Nothing Exceeds Like Excess


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Asia » Malaysia » Wilayah Persekutuan » Kuala Lumpur » Bukit Bintang
December 21st 2013
Published: December 21st 2013
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Many people, myself included, say disparaging things about American consumerism, especially around the holidays. My friends, you ain’t seen nothin’ till you’ve been in a shopping mall in Asia.

Let me set the scene: It is the third week of December. It is 104 degrees Fahrenheit, the air so thick with humidity you can practically chew it. I’m in Malaysia, a Muslim country. I step into KLCC Suria, a beautiful upscale, air-conditioned mall at the foot of the Petronas Towers. In the center court is a stage set with an enormous teddy bear, a fireplace that could shelter a family of three, and a larger than life Santa.

Onto this stage steps a group of attractive young Malay singers who promptly start singing “I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas.” Now, is it just me, or does anyone else think it’s odd to be singing about a Christian holiday in the snow in the middle of an equatorial Muslim country? There are Christmas sales everywhere, and while there are no nativity scenes, there are lots of Santas. This, my friends, is serious consumerism.

Actually, KLCC Suria is relatively tame. It is “only” six stories. There is a Science Discovery
Bentley dealerBentley dealerBentley dealer

showroom in the mall
Center on the top floor, sponsored by Petronas, the Malaysian oil and gas company. There are plenty of upscale European and Asian shops plus a movie theatre, and lots of restaurants, including two food courts and two grocery stores.

For true excess you need to visit Berjaya Times Square. This enormous paean to retail therapy comprises over 1,000 shops on over eleven floors. The building itself is 48 stories, with 7.5 million square feet of floor area. As such, it is the eighth largest building in the world. Other places are taller, but BTS makes up in volume what it may lack in height.

The rest of the floors are taken up with hotel space, the Berjaya College of Nursing and Health Science, and offices. It even has its own monorail stop.

OK, so it’s a big building, so what? Wait – there’s more!

There is a musical staircase, where each step is like a piano key and sounds like a piano key being struck when you step on it, just like in the movie “Big.” It was great fun to watch people on the staircase, and yes, I played on it, too. At the bottom of the steps are squares that change color as you step on them.

There is the indoor archery range, an immense bowling alley, an IMAX movie theatre, several regular movie theatres, a medical clinic, a dentist, four moneychangers, nine ATMs, nineteen travel agents, a real estate office, and two prayer rooms – one for men, one for women. And then there is the indoor amusement park. Covering a little over three acres, it includes Asia’s longest indoor roller coaster that reaches speeds of up to 50 miles an hour. Just the sheer scale of this enterprise is impressive.

There are some things that are uniquely different about shopping in a Muslim country, even one as tolerant as Malaysia. The majority of women outside of the Chinese enclaves wear hijab – a scarf that covers the head neck and shoulders. These are usually very colorful and often fastened with a bit of jewelry. Some women also wear niqab, a veil that covers the face except for the eyes. Usually the women who wore niqab were all in black, though there were some exceptions.

This does not in any way mean these women are not part of the public sphere. I saw covered women who were police officers, store clerks, bank employees, and security guards. Usually, if the job required a uniform, the hijab was part of the uniform. I had a great deal of sympathy for female police officers in uniform and hijab out under the brutal sun. There were even women in niqab riding the roller coaster, holding their veils in place when the ride turned them upside down.

There are shops that sell “Muslim Fashions for the Fashionable Muslim Woman,” as one store proclaimed. Another shop sold nothing but head scarves and veils. Very colorful and expensive headscarves, but nothing else. In one grocery store, I bought some sliced ham, vacuum sealed in plastic, along with some cheese and a bit of bread. I thought nothing of it until I got to the check out, and the hijab-clad clerk put a plastic bag over her hand before touching my plastic sealed ham so as not to be tainted by the haram (forbidden) pork. Malls all have prayer rooms separated by gender in which to perform Islam’s obligatory prayers.

Still, I can’t quite wrap my head around all these
roller coasterroller coasterroller coaster

Longest indoor coaster in Asia
folks singing about Frosty the Snowman. It just doesn’t seem right.


Additional photos below
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squaressquares
squares

Kinda like a lava lamp.
theme parktheme park
theme park

Berjaya Times Square
bowlingbowling
bowling

This bowling alley was immense.
Borders?Borders?
Borders?

Borders may have gone bankrupt in the US and UK, but they are still operating here.
arzuarzu
arzu

Scarves and veils only
KLCC SuriaKLCC Suria
KLCC Suria

a mere six stories
PetrosainsPetrosains
Petrosains

a science center
vending machine souvenirsvending machine souvenirs
vending machine souvenirs

Just in case you don't want to stand in line.
surausurau
surau

prayer room


21st December 2013

Very nice blog about the mall
We've been to that mall but not at the holidays and yes it does seem odd for such a big Christmas celebration to occur in that part of the world. We have become a global nation. And....if there is an opportunity to sell something and make some money it is likely to happen.
23rd December 2013

consumerism
Really enjoyed this blog…observations in enthral. Fortunately I can assist. I too used to wonder how in China (same applies in Malaysia) they could celebrate Christmas when it was foreign to their culture. I too thought it was simply consumerism. But No. The answer as explained to me was simple. It's a celebration…of Santa's birthday!!!
24th December 2013

Of course!
Of course! Why didn't I think of that?

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