Malaysia’s Motherload of Upscale Malls and Movie Theaters

Overview of Kuala Lumpur’s Malls

Imagine the biggest mall you have ever seen.  Now multiply that by four and that’s about the size of a mall in Kuala Lumpur (KL), Malaysia.  Pretty big, right?  You may even think a mall that size would be the main attraction.  Well in KL, there happen to be more than twenty of these mega malls within a few blocks of each other.

The top 5 malls out of the lot are Sungei Wang Plaza and BB Plaza, Pavilion Kuala Lumpur, Suria KLCC, Berjaya Times Square, and The Curve.

Packed to capacity each and every day, you would think walking in it was Black Friday. But no, these malls are all full of locals and tourists trying to get some shopping done, seven days a week.

Most of these malls house high end brands known around the world, but Berjaya Times Square mall is different.  This particular mall is home to many local boutiques and a theme park in the center of the building.  A massive roller coaster winds through the heart and screams of thrill and terror are heard throughout the mall.

A few blocks away is the Pavilion Mall, probably the nicest mall of them all.  The Pavilion is a lot like a Western mall, with nice shops and restaurants scattered around. Christmas trees and lights also cover the place, giving it that “holiday cheer” aspect we have at home.  A massive sleigh sits near the entrance where children line up to sit on Santa’s lap, and a band sings Christmas carols nearby.  For the first time this holiday season, it finally feels like Christmas.

On one wing of the mall, is a nice movie theater playing both Malaysian movies as well as an assortment of Hollywood films.

We decided to pay the theater a visit and watch the movie Catching Fire, as we’d been looking toward to its release.

Malaysia’s Movie Theaters are Fancy Too

The biggest difference between our movie theaters back at home and Malaysian theaters is the awesome seats. In Malaysia, you choose your seats ahead of time, like booking seats on a plane. There are “First Class,” “Business Class,” and “Coach” seats.

We paid for the “Business Class” seating which they call the “Couple’s Chair” because it was seated in the top center of the theater and had plush two person love seats, that were made for dates.

When we went to find the theater, we accidentally wandered into a nice lounge. This is where the “First Class” customers, or the “Gold Class,” wait before their movie. We weren’t sure where we were, so we made our way into the Gold Class theater. Inside were only about twenty seats or so. However, these weren’t your typical movie seats, they were expensive La-Z-Boy recliners equipped with coffee tables, service buttons, and blankets.

Score! I thought to myself. We looked for our seats and couldn’t find them.  That’s when we realized we were in the wrong theater.  Disappointed, we made our way to our theater and found our Couple’s Chairs, that would have looked a lot nicer if we hadn’t seen the Gold Class Theater minutes before.

We enjoyed the theater so much that we came back the next night and watched another Hollywood film.

I’m sure many Americans might assume that Malaysian malls aren’t very nice, maybe run down and old.  I can assure you, any one of these mega malls could give the nicest Western malls a run for their money.  In fact, the Pavilion is so magical, it was even “snowing” when we left.

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