Pavilion KL

When I was young and single, I made it a point to visit every single shopping mall in the Klang Valley. From One Utama to Alamanda, I've seen them all. Fast forward 10 years later, now that I have a career and a family, I only visit shopping malls only when it is absolutely necessary (i.e when I really need to buy something). No time to window shop or hang around those places anymore. So over time, new shopping malls came up and even after 2 to 3 years after their launch, I've never set foot in those premises yet.

One example of interesting shopping mall that I drive by every month but has no time to visit is the Pavilion shopping mall in KL. Last week though, while on a business trip to KL, I got the chance to explore Pavilion early in the morning.
Located right smack in the city centre along Jalan Bukit Bintang, the Pavilion was open for business since September 2007. It consists of four major components; a retail mall, an office tower, two towers of residences and a proposed hotel.
Boasting 1,400,000 square feet (130,000 m2) of retail space, Pavilion KL houses 450 different outlets in six precincts namely Bintang Circle, Gourmet Emporium, Couture, Connection, Home and Seventh Heaven on sevel levels.
The site where Pavilion KL now stands used to be the campus of Bukit Bintang Girls' School, the oldest school in Kuala Lumpur. The Bukit Bintang campus was vacated in 2000 when the school moved to Cheras and renamed itself as Sekolah Seri Bintang Utara. Rumours has it that the ghost of the girl who comitted suicide at the school still haunts the ladies room at night. So you might want to be careful when you visit the ladies room in the evening (at least make sure you're not alone).
Amongst Pavilion KL's double-storey flagship stores are Versace, Hermès, Prada, Gucci, Salvatore Ferragamo, Coach Inc, Mont Blanc, Hugo Boss, Canali and Esprit. Other main tenants include Parkson, Tangs, Golden Screen Cinemas, True Fitness and Harvey-Norman.
My first impression upon entering Pavilion: it's big and spacious, much like The Curve in Mutiara Damansara. But big and spacious alone doesn't mean it's a great place to go. I mean there's nothing much there to interest me.
Most of the stores here are international brands catered for the upper-class market and certainly not made for me. Much of everything sold here is beyond my budget anyway so I didn't exactly squirm with delight upon coming here.
To be honest, I'd had much more fun going to Low Yat Plaza, IKEA or even Tesco than in Pavilion. To sum things up, Pavilion is like KLCC minus the twin towers. Up market place and not for the commoners.
The only place that I might try out should I come by this place again is the GSC cinemas which looks quite inviting from the outside.
I must commend the architect of Pavilion though. The design is simply exquisite and world-class.
I think this is the only shopping mall in the country where there's Starbucks on every floor.
Belly-dancers anyone? Some of the restaurants at the Gourmet Emporium are truly tantalizing but as always, you'll have to dig deep in your pockets to dine here.
There's plenty of bars, bistros and cafés at Pavilion. I'm sure it must be quite happening around here at night.
And if you're tired of walking aimlessly around the mall, there's ample chairs, sofas and lounges around the place for you to sit down and rest your tired legs.

And that concludes my report on Pavilion KL. I probably won't go there again any time soon.


p.s: I'm just kidding about the ghost thing.