The Harbour Bay Mall is the newest mall in Batam. It was opened in early 2010 with the anchor tenant – Carrefour. For those who are unsure of the location of this mall, it is located very close to the Harbour Bay Ferry Terminal. Once you have arrived at this ferry terminal, the Harbour Bay Mall is just about less than 10 minutes walk away. Do not waste your money taking a cab from the ferry terminal. Just observe how the taxis exit from the arrival hall to the main road and just follow it. As you walk along the road, there will be plenty of touts shouting to draw your attention, just simply ignore them and keep walking. Once you see a large but short building, this is the Harbour Bay Mall.
.
.
If you are observant, you will spot a tall building beside the mall. This is the Harbour Bay Amir Hotel. It is a relatively new hotel and I have stayed there and also wrote a blog, which is my review of this hotel. If you are keen in reading it, just click the link below: –
Harbour Bay Amir Hotel – My Review
.
.
When you entered the mall, you will feel that it is very spacious indeed. But there are only 3 levels where you can browse, walk and shop. The basement level is where the famous Carrefour supermarket is located. I use the word supermarket and not hypermart because it is indeed just a supermarket. I am rather disappointed that Carrefour have chosen to open such a small store ( which is in fact their first store in Batam ) in this mall. I wonder why is Carrefour is so conservative in opening up such a small store? You cannot compare this store to the Hypermart that is located in Nagoya Hill Shopping Mall which is huge and carry a wider range of merchandise. You can read my review of Nagoya Hill Shopping Mall – just follow the link below:-
Nagoya Hill Shopping Mall – My Review
.
.
As I was walking in the mall, I notice that there are still plenty of shops that were still empty – perhaps the mall management has yet to fill it up with the right tenants. There are a few restaurants located on each level of this mall. But surprisingly there is no Macdonald, KFC or Pizza Hut outlet here. I wonder why international fast food chains have not set up an outlet here. You can see the well known Polo store here. Buy more of their clothes and you get up to 50% discount from your total purchase. For kids, there is a large fun and games outlet in this mall. Kids will love it as there are lots of kiddies rides and game machines inside. For ladies, there are a few stores that sells famous branded bags, wallets and watches.
.
.
The mall was crowded as I was there during the public holidays. Carrefour supermarket was very crowded. There were lots of local Indonesians shopping there. By the way, most of the food products that are sold in Carrefour are produced locally or local brands from Indonesia. I do hope that they expand their bakery section so as to add more variety of bread and pastries. Maybe they should even consider opening up a small cafe next to the bakery section for customers to sit back and enjoy the fresh coffee and pastries.
.
.
I have uploaded a number of photos of the new Harbour Bay Mall in my website. Just go to the photo gallery of my website and you can see the photos of this brand new mall. The website link is below –