KL Bucket List #5 Big Walk to Desa Sri Hartamas

So today I had a gutful of being indoors, and went for my first big walk since baby Alex came along in late March. Prior to that I had been doing two per week and feeling damn good for it. Since then it hasn't been so easy, with looking after kids, doing all the shopping, a fair amount of housework, etc, and to top it all off, the frigging heatwave that has hit KL these past two months or so!

But today I said bugger it and went. I almost didn't make it far as it was stinking hot, but I persisted. My destination today was Desa Sri Hartamas. I decided to take the same route as when I went to TTDI, and walk around Beringin, to the Kerinchi Link highway:

Apart from the heat it was a lovely walk. I enjoy Jalan Beringin, as it is a tree-lined road, a circuit road (so it's easy to just do a loop and go home again), and there is plenty of sidewalk. Plus being a hilly area, there are some awesome mansions sitting on the sides of the hills to gawk at. I particularly find interesting the various ways in which the builders have made use of the slope areas:

Once at the Kerinchi Link, it's just a couple more km's down to the Desa Sri Hartamas township:

My destination today was a bar called Chapter One. It is the old Finnegan's bar, which was at that location when I lived close-by in 2011/12. Actually Finnegan's is a bit of a vanished institution in KL - when I first arrived in 2008 there were three of them (that I knew of); one in Changkat BB, one on Jalan Sultan Ismail, and this one at DSH. I think I only got to the one on JSI once, before it was knocked down. I believe that site hosts a skyscraper now, such is the price of development. The one in CBB was next, and is now Front Page - a half decent sports bar, but a bit aged all the same, and frankly not my pub of choice in Changkat.

The Finnegan's at DSH though, was always a great choice, as in those days, there were few western-style bars in this area, so I frequented the place regularly. I remember a big day for the 2011 rugby world cup there as likely the last hurrah for me before I left the first time, and then Finnegan's disappeared once and for all.

DSH itself though, hasn't changed much, although like Finnegan's, many places have come and go in the years that I have known the place. it is one of those standard post-war developments, with 2 and 3 storey shop-lots and narrow streets, as shown below:

But they maintain the sidewalk well enough, so it's easy enough to walk around, even if it sucks to drive in the place. Mainly of course, because of rude local drivers who believe they have the right to park wherever the hell they please.

Anyway, 8km and a couple of cool drink stops later, I found Chapter One, at the site of the old Finnegan's. They haven't changed the decor of the place much at all - even the old bookshelves are still the same, with the same contents on the shelves. In some ways that was kind of nice though, from a nostalgic perspective. I didn't even look at the food menu, but had yet another cold drink, followed by 2 x RM22 pints of Asahi. Not bad for non-happy hour prices really! Some photos of the old place below:

8km is not a huge walk for me, but after a good month off, it was not a bad start. Looking forward to the next one!