Growing up in the 70s and 80s, there were only just so many malls in the city one could hang out in and we didn’t even call them “malls” in those days. At most, they were shopping centres but any outing was something to look forward to and I would spend most of my time in book shops or shops that sold stationery so that I could stock up on writing pads and envelopes. I had a lot of foreign pen pals then and locally, I’d write to my grandmother and cousin in Penang.

Ampang Park was THE place to chill other than Sungei Wang Plaza as there was a children’s playground with a trampoline on the top floor and a music shop where my father would browse the latest LPs. My aunt would go there to purchase wool for her knitting from Haby & Wools which to my surprise, is still there.

Compared to the malls today, Ampang Park is a pale shadow of its former glory. I took a detour there yesterday evening as traffic was at such a standstill along Jalan Ampang and I knew it’d take me forever to get home so I might as well have dinner at one of the restaurant my mother and I used to frequent back in the 80s, Cozy Corner.

Sometimes it feels very nostalgic and wonderful to take a stroll down memory lane but in this case, I felt depressed as the place looked so dark and different from the Ampang Park of my childhood days. The place needs a serious makeover and facelift. At 8pm, some of the shops were closed. I couldn’t wait for the traffic to abate so that I could get out of there asap.

Even the Hainanese Fried Rice at Cozy Corner didn’t taste the same as in my youth. For just one moment, how I wished I could go back to the Ampang Park of the 1980s, sitting across from my mother and having one of the best fried rice in town but it’s not the same any more.