hazy kl and peter hoe and monsters.

last week was a rough one. KL, and all of peninsular malaysia and singapore, experienced the effects of crop-burning from indonesia. this is a yearly occurrence. there are a number of politics surrounding the issue, but basically, crops are burned in indonesia to clear the fields, the smoke makes its way across the strait to malaysia and singapore, we're stuck with haze. the air quality that comes with the haze is very close to everyday life in places like china or hong kong, and people live just fine up there. i believe they live just fine because their bodies adjust to it. it's not healthy, but they adjust. here, when we get it for a week or so, our bodies have no time to adjust and we're stuck with scratchy throats and watery eyes. it's just no good. this is what it looked on one of the worst days, last sunday:



there was a fear that since the haze came so soon this year, and in such a worse manner than previously (supposedly it hasn't been this bad since 2005), that this was going to linger on through the summer. fortunately, things cleared up toward the end of the week. on friday, it looked like this again. beautiful KL.



last sunday i went out in search of something for my friend that she had wanted when she was here, but wasn't settled on. unfortunately, it was out of stock by the time i made my way out there. still, i want to highlight the store, because everything in it is adorable. it's more expensive than what you'll find for some of the goods inside on average in KL, but the products are all unique to the store. and what store is it?


peter hoe!

peter hoe has two locations. the above is located between central market (you can see its blue exterior on the left of the photo) and the train station. it's smaller than the other location, but has more clothing and less housewares. it also only takes cards. how backwards is that? i learned this the hard way, as i only carry cash here, and so they had to write me up a receipt, which i then had to take the the other location, pay there, then take the confirmed payment receipt back to the original store to pick up my items. what a hassle! i'm sure they have their reasons for not accepting cash. i just don't know what they are. fortunately, the other location is just a block away. from the position the photo above was taken, you'll go to the right, turn right at the first intersection, and then stop at the chinese temple.




the chinese temple is on your left, and the old rubber building (a five-story building) is on your right. the second peter hoe store is located on the second floor of the building. the first time i went to it, i got really lost, because there are no indicators on the outside of the building for what's inside. i remembered it was five stories though, and just looked until i found a building that tall. luckily it was the only one!


excuse the photo quality, i only had my phone

inside it's filled with every kind of houseware you can think of: tablecloths, placemats, tablerunners, pot holders, pillowcases, votives, napkin rings, and on and on. the tablecloths/placemats get me the most: they change out the styles every so often, so if you see one you like, you shouldn't wait to get it. they've also got bags, jewelry, a minimal selection of clothing (at this store, as i said the other one has more), etc. the fabric is almost all done in batik style. there's also a cafe in this location, although i've never eaten at it. i love almost everything in the store, and it almost has an anthropologie vibe to it. if you're running around chinatown, i'd definitely recommend just stopping in to see what's available.



on a final note, monsters u opened up last weekend. along with it came tons of merchandise around the malls, my favorite of which are the t-shirts/pants/dresses found in giordano. i picked up a sulley shirt for my baby's brother's birthday in august. he's definitely monster-material! this is something else i love about living here: you'll get standard merchandise to go along with movies/tv-shows/whatever in america. here, we can find a little extra - like the disney line at uniqlo - and it's all great quality. it's just fun.

Categories: disney, haze, kl haze, kuala lumpur, malaysia, movies, shopping, touristy things