Sunday, May 02, 2010

Plaza Low Yat - Malaysia

I know, I know. I have been totally remiss in my blogging duties. My last post was dated June 24, 2009, a few days after we arrived from Vietnam. Since something always comes up, blogging has taken a back seat. But here I am again, back from a new country with new stories to tell. Since I don't want to bore you with a long read (similar to my Vietnam blog), I'll be sharing with you stories from our Malaysia trip in different posts as I remember them. That way, you'll have reason to come back and check on my blog. ;-)

I'd like to begin my series of entries on Malaysia with a topic that's very close to my heart - GADGETS. And when you talk of gadgets in KL, only three words come to mind - Plaza Low Yat.


Plaza Low Yat is located in the busy area of Bukit Bintang. This mall is an amalgam of all things electronic - cameras, laptops, gaming consoles, anything wired - it's there. We went to a lot of malls in KL but this has got to be on top of my list.

I must admit that one of the reasons why I agreed on Malaysia was due to the supposed cheap prices of Sony products there. Cameras at Low Yat are cheap, at least compared to Manila prices so make sure to buy one when you visit KL.




The guy entertaining me at the above store was very accommodating. We spent almost an hour discussing everything SLR. Since I'm just a beginner, he gave me a lengthy discussion on what lens to buy, the camera body to choose, etc. For a Nikon D5000, 4 Gb memory card, tripod, bag, wide angle lens (adaptor) and a telephoto lens, the best price he quoted me was RM3,500. That's about P48,792 as of this writing. I'm not sure if that's a good price though. Unfortunately, at the last minute, I changed my mind and went for the higher model D90 instead. I feel bad that I also ended up not buying from his store but at Photokem, a supposedly more reputable shop. For those of you planning to go to KL to buy an SLR, the price I got for the Nikon D90 kit was RM3,400 or (P47K in pesos). I know I couldn't bargained for a better price by having the country insurance taken out (Nikon doesn't have international warranty) but the risk of getting a dud unit is always there.

Plaza Low Yat is definitely a gadget freak's haven. On the first floor are mostly camera and laptop shops. Cellphone stores are located on the second floor while the third to fifth floors are mostly for PCs. It's too bad that we always find ourselves at this mall a few minutes before closing time. But despite our short time together, I am still declaring Plaza Low Yat as my most favorite mall in Kuala Lumpur.