my 2 cents worth: batam island, indonesia, day trip

4.24pm

well good afternoon to all of you. how have you guys been doing? i trust that things are ok with you. anyways, i was doing a little bit of travelling lately and also some catching up with my close friends (from australia and qatar) who were recently in town. but thats another story.

my cousin and i planned a day trip to the island of batam, indonesia. indonesia has tons of islands surrounding it and batam was one of the nearest. besides batam, there's also bintan, where lots of singaporeans go for a short quick weekend break away from all the hustle and bustle of busy singapore.

so our girls trip started off by waking up at 5.30am and then catching the bus down to harbourfront/vivocity mall, to catch the 8.30am ferry. we had to check in an hour before departure. i recommend the penguin ferries coz they are more trusted and reliable. the journey took ard an hour with some beautiful scenery of the open sea.

ferry departed on time. oh but before that, just to let you know, we bought online a day trip pass, which was S$54 each person. for this we will get return ferry transfer to and fro from batam to singapore, a seafood lunch, a 135minutes spa treatment, land transfers to take us everywhere (like visits to the batam layer cake bakery, chocolate shop, the largest buddhist temple in SEA, a few factory outlets..etc) and some spending vouchers (of course with its terms and conditions). thankfully, we only had 4 travellers including ourselves on this day trip to batam island. therefore, it was quite fast moving from one place to another. so dear day trippers, you should look out for this deal as its very worth it. but if your group is big on the day you chose, then too bad. im certain there will be lots of waiting around for people to finish their shopping! its your luck really!

our guide was this nice girl who hailed from jakarta but moved to batam to work as a tour guide. she spoke in english and mandarin. not super talkative or pushy like some other operators are. i really hate those! ugh. anyhow, long story short, we got ushered into a 8 seater van, where we were taken to our first pitstop which was the chocolate shop. no big deal to me. singapore has better chocolates in my opinion. so did some quick browsing and off we went to the next stop which was the buddhist temple. there i took some photos and did some prayers.

after 20 minutes, we got back into the van and headed to polo ralph lauren factory outlet. its not big. just maybe 2 shoplots joined together. did more browsing around but i didnt buy anything coz i knew i was already going to be flying to hong kong, a few days after this trip to batam. its called will power. i had to hold back. but honestly, there wasnt anything that really interest me in the shop.

next destination was to a dry market, where they sold mostly dried food stuff or sauces. i did grab me a couple of packets of peanuts that was from bali. i love those peanuts! if you ever go to indonesia, do try the balinese peanuts and tell me what you think. in my opinion, its pretty good. my cousin grabbed lots of "emping" as her family likes it especially her husband. now for those of you who dont know what "emping" means, let me enlighten you. its basically indonesian chips, bite sized snack/cracker. made of melinjo or belinjo (gnetum gnemon) nut, after frying, it has a slightly bitterish taste to it. they come in several flavors which are of course the original, salty, caramelized or spicy.

after that we headed to the batam layer cake bakery. no we didnt get to see any baking or how they do it. indonesia is famous for its layer cake. what is it exactly you ask? its basically cake done in super thin layers, one on top of the other. (thats why its called layer cake). made from spices, to give it the sweet aromatic smell. It is a very rich cake with very high contents of eggs and butter. Therefore, it is usually served in very small pieces. my cousin and the other travellers bought some back. i didnt coz i was given some previously and frankly, im not a big fan of this cake.

then it was time for lunch nearby at a seafood restaurant by a pond. we had a 7 course meal..imagine that. just the 4 of us so we obviously couldnt finish everything! there was too much! they served us crabs, "gong gong" (steamed conch), stir fried veggie, soup etc.
after our filling lunch, we moved on for our spa treatment! now that was what i was waiting for the whole day! i want that body massage!

the spa was at a hotel. it was clean and my masseuse was pretty good. started off with a relaxing full body massage, then a full body scrub and followed by a full body mask. to end off my spa, my masseuse filled my jacuzzi/hot tub with some kind of milk bath and warm water. relaxed in there for a few minutes and off to shower. aaah..bliss! what a way to end my day in batam!

after the spa, we got back into the van and whisked off to a batik shop. its a technique of manual wax resist dyeing process, thats applied to whole cloth, or cloth made using this technique. (for more info, kindly google the word batik). and then, alas it was time to head back to the ferry terminal for our trip back to singapore. what a day it had been. my cousin and i had a nice day out. and that was that! (oh just so you know, we went to a couple more factory outlets along the way).

ok ttfn

5.29pm