At The Malls

My work associates have a sweet tooth. As a result, Secret Recipe was a mid-day stop. I wasn't really interested in its cakes, not when there's fabulous homemade stuff waiting for me at home in the freezer. Still, I gamely went along and we picked out 2 flavors to share.

Oh man, those were gigantic slices of cake. It was a unanimous vote to share the chocolate (dark and white) and durian. I couldn’t stomach more than 3 spoonfuls of either. That durian cake, honestly, was pretty good- if you like durian. Luckily the chocolate cake wasn’t too cloyingly sweet, so I had a couple more spoonfuls.

Jakarta's malls are expansive, and well, expensive. Plaza Indonesia and Grand Indonesia occupied me for a bit. (Only because I shop very very fast- I don't waste time window shopping or looking. I just head straight to the boutiques I'm' interested in.) They're Jakarta's better, bigger and more opulent answer to our Ion, Ngee Ann City and Paragon malls. It's kinda nice strolling through half filled malls on weekdays.

The range of products in the shops are also differently stocked from what shops at home. Say for example, the Chanel and Hermès boutiques. Those at home are always crowded and out of stock for just about everything I want. In Jakarta, these boutiques are fully stocked and had everything that I had an eye on. Plus the sweet sales executives could read my mind and offered me a version in matte finish rather than metallic. I honestly don't know the price variation for certain items. But it's not that much. When I'm looking for a specific design and especially a specific color, the price isn't a consideration. Procuring that item is the priority. In this case, I wonder why I should look to Europe then.

I forgot that smoking is allowed within Jakarta's malls. Restaurants are still divided into the smoking and non-smoking sections, which makes it a little more comfortable to dine in, but not conducive. The worst is on weekends when the number of visitors go up. I don't like the other table’s smoke wafting my way at meal times. I do take the occasional puff, but I hate smelling like an ashtray. No matter how classy the mall is, the stale smell of smoke is not at all impressive. Just a quick stroll through to find food was already annoying. Imagine how you’d feel if you’re at the malls for hours of shopping. In the end, I beat a hasty retreat from the malls and disappeared to the hotel where I won’t be too irritated.