around and enjoy the free comedy and music. Since it goes from 12 p.m. to 12 a.m. I would actually recommend going later in the day when the sun isnt as bright and where you would probably find it easier to find parking. Downside, by then, maybe the best bargains are gone.

p/s: Apparently, unless I actually type in my website here, I cant be googled. So there, welcome to weekendsinmalaysia.blogspot.com

Sekeping Serendah - getting away from the city

Sometimes you just get sick and tired of the city. Dont you have days when youre stuck in traffic yet again. When the honking of the other cars starts getting to you. When you want to scratch the eyeballs of the drivers who have decided yet again to just wait in the yellow box making it impossible for you to drive by. Dont you have days when you are just tired of your computer, tired of the cityu, tired of everything else?

Well, then of course, its time to get away.

I kidnapped The Boyfriend here sometime last year after hearing about it from a friend of mine. It was quite fun, telling him nothing and driving up together for the first time. Located about one hour out of KL, its actually not that bad a drive. Though I can guarantee you that you will get lost repeatedly. (I did). But dont worry, just keep on trying to find it. Follow the directions on the map (you will be using small roads) and you should be fine.

There are three different types of accomodation there. The wooden house, brick house, and of course, the glass house. We stayed at the glass house while we were there. Yes, a house fully made of glass for the exhibitionist in you. But you will seriously feel like youre the only person there. You can barely see your neighbours house let alone another human being.


(Can you spy the glass house by the stream?)


(Its a double story house that comes with a kitchen and an outdoors bathroom)


(There's even a place to build a nice warm fire in the middle of the night. Perfect to snuggle around)

The place itself is really nice and quiet. You can hear the birds twittering and the stream running, and nothing else. You can even order dinner and while youre upstairs puttering around you'll come down to miraculously find dinner spread out for you. (A fine dinner it is)


(The soft gurgling stream)

All in all, its deff a nice place to just get away for a little bit. A day or a weekend. Some things to note though :

1. There is NO coverage. No blackberry, no cell phone, no internet, no tv. Its gonna be just you and nature baby
2. Sometimes you get unlucky. The Sunday morning when I was there a bunch of people decided to do a REALLY LOUD picnic at the pool which is close to my particular location. Not really what you would like when youre on a romantic weekend getaway
3. Similarly, your neighbors might decide to binge drink and dance to REALLY LOUD MUSIC. We had to actually walk down and ask them to turn it off. Since we are in the middle of the forest and you dont usually see people around, the four girls in the house got a shock to suddenly see other people coming up to their house. (Maybe that was retribution itself hahaha)
4. Its pretty expensive to stay there on the weekend. Best prices are on weekedays.

For more details, check out serendah.com


(Gorgeous pool)

High tea at Carcosa

(Pics courtesy of Miss C)

Ive had some high tea experiences. The first time I tasted scones and clotted cream was in London and never forgot that incredible taste of clotted cream. It was incredible, made me want to eat the whole bowl of cream. Then the second time was at The Peninsula in Hong Kong. Was quite nice actually, except it is actually in the middle of the lobby. And getting one of the corner tables made it tough since people kept on walking by us. The third time, was at The Burj in Dubai. A hefty seven course meal worth a bomb. I cant believe an afternoon tea could cost about RM300!!!. Of course, the upside was that we could actually be in The Burj. So maybe it was worth it. Well, maybe.

Because you see, I dont have much of a sweet tooth. Surprising? Not really. I binged on chocolate for three months straight after I came off a strict three year diet (dont ask). Anyways, so since then I stopped having chocolate cravings.

But anyways, I still do enjoy a nice cup of tea and always look forward to scones and clotted cream. So how was afternoon tea at Carcosa?

It was really nice. Located on top of a hill, the building is surrounded by lushes greens. You cant even see the city! So it was quite nice to be outside. The tea itself was quite good. Some people may think that the servings are quite minimal (one of each item) but it was more than enough for me and I had to rely on my friend Mr. R to polish off the rest of the food, while Miss C looked on in disbelief.

