Day 1
We arranged to meet at VivoCity at around 730. Our ferry's departure time was at 0845hrs. Not knowing what we will be able to get to eat there, we ate breakfast first at MacDonald's before heading over to the Harbour Front Ferry Terminal to wait for our ferry. There was quite a crowd at the ferry terminal which offers several ferry services to various places.
We got through immigration at 0830hrs and waited (standing) in a sea of bodies till 0850hrs before we got onto the ferry. After waiting for several latecomers, the ferry finally left at 0900hrs. The entire ride to Batam took around 1 hour 15 mins.
****** Indonesian Time GMT +7 ******
We arrived at Batam Center Ferry Terminal at 0915hrs (GMT +7) and had to queue to go through the Indonesian immigration counter. After about 30 minutes of waiting, all 9 of us finally made it through as we pondered what to do together first, since there was at least 2-3 hours to spare until check-in time. We decided to head over to Mega Mall which was just beside the Batam Center Ferry Terminal. Taxi counters are located at both ground entrances to the ferry terminal. As we approached, intending to bypass them to get to the mall, they constantly called out to us to get a taxi with them. We only halted in our tracks when they said the mall was not opened until 11 am. This vaguely reminds me of the tuk-tuk scam in Bangkok Thailand where eloquent strangers will try all means to scam you into an overpriced tour. Fortunately, JX was somewhat proficient in Bahasa Indonesia (their official language) and he was able to negotiate a price (68k/taxi [SGD $7]) for 2 taxis that will fetch us to our hotel at the Nagoya district. Along the way, JX conversed with the taxi driver in Bahasa Indonesia to the best he can. The driver, Jai, who jokingly called himself Bang Jai (Brother Jai), offered to give us a little tour around Batam (again this sounds like some scam), at a flat price of RP 240k (SGD$26) per taxi. This price was based on a chart, drawn up by the taxi company, which he showed to us. We eventually took up the offer since we were already in a taxi and it will save us the trouble of getting another one to take us around. First, we have to leave our bags at the hotel and check in if there were available rooms at that time. We arrived at Harmoni Suites Hotel at 1010hrs (15min ride from ferry terminal). The initial agreed price of 68k per taxi was waived as Jai includes the 68k into the 240k rental service we were planning to take up. How nice!
2 rooms were available when we arrived, so we just got the 2 rooms to put our baggage. After resting for 5 minutes in the room, we went down to begin our taxi tour. Jai brought us to a massage parlor (IndoThai) near Nagoya Hill Mall to book a slot for massage later in the day. Following that, the first stop was the Maha Vihara Duta Maitreya Monastery. This was a Buddhist establishment where we can pay our respects to various Buddhist deities or seek a divination lot. After a couple of pictures with the statues depicting our Chinese horoscopes, we got back onto the 2 taxi (which were waiting for us the whole time).
Next destination - a shop at Batam Center Mall which sells snacks such as fishball crackers. I bought 3 large packets of snacks (2 packs of fishball crackers and 1 pack of fish crackers). That costed RP 70k, around SGD $2.50 per pack.
After getting our snacks, we were brought to a housing estate where a famous Layered Cake (aka Kueh Lapis) shop was located. There was a constant flow of visitors, most likely tourists to the shop by mini-buses. The name Diana Layered Cakes is definitely well-known and popular. I've read mixed reviews online about Diana Layered Cakes prior to the trip. Were the online reviews true? Were the cakes that good? After sampling them, I have reached a verdict. The cake was soft to the touch, had a strong smell and taste of butter and was not too dry to the throat. In short, it was a cake well made. I will not say that it is fantastic but there was definitely some quality in the cakes produced by them. We placed our orders at a price of SGD$25/kg for a cake without prunes. The one with prunes costs SGD$30/kg. And yes, they accepted SGD. We did a quick calculation and decided that paying in SGD was a better deal than if we paid in rupiah.
Finally it was time for lunch! After another short ride, we were at 933 Golden Prawn. This was one of the locations that we had planned to visit for a meal because of its apparent popularity through a search on Google. Before heading to our seats, we had to go to the "seafood selection area" to decide what we wanted to eat. This selection area had plenty of live seafood, from prawns to lobsters! We proceeded to get seated once we have placed our orders. The restaurant was not as packed as I expected.. Or perhaps the area was so large that the number of customers seemed insignificant. This lunch costed a total of RP 832k (SGD$92) for 9 people. Although there was a free flow of rice, I think that there were too little dishes to go with the rice. Click here for more pictures and information!
