Living in Mont'Kiara

I've lived in Mont'Kiara, off and on, since end 2004. First time round we lived in MK Pines, Aspen Tower. It was, by our standards, a very small apartment - only 1468 sq ft, 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms. Just about managed to squeeze in half our furniture, including our baby grand piano. The rest of our stuff was in our house in PJ, which made it a wee bit crowded there as the house was already fully furnished before we moved our stuff in... but at 3400 sq ft, I guess it was big enough to take the extra furniture :-). Our current place is a lot bigger - 2735 sq ft - so we have loads of place to put all our furniture and loads of place to move around. No such thing as cabin fever here :-).

So, what do people say about Mont'Kiara? I've heard lots of people complain about it - so built up, so much traffic, condos everywhere, too crowded, too much illegal parking, hot-spot for dengue, too much ongoing development still, no decent public transportation, etc, etc, etc. But it has so many things going for it that all these negatives simply pale into insignificance for me.

I mean, where we live right now (Hijauan Kiara) we have construction going on right in front of us (Gateway), across the road (Vivaldi) and even behind us (Verve Suites), and despite all that, we still LOVE living in Mont'Kiara.

Yes, I do curse at the traffic sometimes, both my husband and I have been hit by dengue (very recently too), we get angry at the idiots who park illegally all over the place, we wish all the development would be over and done with, but would we want to move out of here? Hmmmm... unless somebody gave us a few million ringgit to allow us to buy property in Damansara Heights, the answer is NO WAY JOSE!! We will stick with Mont'Kiara.

So, why? Why, oh why? How about this:
- so many eating places, ranging from the small stalls to the upmarket restaurants
- a pasar malam so close by every Thursday, at MK Plaza
- a bric-a-brac market every Saturday and Sunday at MK Plaza
- a very conveniently placed bank and post office at MK Plaza
- the BEST non-halal deli in KL, at the Shoplex just outside MK Pines!! They sell the best bacon in KL! and they are open till midnight every day!
- a very reasonably provisioned supermarket at MK Plaza, with a small 'branch' at the Shoplex
- an excellent bakery at the Shoplex, as well as a decent Japanese restaurant
- nail spa, hair dresser, electrical shop,
- SO easy to get to, Bangsar (for Bangsar Shopping Centre, and Bangsar Village 1 & 2); Megamall; 1-Utama; The Curve and Ikano - all within 10 - 15 minutes drive
- Good supermarkets close by (Solaris, Bangsar, Curve)
- Some people stay there for the International Schools (NOT me!!)

Mont'Kiara is just so central, so easy to find anything you want, so easy to get around. We are not bothered about the lack of public transport either - as we both drive anyway! So? What's not to like really?

Would we leave Hijauan (where we currently live)? Well, Yeah, if someone came along and made the right offer, we would be happy to move - and would promptly buy another place in Mont'Kiara again! Probably back in MK Pines again, if any of the penthouses in Aspen tower were available.

So, Yes, we LOVE Mont'Kiara... but then, that's just my point of view!