Saturday, April 09, 2011

Prangin Mall revisited

A maze at both sides of walkway (level 2) connecting Komtar and Prangin Mall. I am sure I was not the only one who found this not well sign-posted. I remember having the same problem before a few years back.

From Komtar one has to go through Pacific departmental store and ask for direction and I bet the staff there are used to being asked for this. At Prangin side, I am sure there were signs confusing the levels like one indicating a certain shop at level 5 while at level 2 for instance. If not mistaken, there is actually difference in naming levels between Komtar and Prangin. Anyway, from here, one has to go through a shoe shop and it would have been most helpful if the sign outside it has Komtar with a direction arrow to reassure visitors they are on the right track. This is the sign I am referring to:



At the games centre level, advertisements or decorations in the form of tinted films gave the impression there is no verandah as though it was part of the shops and this does not help first timers finding their way.

The elevators could not have been worse in terms of convenience. I can understand this is part of mall management's plan to ensure all shops get enough human traffic but for someone looking for a way up or down, he is likely to find one going up only when he wants to go down, or vice versa.

At Prangin, I was attracted by what seemed to be live music when it turned out to be someone playing electronic drums in a game centre. I actually told my relatives that I am going in to find out more. I found one occupied and another not. I saw the notice '3 ' which costs only Rm1.50. But even the assistant could not help me much in terms of selection of songs. So it was, playing to accompany a Chinese song that came on. It took me a while to get a hang of the system and I just played along. The points seemed to go up and down a bit, then up again and down a bit, but generally I was gathering more points as I played. At the end, I scored over 1,200 and the chart showed over 600 as great! Not sure if I got it right. To me, any chance to play is a chance to be more adaptable to unfamiliar situations. Later, at Queensbay Mall, I went into their games centre but found they have only a Chinese drum, not the Roland's. But it means, games centre is not going to be a place to be avoided like before!

I have read about the hawkers centre being revamped but it turned out to be only so so. Even the pictures and notices look scrappy. Here, I could not help being affected by feng shui. The tables we went near were numbered 53, 54, 64 and 59! 5354 in Cantonese means 'neither alive nor dead' while 64 sounds like 'roll to death' and 59 means 'not enough'! We chose 38 instead! 38 means 'alive and prosperous! Don't take this seriously. I was with my close relatives from KL. But the television support next to it gave me the creeps. Never trust those by sitting below it.

Finally, Komtar from Penang Road side has transformed into something worthy of its stature, with modern shops and air-conditioned at the entrance. But from the carpark it has seen better days.

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