It was time for our massage at IndoThai. The 2 taxis brought us back to the massage parlor where we paid for the taxi rentals. We picked from a variety of available massages to go for - Chocolate Spa, Traditional Thai Full Body Massage and also a simple foot massage. Drey wanted the foot massage, so I took the foot massage package as well! I've never done a foot massage before and I was unsure of what to expect having heard of many painful recounts by other people. We were brought to a dimly lit room with several comfortable chairs, each accompanied by a TV hanging overhead. There was a wide variety of channels to choose, from local channels to Singapore channels and even cable TV channels such as Discovery and HBO!
This was going to be a good relaxing session, or so I thought. The session started with the masseur washing our legs with warm water which was rather comfortable for a start. Next, the calves were massaged and eventually the feet themselves. That was when the pain started.. It was not pain throughout but there were several parts of my feet the masseur pressed which made me wish it'd be over soon! All I could do was to try and focus on the discovery channel on my TV to help take away the pain. The 3 hour foot massage package that we bought included a short Thai massage session where the masseur will proceed to give our backs some massage. Much to my horror, this session included the masseur twisting your body 180 degrees while u sit upright facing straight. But the feeling was good as my bones loosen up to the cracking sounds. After concluding the massage, our masseurs stood outside and openly asked us for tips! We gave each of them RP 20k ($2) and their representative tried to explain to us that it was too little! Call us stingy or what but we're not exactly rich kids.. I think we're pretty generous to give $2 as a tip already. The masseurs eventually accepted the total tip of RP 60k because it was either all or nothing for them. We left the massage parlor after a cup of complimentary ginger tea.
The remaining of the evening was spent shopping in Hypermart, Batam's version of Giant Hypermarket, at Nagoya Hill Mall. Things were sold really cheap there and the girls headed straight for the cosmetic section. Branded products such as Olay and Nivea were all sold there. I can't really tell how cheap they were but I remember them saying it was like at least SGD$10 to $20 cheaper? Another really popular item were pads. We encountered several girls (I presume to be Singaporean, judging from the way they spoke) who had a trolley half-full of "branded" pads (e.g. Sofy). We managed to buy some tidbits for supper later and also for our family and colleagues. Supper was never going to be complete without cup noodles. As we scouted for some cup noodles, we found a local brand which was really cheap, like SGD$0.30 per cup. These cup noodles were new to me such that they had a special cover with holes where you can drain away the water used to cook the noodles. I've never seen one of those in Singapore!
Dinner was settled at the famous fastfood chain, A & W. They used to exist in Singapore but were eventually shut down one by one. Our generation was probably one of the last generations who can remember the existence of A & W in Singapore. After tasting the food, I can't say that there was anything particularly great about it. However, the Root Beer Float for which A & W is famous for is certainly a must-have because of the sheer size of it. Just drinking the float made me half-full already. Drey and I spent RP110, 500 ($12) at A & W, which was not cheap at all..
We walked back to our hotel, a short 5 minute walk. The night was then spent using the hotel's amenities such as the pub, swimming pool and gym. The pub has 2 pool tables, free of charge! There were also board games we could play and live music.
The pub eventually had to close and we went up to rest a bit before heading to the pool. The pool area had sauna beside it as well as the gym and a table tennis table. Fortunately, it was almost empty and we can hog the whole place to ourselves!
We were again chased out by the facilitator there when it was closing time. It is unfortunate that we cannot access the pool anytime we want! We got back to the room to watch TV and had our cup noodles for supper before finally heading to bed..
End of Part 1
------------------------------------------------------
Residence: Harmoni Suites Hotel
Period: 8-9 Mar 2014
Area: Nagoya Hills
Overall budget: 900,000 RP, SGD$100
Exchange rate (5 Mar 2014): $1 = 9000RP
Summary of Batam Trip:
Maha Vihara Duta Maitreya Monastery
Diana Layer Cake
Batam Center Mall (snacks)
933 Golden Prawn
IndoThai (massage)
Nagoya Hill Mall - Hypermart
Mega Mall (Part 2)
