New Premier Parking rates at The Gardens Midvalley
I tried looking for information on The Gardens website but that site is appalling. There is no information whatsoever to be found about parking facilities or parking charges.
I actually got my information from the Isetan Kuala Lumpur website. Here are the new premier parking rates at The Gardens Mid Valley :-
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RM5 for 3 hours?
I did use to park at the Premier section because it was always easier to find parking spaces there. Otherwise, parking at MidValley is just hell.
With this new change in the parking charges, I might find myself not frequenting either MidValley Megamall or The Gardens very much anymore. Not only is it hard to find parking, they now want an arm and a leg from us… in these uncertain economic times, for a chance to park in their mall.
Go figure!
Tiny Tapir – Eco-friendly products
If you love eco-friendly products but find it hard to get them commercially, you might want to pop by the Tiny Tapir. The Tiny Tapir stocks a variety of products that are environmentally friendly and lots of products for babies even beanies toys in the Zoobies range… oh wait! they are plush toys!
Based in Malaysia, the Tiny Tapir ships internationally but the shipping costs depends on the weight of the product. I have recently shopped through the Tiny Tapir online site and I must say that its been a good experience.
The site is a little hard to navigate at first if you enter via the main page. e.g. House & Garden encompases soaps and various shampoos and lotions which I might have looked under Women for. Also, Out and About encompasses the environmentally friendly bags like the Envirosax or Roototes and Roo shoppers and I did not think of looking there for these.
For Women, there is a range of cloth sanitary pads and various related products. Nursery covers everything for baby from cloth diapers to wee caps. I personally thought that wee caps were such a brilliant idea!
If you have jumped on the Rootote bandwagon (and if you have not, why not?! These tote bags are awesome!) then you’d be happy to know that Tiny Tapir has a good selection of them. The more popular designs sell out very quickly once they go online so you must be fast. The prices vary according to the size and material and according to the shipping costs too. The prices have gone up a little since I first got my first Rootote, but its still affordable for a pretty nice tote bag.
Tiny Tapir offers shipping by courier, poslaju or registered post within Malaysia with free shipping on purchases above RM300 (so share with friends!). If you live in KL, you can opt for cash on delivery but this is only at the KLCC area. In the alternative, you can pop by the Tiny Tapir store which is near KLCC. Go to the map on the site to find out where it is. Be warned that you will need to bring your own bag because they do not provide plastic bags in the interests of the environment.
I placed on order online recently to test out their online services. It was above RM300 so I qualified for free shipping. I did not see the shipping costs included in any event prior to that, only a charge of RM1. I found that a little puzzling. Anyway, upon confirmation of your order, you will receive an email with the total and a follow up email on where to bank in payment. Presently, Tiny Tapir only accept bank in into their bank accounts, no credit cards. It might put some people off, but since most of us have a Maybank account, it shouldn’t be that hard to make payment.
You also receive confirmation of receipt of payment and thereafter notification of your package being sent out. I think that is good. It keeps the buyer informed every step of the way about when they can expect their item.
I had a good experience shopping with Tiny Tapir and I hope you will too.
Tropicana City Mall – A new mall to visit
I popped by the new Tropicana City Mall to check it out during the weekend. According to the newspapers, it was opened to the public on 18 December 2008 which I reckon is for purposes of the Christmas crowd. I was there on Sunday and did not notice much of a crowd.
In fact most people there were curious about the place or maybe people living around the Damansara Utama and Damansara Jaya area.
If you come from the Sprint Highway, it is easy to make a mistake and turn into Damansara Intan. So keep your eyes peeled for the signs and turn AFTER the Damansara Intan (San Francisco Steakhouse) turnoff. Parking for now is underground and is free. You still have to take a ticket, but its free parking for now.
The mall is still relatively untenanted. The main tenants are Carrefour and the GSC Cinema. However, neither are open for now. Carrefour has its signs up but shutters are closed. GSC on the top floor has no sign of activity.
I found that I nearly slipped and fell a few times because the tiles were very slippery with dust. I attribute it to the ongoing construction in and around the mall that is still going on despite the mall being opened to the public. The construction dust makes the tiles rather treacherous.
There is also no ATM up just yet and I noticed that none of the stores can accept credit cards just yet because their phone lines are not in. Due to that, I was unable to make a number of planned purchases.
I found the layout of the Tropicana City Mall rather haphazard. From where I parked, I had to walk the whole length of the mall before I could find an escalator to go to the main concourse area. There isn’t much available in terms of food just yet too.
I reckon it will be a mall to serve the neighbourhood, much like Bangsar Village or Bangsar Shopping Centre. If you live outside of the area, it is pretty much just another mall unless you plan to visit some of the specialty boutiques or stores in the mall.
I will pop by from time to time because I have a friend who has set up shop there. However, other than that, I cannot see myself using it as a hangout place unless you live in the area.
Where to park when going to Pavilion Kuala Lumpur?
Since expressing my horror at the high parking rates at the Pavilion Kuala Lumpur, I’ve since worked out how NOT to incur that sort of wallet crippling parking charges. There was once when I went for a movie and ended up paying something like RM9 for parking alone. That’s nearly the cost of a movie ticket! Worst of all, you need some high powered eyeglasses to see the parking rates because you will zoom by so fast when you pick up your ticket at the machine as you enter.
So, these days, when I plan to visit the Pavilion Kuala Lumpur, I don’t park there, but at Starhill Gallery right across the street. Starhill Gallery might house some of the most high end upmarket brands in Malaysia, but their parking is so much more affordable compared to the Pavilion Kuala Lumpur, especially if you go in the evening.
Starhill Gallery parking rates are RM5 flat rate after 6pm on weekdays and flat rate of RM5 on Saturdays and Sundays. I think that a short walk across the road is no inconvenience at all for a savings in parking charges! 