Harbor Mall. Now that it's open...

[DMC1]

With respect, that roundabout is terrible.  It's too small for the 2 lanes to go around it properly, so right at that roundabout, you've got to merge with the other lane.  Quite dangerous especially if there is a bus.
 
Add to that local drivers have no idea how these things work.  It's basically a free for all! LOL

Tell me about it mate. I navigate this roundabout on my pushbike and Thais actually have stopped on the roundabout as I approach to let me through! I stop and wave at them that they have right of way! Then, once you proceed onto the roundabout a bus comes flying across the front of you, no stopping and giving way to the right! Completely mad but I guess they don't have many roundabouts in Thailand to teach (loose term) drivers....

[craigt3365]

1 minute ago, DMC1 said:

Tell me about it mate. I navigate this roundabout on my pushbike and Thais actually have stopped on the roundabout as I approach to let me through! I stop and wave at them that they have right of way! Then, once you proceed onto the roundabout a bus comes flying across the front of you, no stopping and giving way to the right! Completely mad but I guess they don't have many roundabouts in Thailand to teach (loose term) drivers....

 

 

I'm from the US, mainly the Western part.  Roundabouts are very rare, or at least use to be.  The first time I encountered one, probably in 2002 or so, was in Vegas.  To be honest, I wasn't sure what to do!  I'd never seen one as a driver before. 

 

So I understand the confusion on the part of drivers here.  In Europe, they are everywhere, and they are designed quite well.  With drivers who know how to use them! LOL  That's not the case here.

[johng]

When designed and used properly they work very well and keep the traffic flowing much better than traffic lights,

in the UK they even have mini roundabouts that are not much more than a very small round hump  with markings at the junction ( you can drive straight over them if no one is looking ) and they work too.

[johng]

This morning on the way to Harbor Mall they where resurfacing the sukumvit road and the tail back

was almost back to south pattaya junction,

the police/marshals where directing motorbikes onto the footpath..which turned out to be worse than driving on the unsurfaced road !

anyway at the Mall they have now changed the motorbike parking to the other side of the building.

 

Outside the Max value shop there is indeed an AEON ATM machine.

 

Almost the entire 3rd floor  is now empty there where some worker painting the ceiling.

 

Signs for the ice rink (1st April )

snow land  (20th April )

laser battle (20th March ) 

I didn't go up to the 5th floor to peek again behind the construction curtain.

 

 

[LongTimeLurker]

On 3/2/2017 at 8:56 AM, johng said:

there are 2 that I know of in Pattaya  and one has been blocked off so its a semi roundabout

this one still works as it should.

The roundabout works

 

Unfortunately the drivers do not know how to use it.

[NanLaew]

Hit Harbour Mall last Saturday and it was very busy with families with their kids. First weekend of (most) local school holidays of course but I can see it staying busy through Songkran at least, especially if more of their overdue attractions open.

[gmac]

On 3/6/2017 at 9:19 PM, LongTimeLurker said:

The roundabout works

 

Unfortunately the drivers do not know how to use it.

Even not working properly it is so much more efficient than the traffic lights before it as you approach Jomtien from the South.  The lights, 4 ways each with its own light 2 minute wait, roundabout , touch the brakes, curse some idiot stopping on the roundabout who knows no better and you're through.  (Not sure what this has to do with Harbor Mall, but it's certainly more interesting!)

[siam2007]

1 hour ago, NanLaew said:

Hit Harbour Mall last Saturday and it was very busy with families with their kids. First weekend of (most) local school holidays of course but I can see it staying busy through Songkran at least, especially if more of their overdue attractions open.

 

 

Unfortunately, this ghost town opens Monday to Friday too and is largely abandoned on these days. Even the food court is void of any customers and that tells you something (and the food court is the worst of any mall I have ever patronized in the entire kingdom - most food is miserable and goes to the microwave first)

[stravers]

Floor 3 (phones) is mostly vacant now. The tenants waited out the minimum of their contracts and moved on. The flooring of one of the attractions is being built in the middle of the 3rd floor where national brands used to have their kiosks. Floor 3 was bustling around May of last year which was 1 month after Harbor opened.

 

I went with a friend to the double unit Petchakasem phone shop on floor 3. My friend bought an add-on for his phone. The young lady on duty sat with us for nearly an hour explaining how to use the add-on step by step. Her English could've been better but she did not give up ensuring we were informed and comfortable with the purchase. Thumbs up for that.

 

Several food court tenants have moved on as well. The Thais voted with their wallets which makes me realize the tenants still there must be decent. Issan food, chicken/rice, soups and omellete on rice are all found in every food court so that's obviously the favorites that can't go wrong. 

