I don’t like malls.
If there’s a better place for people to come and meet with each other, socialize, talk and relax with your family and friends on the weekends, I’ll take it.
But in Jakarta, there isn’t any.
Malls have very different functions in Jakarta. Here, they’re the places to do those things. In countries I visit, they are for shopping, for buying things. That’s it. When people are done with their business, they get out. Hang out in the cafes, streets, parks and barbeque pits.
Too bad for us.
So, if you feel the same way I do, when seeing a flock of friends, or a family strolling down in a mall, talking and relaxing, enjoying their Sunday, just imagine them in a middle of a park. With benches, fountains, birds and stuff. It’ll help you go through it.
I feel you. Still remember going to the mall only when I needed to buy something. I still practice the same way though here in Jakarta, I tried to avoid mall, however, the other people’s requests still pushed me to keep going to the mall to meet them. I miss my park, my beach, my lake.
I hear you Edward. I miss New Zealand. Even Singapore has their clean parks.
We need more parks, but hey, instead they are building more malls, and hellow…floods galore! They don’t realise having parks will help absorb those pollution, not to mention help absorb the excessive water that seems to come every year.
Ah well.