One Utama

I went to a gigantic mall called One Utama the other day. In a previous posting I had called it Lilitama because that is what it sounded like Jeff was saying, I figured it out myself from handy tourist maps that it is actually One Utama. The fact that I was so resourceful in figuring it out myself was lost on Jeff as he proceeded to make fun of my post where I misspelled it. That's ok. I can give as good as I get. Don't worry about that.

Anyway, as I said, One Utama was huge. Even though I had sworn off malls, I was trying to give my sunburn a break from the sun so I decided to stay indoors. I was there for five hours and only walked less than half of the mall. They have the typical stores you would find in a US mall: The Gap, Banana Republic, Polo, and others. The department stores they have here are Parkson and Jusco. There are also plenty of stores with local wares. I started to understand why the Malaysians love their malls. They have everything in them. They have the hardware store, the craft store, the grocery store, the linens and housewares stores as well as every kind of cuisine you can think of. They combine all of this with lots of activities and stimulation for the kids. They don't have Walmart, Home Depot, Michaels, and Chuck E. Cheese. They have malls.

The malls are a great opportunity to people watch. I grabbed a mango juice and took in the show. While Malaysia is a Muslim country, it is actually quite diverse. There are a large percentage of Chinese and Indians here as well. It is fascinating to see the different cultures co-mingling. Most muslim women just wear scarves over their hair. Absolutely beautful scarves of which I am very jealous. Some wear the more traditional long tunic and skirt in beautiful, colorful fabrics. Others wear jeans and t-shirts. I have seen only a few women in the full black dress with the scarf that covers everything but the eyes. The first time I saw a woman dressed like this, my initial reaction was fear. I didn't process what or who it was. It was just a figure covered in black from head to toe with a slit for the eyes. I suddenly thought I was in Scream IV and started looking for some stairs so I could run away from the exit and get trapped on the roof with the villian of a horror movie. It only took a few seconds to register that I was not in a horror movie, and it was indeed just a woman taking her children to the mall. I can't imagine living life dressed like that though. The subsequent few times I have seen other women in the full muslim dress, I have still had that intiial fear. I feel kind of guilty about it even though it has nothing to do with the person or the religion or anything like that. Just scary American horror movies. At least I didn't scream out in horror. That would have been an uncomfortable situation.

Well, I'll write again soon. Hope all is well with everyone. Thanks to those of you who have written comments. I love to read them. Selamat jalan!