HOW LONG WAS IT AGAIN?
It's been quite a long time since I last walked through Petaling Street. Sure, I've driven past or near the area but never really went through it. Like most KL-lites, we do go there at least a few times in our lives. This was the go to place when we need stuff at bargain prices.
So, you'd go there, get the items you want and then haggle for a bit and everyone's happy. Sadly was the time of pre-Internet. Nowadays, one seldom dare to bargain anymore and with so many Foreigners, it's not really CHINAtown anymore.
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| The Petaling Street as seen from the Jalan Sultan Ismail entrance. |
THE PANDEMIC AFTERMATH
And so, it was a great opportunity for me to walk through the place, with a part of me trying to reconnect with the place. But alas, things were not what they seemed to be. My mission was to try to approach as many Hotels as possible.
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| Long ago, Nanyang Art store was one of the two Art Shops to go to. There are so many colours and from here, I learnt the price of a decent Airbrush. |
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| It's closest competitor, Venus Art was doors away but somehow, they have moved to Petaling Street. |
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| But when I got closer, the place was being renovated for some kind of F&B shop |
Walking through the street, I can see a lot of signs of the Hotels. But once I get off the street and into the covers of the booth, the said Hotels had actually shuttered. The Pandemic really did affect the lives of everyone around.
KOTA RAYA
With the rain starting to get heavy, I decided to try one last Hotel, which was located at the 5th floor of the former shopping centre. In the 80's it was a very busy place what with Buses stopping in front, MacDonalds and Metrojaya at the back.
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| This was the pedestrian bridge I always used to get across to Kota Raya after buying my copies of 2000AD comic every Saturday. It has seen better times. |
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| A little scare should the panel rusted through and I'd fall down to the traffic below. |
Anyway, the result was not what I hoped for and after exploring around, the place was also quite depressing. Strangely, I was stopped from wandering into the 4th Floor.
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| Kota Raya is quite cramped inside and surprisingly, the elevators are still there. |
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| There are a lot more Philippine shops now. Even my favourite VHS and cassette tape shop was gone. There was no music throughout the whole building. |
Since I was in the area, I just remembered REXKL, the place which I so wanted to go for a very long time...
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