Saturday, March 10, 2007

Bangsar ... and/or Bali?

Raman now has a tentative timetable up for his KL Litfest International Literary Festival. The venues for events are mostly clustered in Bangsar Village 1 & 2, and include Starbucks, Marmalade, the main concourse for Wong Phui Nam's play reading, Caffe 1920 (1st floor, just by the walkway to BV2).

Other events are up the road: in Silverfish itself (mostly workshops), upstairs at Alexis Bistro, and Ronnie Q (for Cecil Rajendran's evening of poetry and music).

Everything is conveniently close. There a plenty of places to eat, drink and gossip with the writing crowd ... and you can easily pop into Village Grocer for your shopping between readings!

The early bird discount for the festival has been extended to March 15th.

If your appetite for litfests is whetted, why not venture a little further afield and enjoy a holiday in a beautiful location at the same time? The Ubud Readers and Writers Festival runs from 25th-30th September and this year features Kiran Desai, Su Tong, XinRan, Peter Goldsworthy, Shashi Tharoor, Hitomi Kanehara, Catherine Lim, and Tim Flannery.

I believe Kam Raslan, Farish Noor and Tan Twan Eng will be representing Malaysia ... although curiously, none are on the programme for KLILF.

The festival has been listed as one of the six best literary festivals in the world by Harpers Bazaar in the UK (Feb edition). This doesn't surprise me.

Apparently there are some very good deals on Air Asia flights at the moment, with fares from here as low as RM30 (one way!) at the moment. Organiser Finley Smith wrote to tell me that six members of one KL based reading group have already booked.

So ... Bangsar or Bali ... or both???

19 comments:

Chet said...

Definitely Bangsar for me.

God willing, it's Wolong in China for me in late August, and that's probably all the overseas travelling I'll be doing this year.

Lydia Teh said...

Map, map, I need a map to get to these places.

Chet said...

Lydia - same neighbourhood as Bangsar Village II. Does that help?

bibliobibuli said...

lydia! you know bangsar village and the other places are just ashort walk away. no doubt maps will be provided! you are coming, aren't you?

Anonymous said...

both!

Lydia Teh said...

Yes, I'm coming but I don't know where's Bangsar Village. The old Hankyu jaya I know.

Chet said...

Lydia - the old Hankyu is Bangsar Village I. Bangsar Village II is across the road from that. It's got a red "ribbon" running across the middle of the external facade. I think it may be where the Hakka Restaurant was, altho I didn't know it'd been taken down. I could be wrong.

Anonymous said...

Oh Sharon! Bali! Already, Ubud is working its magic and I've never even been there! I feel helpless against its charm. Have to be there. Have to go. As for Bangsar - but of course. It's home territory.

Anonymous said...

hey, do i win a book or what? when u gonna announce the winners?

Anonymous said...

Do you know if there is an ability to attend just one session? I'd like to attend Wong Pui Nam's session, and also Cecil's. As said before, I don't have the luxury of taking 3 full days off work. But half a day is manageable.

Chet said...

Message from Sharon (received 4:53 p.m., Sunday, 11/3) - my computer rosak so no blogging until it's fixed.

bibliobibuli said...

animah - it doesn't cost much just RM50 for the whole thing if you register before 15th. just pay and come for a couple of things.

Anonymous said...

Sharon, depends on the category I fit in. I'm not a student. Am I a writer? As I'm a full time lawyer in the corporate sector, I may not be regarded as deserving for the cheaper rate.

Lydia Teh said...

Chet, thanks. Now I know where Bangsar Village is. Shows how long I haven't been in that area, more than 10 years I think.

Katak dibawah tempurung.

Chet said...

Lydia! We can't afford to have you getting lost on the morning of the LitBloggers' Breakfast Club meeting on the 24th!

Tunku Halim said...

Sigh...wish I could go to both!

bibliobibuli said...

animah - you are a writer. just look raman in the eye and say it.

Gette said...

Damnit! I'm a writer! Can I get RM50 back?

bibliobibuli said...

you can ask gette.