Azim
5/5
The Bistari buildings of Taman Maju Bistari are mostly known for being a relatively new residential college for the students of University Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia like the nearby Perwira Residential College. That is true, but what is not so well-known is that not all the buildings are not managed by UTHM. In fact, only 4 of them are. The rest of the buildings are still managed by the owners, Uten Properties Sdn. Bhd, and thus are open to the public. Bistari Walk being one of them.
Maju Bistari Walk can be called a one-stop centre that is certainly student-centric but by no means is it a place that is only for students. On the contrary, the public should benefit from this as the general pricing of the goods here is relatively affordable as their target demographic would be the students of the dormitory.
The reason it can be called a one-stop centre is because of its many lots that a variety of businesses have already set up which includes a launderette, a mini-mart convenience store, a phone shop, a rental agency that rents homestays, rooms, bicycles and cars, stationery and printing shops, an internet café, and of course a number of varying restaurants, all of which are in walking distance of each-other. Hence, Bistari Walk.
Being a very recent development, it flaunts a modern, hip and trendy design with its white square lots and its red-brick road pavement. However, because of its recentness, at the time of our visit, there were a lot more lots that were not in operation. Good thing is that those lots are already owned by businesses and were already in the works to be fully set-up. Of the businesses include a sports shop, a recreational club and even a gymnasium which would be great additions to an already grand ensemble.
During our visit, we were greeted by a very energetic crowd of women having an aerobic “Zumba” session on the stage-like platform at the front of the arcade. We were fortunate to have been able to meet with the owner of Bistari Walk who was enjoying the liveliness of the “Zumba” session and even managed to do a brief Q&A session with the project director. The director seems very confident in the future of Bistari Walk as they still have a lot of buildings and land for further expansion.
While we were talking with the project director, the owner went into the mini-mart and grabbed half a dozen cans of drinks, held them in a bear hug, waddled to our table and then placed the drinks for us to take, on the house. Funnily enough a few moments later, the cashier of the mini-mart came to our table and timidly tried to count how much cans the owner had taken.
By the end of the trip, we decided to try the food, so we went to a stall called ‘Heza Garden’ which also had another branch of ‘Aziz Shawarma’ right next to it. The food ended up being quite nice especially for its price. I was personally very happy with the mushroom-gravy on my ‘Grilled Chicken’ as it had a nice unexpected poignancy. As a disclaimer, the owner of Bistari Walk did cover our expenses but we still try to be as objective as we can in our writing.
So, in conclusion, Bistari Walk is more than just a student cafeteria that a lot of uninformed people let it out to be. Prior to this trip, I was a part of that group of people but as soon as I turned into the parking lot of Bistari Walk, I was pleasantly surprised. Certainly, Bistari Walk has room for improvements and has much more potential but from what I saw it is more than enough to be a local hotspot.
