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Ikano Power Center is a newly opened shopping mall in Mutiara
Damansara, which I believe is in Petaling Jaya. It’s connected to the
only Ikea outlet in Malaysia (correct me if I’m wrong). I went there
with my gf the day before I flew to Kuching, and didn’t have time to
write it up before now.

This is the entrance to Ikano Power Center. The interior is quite
architecturally impressive. The lifts (elevators) are the same as the
ones that’s installed in KLIA – the transparent ones with full workings
exposed. The escalators are also fairly novel, a straight incline to
the next floor:

Here’s a shot of the interior as you enter it:

Anyway, I didn’t feel that there was a lot of places to go to
inside. There’s a Harvey Norman but I’ve been to this chain too many
times in Melbourne. However, we did find one place that we liked – The
Pet Safari! 🙂

This is the entrance to the pet store. The interior is divided into
several sections like small animals, cats (not available when we
visited), dogs, fishes and so forth. I liked the interior layout.

This is what you see when you step in. I like this photo that I took of these midget hamsters (?):

Me and my gf was wondering why they always huddle around together
like that. There’s one inside a sea shell, does anyone know why these
cute little things exhibit this behavior? It’s like they need to have
snug contact with something all the time. I wanted to get some but my
gf didn’t let me.

I liked the way Ikano Power Center and Ikea have these recycling
bins for plastic, paper and “others” (which is the things that don’t
fit into the first two categories, obviously ;)). Anyway, after that we
went for lunch at…Rasa Fiesta!

Everyday is a fiesta at Rasa Fiesta. 🙂 The food court has avant
garde (okay, so I just wanted to see if I can insert this phrase into
the post) influenced walls at the back – it changes color ever so
frequently. Look at the back of this picture of the interior:

I like the wash basins too:

It’s like this circular structure with four water outlets. Nice.

We went to Ikea after that. Ikano Power Center is connected to Ikea via the passage that you can see above.

These are the refundable 50 cent storage lockers that you put your
stuff. We spent a good hour walking around Ikea – I finally see the
appeal of Ikea. You can do anything you want – lie on the beds, sit on
the comfy sofas without anyone tailgating you. It’s nice to look at the
arrangements and plan how you want your future home to be too! 🙂 Now,
we’ll go to the final destination – the Swedish Specialty Shop! =D

This is Svenskt Brannvin vodka. It retails for an amazingly
affordable RM 30 for a 700 ml bottle of 40% vodka. I wouldn’t say that
vodka has a “taste” per se, but it tastes slightly better than Absolut
vodka and it’s very drinkable even at room temperature. I don’t have a
fridge and I chug vodka straight from the bottle in order to sleep, and
this is perfect. Too bad there isn’t an Ikea in Kuching.

This is another value buy and it’s what you want to go for if you
want to taste your drink. O.P. Anderson Fine Old Aquavit at RM 22.90
for a 500 ml bottle. It’s 40% as well, and it tastes REALLY good.
There’s an aniseed taste to it that makes it go down all too well. If
you like aniseed candies (eg the chocolate coated aniseed rings),
you’ll love this – aniseed is the dominating character of this aquavit.
Very drinkable even at room temperature and it’s chuggable too (only if
you like aniseed).

There is this bound and laminated booklet at the shop with details
of the products they offer. This is the entry for OP ANDERSON. There
isn’t one for Svenskt Brannvin…I triple checked the entire book.
Anyway, I was photographing everything and this lead to a funny
incident with security. 🙂

If I had a bottle of vodka for every time security told me that
taking photos is not allowed inside Ikea, I’ll be sorted for months.
Heh. Anyway, there are “No Camera” signs, but if you want to, just take
them anyway (I own a Nikon 5700 – bulky and no one would call it
discreet) and when security says “Sorry sir, no photos allowed.”, say
“Oh, I see. Sorry.” and continue anyway. I didn’t say I was going to
STOP taking photos, I just said I understood the store policy. 😉

They won’t kick you out or anything like that – most of them were
resigned to the fact that I was going to take photos at the Swedish
Specialty Shop, like it or not. FWIW, they’re just there to tell you
that, and by informing you once in a while about the store policy
regarding photography, they have already fulfilled their obligation,
they won’t go the extra mile and report you to the store manager or
anything. 🙂

That’s our visit to Ikano Power Center and Ikea. Oh, and please
remember that I write my posts and resize my photos at home (where I
don’t have a net connection) and only post it when I get into the
office. This means I can only answer comments during breaks or lunch,
not directly after posting. Thanks for understanding. 🙂

Ikea!