 

April 1 is the 1 year anniversary (no fooling!) and I think the city developers know what's coming and they know this town will be booming in a few years when the casinos and the tunnel eventually open. Harbor will be packed with Chinese and Thais.

[Jingthing]

Casinos?

15 years ago business people trying to drum up sales and prices were saying that casinos were coming next year?

I'm hearing this rumor more lately again.

Why believe it NOW? 

[champers]

18 minutes ago, Jingthing said:

Casinos?

15 years ago business people trying to drum up sales and prices were saying that casinos were coming next year?

I'm hearing this rumor more lately again.

Why believe it NOW? 

15 years ago there were no Chinese tourists.

[Jingthing]

2 minutes ago, champers said:

15 years ago there were no Chinese tourists.

Good answer, but where's the evidence or is it all just rumor and gossip as it seems to me?

There are obviously people that are making money on people believing this.

I won't until I see it just like I wouldn't suggest buying condos here before they're built. 

Edited March 13, 2017 by Jingthing

[JayBird]

11 hours ago, siam2007 said:

 

 

Unfortunately, this ghost town opens Monday to Friday too and is largely abandoned on these days. Even the food court is void of any customers and that tells you something (and the food court is the worst of any mall I have ever patronized in the entire kingdom - most food is miserable and goes to the microwave first)

I remember glimpsing the food court from the escalators.  We immediately opted to NOT go in as it was very empty.  Empty almost guarantees that the food will not be good (sitting around a long time, not fresh, not going to use their best ingredients/etc.). 

 

 

[Rimmer]

A couple of off topic posts have been removed, topic is about Harbor Mall

[johng]

I know for sure there was an "illegal"  casino operating for years on the Central Pattaya road (closed now ) and stories about the ships anchored in Pattaya bay...some even say that there is a whole floor at a very large Jomtien Hotel ready and waiting for the "casino green light"

I hope they are allowed  eventually, but see no clues suggesting a change of law any time soon if anything they are becoming more restrictive

 

Aherm...   to be on topic... to the best of my knowledge there are no casinos at the Harbor Mall  (yet)

[balo]

As long as the gambling laws continue to be so strict you can forget about casinos.  They should learn something from Cambodia , the big casino in Phnom Penh attracts millions of Chinese  and other Asians. 

[NanLaew]

On 14/03/2017 at 1:24 AM, JayBird said:

I remember glimpsing the food court from the escalators.  We immediately opted to NOT go in as it was very empty.  Empty almost guarantees that the food will not be good (sitting around a long time, not fresh, not going to use their best ingredients/etc.). 

 

 

On the other hand, it was standing room only at Tammour when we visited. There was people waiting for tables to clear and the waitstaff were borderline slammed but most of the stuff there is fast Thia food. They must have plenty dishwashers out the back!

[JSixpack]

On 3/13/2017 at 9:49 PM, stravers said:

Floor 3 (phones) is mostly vacant now. The tenants waited out the minimum of their contracts and moved on. The flooring of one of the attractions is being built in the middle of the 3rd floor where national brands used to have their kiosks. Floor 3 was bustling around May of last year which was 1 month after Harbor opened.

 

When I saw that absurd saturation of phone counters & shops when the mall first opened, I couldn't conceive how they could possibly stay. Maybe they never thought so either. Even CentralFestival couldn't support all that. Or the redeveloped CentralMarina--phones greatly de-emphasized; remember that larger "IT Center" they used to have back in the corner on the 2nd floor? Gone. Much more focus on restos.

 

So no surprise there. Wonder if it was all just a marketing gimmick to begin with.

 

Quote

April 1 is the 1 year anniversary (no fooling!) and I think the city developers know what's coming and they know this town will be booming in a few years when the casinos and the tunnel eventually open. Harbor will be packed with Chinese and Thais.

 

Private & corporate developers. City developers wake up to what's happening after the fact. WinnieTheKhwai, who has more sense than most, is one of the few who by time of the Promenade had it right and even half-predicted The Tunnel, another rich source of sneers & doomsayin':

 

I think it dawned on them [City Hall] pretty late that Pattaya was going to be a BIG city. One of the biggest in the country, after Bangkok. . . . Currently Pattaya is probably up there in the top 3 of biggest cities outside of Bangkok. (Subject to what anyone would want to define as being 'Pattaya' . . .) [speaking of tunnels in Chiang Mai] That needs to happen in Pattaya too; all major intersections on Sukhumvit need tunnels and/or flyovers.

