Both the urban features of my title are permanently very much with us here in KL.

Let's start with the malls, which we mock but appreciate. They have lots to offer.

On Wednesday evening, for example, we took in an MPO "happy hour" organ concert. We followed that up with a walk around the recently-wet-and-now-cool KLCC park, and stopped and listened to the 8 pm fountain performance (I never tire of this, partly because I find music, light, and dancing fountains endlessly entertaining, and partly because every time we watch they have a different choreography).

If you can, make use of the fact that you have a guest staying as an excuse to go to the Sky Bar at the top of Traders Hotel. Frankly, I found the cocktails a tad disappointing. But the views were stunning, the music was very jolly, and the Caesar salad was not bad at all.



Saturday evening was "big" MPO concert time. As well as a couple of Brandenburg concertos (they're running a series at the moment), we got Bach's Orchestal Suite No. 3 and Mozart's "Gran Partita" serenade.

Before the concert, you can fit in:

a) the latest exhibition at the Petronas Gallery (at the moment, this is called "Manah", and features aboriginal art); and

b) a little ball of strawberry ice-cream at Haagen Dazs...









On Sunday afternoon we checked out Isetan: The Japan Store, a newly renovated department store in Lot 10, a Bukit Bintang mall.

I was hugely impressed by the concept, which combines retail space with interactive areas in a very innovative way. We had a great lunch at Toriden. After which we took in the little exhibition by Yu Nagaba, whose simple, quirky little drawings were new to me.

After a shopping interval in Low Yat, the electronics mall just down the road, we ambled back to Isetan's cafe for sencha and a really delicious bit of apple tart.









The building sites, meanwhile, really seem to be taking over at the moment. In some cases, of course, they result in nice little renovations, like this one:



In other cases, stuff is being demolished to make way for MRT stations (as is happening near our flat).

But with buildings falling right and left, I feel it's only right to document some of the process: