Darker Undertones – Desa Sri Hartamas

While heading into Desa Sri Hartamas for dinner recently, I noticed what a great picture the staircase along the shortcut would make (left pic). When it’s after dark, and the shortcut is quiet, just standing at the foot of the staircase looking up, reminds me of being on Whitechapel’s amber-tinted streets, on which Jack the Ripper used to hunt.

Desa Sri Hartamas is another one of those trendy evening spots. Unsurprisingly nicknamed “the new Bangsar”, Desa Sri Hartamas has practically everything the Bangsar Telawi area has to offer, including a branch of the famous SPG haunt, Finnegans (pic). Unlike the Bangsar Telawi area, Desa Sri Hartamas offers fewer night entertainment spots, and possibly more variety in restaurants. At a cursory glance, I found Japanese, Korean, Western, fusion food, food stalls, baba food, Penang food, bakeries, Strudel, Burger King, practically everything you could want in just one commercial area.

Aside from the food spots and some watering holes, Desa Sri Hart (as it’s lovingly called by locals) has the usual retail stores, like Guardian Pharmacy, a trendy supermarket, some stationery stores, a petrol kiosk, car accessories, a pet store, a fire station, a famous children’s book store and the famous TNT Kickboxing studio. The stores I usually like to linger in are the DVD/VCD stores.

 

Desa Sri Hartamas Fire Station

It was quite quiet on the night I ventured there for dinner at a Japanese restaurant. I wasn’t very surprised, its being a weekday evening. It’s a totally different story on a weekend night though. I would think that perhaps the problem with Desa Sri Hartamas now is the silent shock of Darren Kang’s murder recently. Unlike Whitechapel, Desa Sri Hartamas is an upmarket area, with patrons coming from the upper middle income to the affluent. Even the backlanes are well lit (right pic), with trees and grass and pavements, as opposed to dirty drains and large sewer rats. Had Darren Kang been assaulted and killed in another area of town, say Chow Kit or Kampung Baru, perhaps the public would not have been as shocked or affected by his murder.

Darren’s unfortunate demise is not a one-off or rare occurence. As mentioned in an earlier post, violence in Kuala Lumpur is escalating beyond proportions the public has ever experienced. Recently, there was an attempt to abduct Datuk Chua Jui Meng’s son from a petrol station in the area. Desa Sri Hartamas residents, like those in Taman SA, are more than aware of the situation, and have taken matters into their own hands.

The residents’ association recently formed a “Security Base” (right pic, below). Now, the public is not allowed into the housing estate, with all one entrance/exit completely cordonned off (left pic, below), and the other manned by security guads (pic, above). The guard told me that security operations have been running for about five months now. However, he did say something surprising. He said the housing area was now closed because residents were unhappy with the public parking inside. I can imagine this would be a more valid reason for Taman SA, but who’s to know. I personally wouldn’t be happy if there was a popular commercial square nearby, with the public parking indiscriminately along my neighbourhood streets.

 

I found this travelogue on Desa Sri Hart. It has daytime pictures, and a very good picture of a stack of rubbish (well, it’s good to see all sides of the place).