Thanks to my VCR that has proudly served me well for 8 years and recently went out-of-order, I have finally set my feet onto the brand new Courts Megastore and the famous 24-hrs Mustafa.
Getting to Courts Megastore was not as easy as I thought it would be. Though I saw the huge buildings (the brand new IKEA is right next to it) on the other side of the highway, it took me a few maneuvers to reach it. Suffice to say, Courts Megastore is huge and spacious, but I have my doubt over the variety of goods. Identical to IKEA, Courts Megastore dictates the flow of the human traffic. You are advised to start from the 3rd floor via the escalators and work yourself down. Of course you could take the lift and get to whichever floor you want. However, they do encourage you to shop in a clockwise direction.
I asked for a Hitachi Plasma TV and they don’t carry Hitachi brand (huh?). I needed some advice on DVR and the salesmen of Courts are as useless as ever – just reading off labels.
Complains aside, it is a wonderful place for me to spend hours inside trying out new stuffs (I didn’t as I have to make a dash to VivoCity shortly after). I love the XBox 360 corner. There are huge LCD TVs and sofas for you to try out some of the games. It has been a really long time since I have played console games and gosh, this XBox racing game is brutal. Not only do I need to take over other cars, I need to “take them out”. If I was to play that game for hours, I wonder how would my driving habit be changed.
Getting out of Courts Megastore is a nightmare as there are no road signs that get you back to the highways. Having absolutely no idea as in where I was heading, I got onto Tampines Avenue 10, followed the road to a nice smooth and new flyover, and into … Bukit Kaki. Where on earth is Bukit Kaki anyway? It seems like an old industrial town with narrow streets (sorry if you are an elite resident of Bukit Kaki, it’s just my first impression). I kept going straight and I saw signs saying “Eunos”. I punched my fist in the air (YES!), happily got myself into the highway PIE – though, I must say, not without hair raising moments cutting through a jammed traffic in rush hour gambling if the highway entrance of the correct direction was to the left or to the right – and arrived at VivoCity on the dot.
I thought I have traveled lots of extra miles but I did a check and realised that going through Bukit Kaki was the shortest route in reaching the highway PIE to the city direction from Courts Megastore. Moral of the story? At times you feel lost, just keep going straight and keep an eye on your surroundings. You may find yourself better off in the end.
Mustafa, on the other hand, is the opposite of Courts Megastore. It has a wide variety of goods and it is one of the favorite shopping places amongst the Indian community. I can find hundred and one types of can openers inside. There is a floor full of jewellery in gold and there is a floor full of jewellery not in gold. There are so many entrances guarded with 2 to 3 Indians that I did not know which one to enter. I asked one of the guards for electronic goods and he pointed me to basement 2. I thought he thought I was heading to the car park and when the life door opened, lo and behold, a huge floor cramped with all sort of electronic goods. They even sell electronic pets inside.
I did not get anything from Mustafa but it was certainly an eye opening experience.
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