The instructions were given. The group photos were posed. Breakfast was done. So, it was time to get on with the walk. So, how was the route?
Put it this way, if I was the one organising the walk, I would've picked this particular one. To put it mildly, it was uninspiring. It was basically one round loop, with clear instructions to only venture off once we met up at the end of the formal walk. I could have finished the route in 30 minutes, and we had close to 4 hours before the designated rendezvous. Too much time to kill.
So, I explored MaTIC itself for a start. Neat colonial building and this early in the morning, there was hardly anything happening there.
I then took a left along Jalan Ampang to the Jalan Sultan Ismail turn opposite Renaissance Hotel. A bit of street work, building site and architecture. The Bukit Nanas Monorel Station had a bit of colour.
Next up, we walked along Jalan Sultan Ismail, passing by Hard Rock Cafe and did an anti-clockwise turn joining Jalan P Ramlee walking towards KLCC passing by a few more buildings.
The whole group then congregated by Laman Standard Chartered, a nice little piece of greenary smack in the middle of town next to KLCC. First time discovering this place, it was actually quite nice and tranquil.
We then noticed that the air quality dropped and the haze started coming in. I escaped towards Suria KLCC, with the plan to have a quick cup of coffee. I walked towards the famous fountain at KLCC Park and the visibility had dropped considerably by then.
Since I parked the car there, I decided to split and drove home. Might as well spend the rest of the morning with the family. There would be another photowalk coming next weekend, so I might as well just safe my energy for that one ..
The combination of uninspired route, poor air quality and too big a crowd put me off in the end, but it didn't mean that it was the fault of the organiser. I was sure that they did their best. I route around Bukit Bintang, Chow Kit, Masjid India or Kampung Baharu would have been better I guessed. Looking at the snaps, it wasn't that bad. And photography was all about creativity. The real talent was making a scene appeared inspired. After all, anybody could pick up a camera and press the shutter!