Top item, scones and clotted cream of course =). The cream itself was a little watered down, but they made up for it by having rose jelly. Which was really quite delicious and subtle when mixed together with the cream.


(L-R, Fresh strawberry jam, rose jelly, and clotted cream!)


(Part of the meal : Pics courtesy of Miss C)

The variety of teas were also quite impressive. Though I am much more of a coffee person than a tea person I can still enjoy a nice cuppa hot one. But since Im not much of a tea person I cant really tell you about the different types of teas that were offered. For our little party of 3, I got the lemon grass tea (nice and refreshing!), Miss C had the English Breakfast Tea while Mr. R had the white tea (if this helps to give an indication of the different types of teas available).

All in all, most certainly fun as an afternoon item to do. Funnily enough there were so many expats/ tourists there and so few locals. I would deff go back again (and this time with The Boyfriend since he complained about not bringing him). Nice place to just sit and hang out. I do recommend making a reservation and trying to get the indoors. Even though it is breezy outside, you still end up sweating buckets.


(Walking up to the lobby)


(The outside - its pretty nice, but this side faces the car park which was deff not the best view)

My one complain about the place? The chairs. Whats up with the chairs? The outdoor chairs are quite large and bulky lawn chairs taking away from any potential cosy-ness you could have with the people who came with you. I must say inside its quite ok with some sofas and soft chairs.

Carcosa Seri Negara
03-2282-18889
Price : ~RM 70 (its RM60 ++)

Dragonboat race

So, Ive been waiting for this event a while now. It went on from 5th - 7th June. Day 1 was a Friday so I had other things to do. Day 2 was waking up super late due to night out on Day 1 and today, I fought the sleeping demons to wake up, remind myself I made a resolution to do something different each weekend and dragged myself over to Putrajaya.

Located in Precint 6 (a waterfront recreation area), the first annual Dragon boat race was pretty fun I must admit. The arrangement of the area was quite good. There is a podium seating area that faces directly onto the waterfront/ racing area and they had those swivly water fans (thank god!). There were some stalls along the way selling goodies for all. Parking was located close by so not much of a walk there. And there was enough space for everyone to go right up front to the water to watch the race.





A race was held every 15 minutes for a distance of 500 meters. Was quite fun listening to the beats of the drums as every team tried to outdo the others. The teams were also cheering nice and loud from land.





If this returns again next year, I would recommend going for it. It is quite fun and enjoyable (thought do prepare for the super hot weather).

Comedy night

Time Out KL has been hosting comedy nights for a while now (what is it, more than a year?). Traditionally held upstairs in Little Havana, it will be moving over to Zouk starting next month. Actually not a bad idea since the area was a little cramped to fit everyone.

It'll cost you RM20 to get upstairs (or you could be like me and somehow managed to get upstairs for free). But its deff worth it. What I loved most about the experience is that the audience members are all good sports. No booing, or heckling (well, a little but deff no booing) to the comedians. After all, its the first time for some of these people and its great that everyone still laughs (titters) and cheers for them.



For those of you who dont enjoy faking a laugh, Ill be honest. The comedians are actually funny. Miss C and I had a good time laughing about all the racial and political jokes. (Thats the other part I like, people are taking it all in stride and not taking racial jokes personally... keeping an open mind)

So, I do recommend that you drop by for at least one Comedy Night. Sometimes the comedians do recycle their material so if you go for every single one you might start getting bored. I think going once in a while would be pretty decent.

Thursday nights (once a month)
Starts at about 9 p.m. (not sure how this will change in Zouk). We got to Little Havana at 7.40 p.m. to book a table and seats. They all filled up by ~7.50 p.m. This might not happen at Zouk

So whenever youre feeling super stressed and super down, just head over for a good laugh with some good company