WinnieTheKhwai, on 19 Apr 2013 - 06:21

 

But yep developers realized a decade ago that Pattaya has some great untapped potential and started to move to exploit it. Though predicted to fail w/i 6 months, Harbor's been doing quite OK all considered, and looking forward to the completion of the tunnel. Could be they delayed opening of the rink waiting for that. I think they need to do a lot more promoting than at present. They've got a lot of the kids entertainment areas up & running and need to be sure families know that--important market differentiation, even more so when Terminal 21 arrives.

 

It's nice to have around and I always enjoy my visits there. It's going to stay around, too, just as the Harbor at Laemchabang has stayed around despite Eyeballs At Random Intervals finding it deserted as usual.

 

 

 

Edited March 16, 2017 by JSixpack

[craigt3365]

On a side note, Central Festival was packed today.  From 11am until we left at 2PM. 

[tropo]

11 minutes ago, craigt3365 said:

On a side note, Central Festival was packed today.  From 11am until we left at 2PM. 

It was packed yesterday too.

[craigt3365]

1 minute ago, tropo said:

It was packed yesterday too.

I've not been in some time, but that's pretty close to the most crowded I've seen.  Especially for that early in the day.  With that being said, traffic was really light going home.  Hardly any at all. 

[bangkokbanjo]

I go to Harbor every day to study my thai
I sit in the starbucks for a few hours than roam around for a bit. I have no idea how this place stays in business. Its always empty. I will say they have great bathrooms! I like it better than Big C on pattaya glang. Big C has so few places where you can relax and charge your phone. Its also dingy

Sent from my SM-G920V using Thaivisa Connect mobile app

[Allstars]

6 hours ago, JSixpack said:

When I saw that absurd saturation of phone counters & shops when the mall first opened, I couldn't conceive how they could possibly stay. Maybe they never thought so either

Didn't you say on 28 April 2016

 

And we can just never have enough mobile phone shops

 

 

 

 

[JSixpack]

30 minutes ago, Allstars said:

Didn't you say on 28 April 2016

 

And we can just never have enough mobile phone shops

 

 

 

 

 

Tongue-in-cheek, as indicated by the smiling emoticon you've carefully omitted. Nobody could possibly feel sure that such a concentration could make money there, but then, unlike our ace TVF economists, I'm also open to considering that "they" may know something that I don't. Good luck to 'em if they do. Concentrations of similar shops, or products, in a particular area are common in Asia, much to the consternation of expats. I'd make the same wry observation about a long corridor filled with various brands of fish sauce. This was overkill, obviously.

 

They were great eye candy, though, which makes me idly speculate (not seriously ) whether it was all mostly a marketing display. Some shops looked pretty serious, however. Wonder too if the management promised everything would be up & running quickly, promotions, etc.--and they believed it. I've replied to you elsewhere about how to interpret Thai schedules.

 

Be interesting to see what they do w/ that space.

 

 

Edited March 16, 2017 by JSixpack

[stravers]

I could make some photos. Anyone interested in seeing them?

[NanLaew]

10 hours ago, craigt3365 said:

I've not been in some time, but that's pretty close to the most crowded I've seen.  Especially for that early in the day.  With that being said, traffic was really light going home.  Hardly any at all. 

With the oppressive heat right now, where else are the locals going to go for a copious air conditioning, a big food hall and totally free parking? FWIW, Central Plaza in Udon has been similarly heaving these past few days too.

[janclaes47]

On 3/6/2017 at 0:28 PM, johng said:

This morning on the way to Harbor Mall they where resurfacing the sukumvit road and the tail back

was almost back to south pattaya junction,

the police/marshals where directing motorbikes onto the footpath..which turned out to be worse than driving on the unsurfaced road !

anyway at the Mall they have now changed the motorbike parking to the other side of the building.

 

Outside the Max value shop there is indeed an AEON ATM machine.

 

Almost the entire 3rd floor  is now empty there where some worker painting the ceiling.

 

Signs for the ice rink (1st April )

snow land  (20th April )

laser battle (20th March ) 

I didn't go up to the 5th floor to peek again behind the construction curtain.

 

 

 

So how many of you enjoyed the opening of the ice rink today........................or was that a April fools joke.

[JSixpack]

Re: the 3rd floor

 

On 3/16/2017 at 7:06 PM, JSixpack said:

Be interesting to see what they do w/ that space.

 

Pretty creative: they turned much of it into a roller skating rink. Saw a lot of kids enjoying that and the other entertainment spaces, a week or so ago.

 

[i claudius]

The supermarket in the Harbour mall is a wonderful place for 2 cheap charlies like the wife and i ,so much stuff reduced,and buy one get one frees . went in the other day and stocked up our freezer on loads of stuff and dont get me started on their fruit

[Rimmer]

A personal attack has been removed