11.27am
recently, my husband and i decided to just have a quick and fast getaway so i suggested batam, as its relatively cheap and very near to singapore. within an hour, voila! you're in a totally different environment and atmosphere. i call it extreme! hahahaha go figure
you know what, i've realized after my second trip to batam, there's actually not much to do there, i mean besides going for the usual spa and massage (which was just great, no doubt about that!), stop by factory outlets for some quick shopping or even to browse and finally to have relatively cheap seafood.
oh just so you know, singapore is an hour ahead of indonesia, so if unsure just set your watch back an hour upon arrival into batam and when you are leaving indonesia, set your watch back to an hour ahead. easy peasy. by the way, there's a few ferry terminals in batam, so choose the correct one that you are supposed to be heading to and board the correct ferry. hehehe
ok, here's a rough itinerary of our 2 days 1 night stay in batam. but frankly speaking, i think a day trip will be sufficient unless you go in a group or with some close family or friends and just to chill out, then yes, do stay the night otherwise go early and come back later in the evening. that's my take.
journey start from harbourfront, singapore to batam ferry centre terminal, batam, indonesia
day 1(singapore time)
630am get up
715am leave home
725am bus arrives
805am arrive at harbourfront and purchased 2 ferry tickets (by sindo ferry/penguin operator) at the sindo ferry counter on level 2
855am waiting at boarding gate
905am journey begins
10am arrive at batam centre ferry terminal
1030am hotel pickup from ferry terminal
1055am arrive at our hotel but not ready for check in until noon (i booked nagoya hill mansion and residences that cost around S$70 per room per night inclusive of breakfast for 2 pax)
1130am decided to start our day with foot reflexology at the hotel (they have a spa) a bit pricey though compared to going to the spas/massage places in town (138,000 idr per pax)
1245pm after the foot reflexology, walked to nagoya hill shopping mall (was about 10-15 minutes walk from our hotel). did some browsing
145pm had lunch at grand duck restaurant at nagoya hill shopping mall
3-5pm found a pretty decent massage/spa outlet called everyday spa and we took the package for aromatherapy massage for 2 hours (140,000 idr per pax)
515pm walked back to hotel to check in
645pm went to another mall called bcs. took inhouse service/private car that cost 55,000 idr per way to take us to the mall (it all depends on which location you are heading to and so the price varies from there). it only took us less than 15 minutes to get to bcs mall from our hotel
720pm wanted to do a creambath (some sort of like a hairspa) so we walked into this hair salon called christopher hairsalon. we chose option 1 (there's 2 options to choose from and its based on what kind of hair product you wanted to use). i had to pay 98,000 idr coz my of my long hair and my husband paid only 52,500 idr for his hair coz its short). fyi, you pay according to the length of your hair and if you wanted to blow a certain kind of style, you had to pay for that too. they only do a simple blow dry. oh yes, besides having your head/scalp massaged with the salon's products, you'll also get a good neck rub and both arm massaged as well! this all took roughly about an hour or so. it was great! actually i wanted to go to johnny andrean (as they are pretty popular in indonesia but unfortunately, they didnt have enough staff at that time when i went in to check when we were still at nagoya hill shopping mall.)
830pm dinner and walk around a bit more
930pm rung for the hotel driver to come get us (paid another 55,000 idr)
945pm back at hotel. what a day!
day 2 (still on singapore time)
830am breakfast at hotel
1030am decided to checkout early since we did all the things we wanted to do the day before (told you there wasnt much to do in batam except for massages and spas)
1050am arrived at the batam centre ferry terminal that cost us 85,000 idr per way from hotel to the ferry terminal
1115am at boarding gate
1143am departure
1250pm arrived at harbourfront, singapore
and that was that. all in all we didnt spend that much. just for your information -
a return fare from harbourfront singapore to batam centre ferry terminal per pax is S$34 (excluding singapore departure tax which is only S$6)
and you must set aside some rupiah (idr) which you must pay for the batam terminal tax of idr65,000.
so basically that was our super quick and fast getaway. in and out of batam within 24 hours. of course as i did mention earlier, going in a big group would be more fun and staying the night, coz there's stuff that the group can do for example go karting (which is out of the city centre) or a visit to see how the famous layered cake is made etc...but more often than not, for all you first timers i reckon that buying the day package is the way to go (its much cheaper and there's a guide that would show you around and land transfer provided to kart you around) and thats my advice.
here's the latest ferry schedule for sindo ferry for your information.
boarding area in singapore at harbourfront and our ferry awaits.
departing from harbourfront ferry terminal in singapore.
inside the ferry. lots of people going to batam for meetings and as you probably know, batam is an industrial area and lots of factories therefore people normally go into batam for a few hours and then head back to singapore.
cable cars in the background from mount faber to sentosa.
i took a very short video as we were on our way.
upon arrival into batam centre ferry terminal. was a good day thankfully as it didnt rain at all. otherwise i would have to get ready my "puke" bag. hahahaha but i do get motion sickness especially if sea is rough and choppy or when im sitting in a car (in the backseat) and going thru winding roads. oh boy! i so hate that! oddly enough, once upon a time, when i first started flying, i remembered i did throw up due to some air turbulence/bad weather but subsequently, as time went by, i was fine, even during a turbulence. i used to describe it like, riding on a mechanical bull at a rodeo. hehehehehe
after exiting the ferry and going into immigration and customs. it was pretty quick as there weren't that many people travelling on a monday morning.
after clearing customs and immigration, you'll come out to this is the main entrance of batam centre ferry terminal. and directly across the street as you can see (there's a bridge connecting both buildings) there's a mall called megamall batam.
this is the entrance/exit of the ferry terminal. you can grab a taxi from here. i heard that they dont use the taxi meters so please try to bargain/negotiate the fares and do read up or google on how to negotiate with these drivers. thankfully for us, i had arranged for pick up by the hotel (one way was free for us).
as we pulled up at the traffic lights, there was this dude selling newspapers. amazingly enough, no vehicles would knock them. when i was living in jakarta, along the highway especially when there was a bad traffic jam, (my god, everyday there's massive traffic jams and worst when it rains and people get stuck in it for hours! im not playing with you, its bloody true!) there will be men/women weaving in and out of traffic selling newspapers, mineral water and even snacks so that you dont get hungry/thirsty whilst in the jam, hahahaha...or hey, read a paper even, since cars aint moving. once in a while you'd get a mother carrying a baby/toddler and begging for money, by knocking on your car window. sad but true!
ok so here we are at the poolside of our hotel. its called nagoya mansion hotel and residence. average sized pool, nothing super fancy.
the reception area of the hotel.
i told you we started our day off with an hour of foot reflexology and this was the in house spa, wangsa spa. we were the only customers coz it was still early around 11ish in the morning (singapore time).
this is the view of the hotel.
main entrance of the hotel.
right so this is our room, i booked a double or a superior (cant remember) but it was indeed spacious. big bed, relatively comfy. basic amenities provided like coffee, tea, kettle and 2 complimentary bottled water. please dont drink water from their tap or if you are out and about, please buy bottled mineral water. and if must, make sure you boil the water before drinking. this applies throut indonesia. their water isnt very clean and filtered properly. dont say i didnt warn you folks!
the bathroom was kinda small. lets put it this way, for us asians generally we arent that big in size, so this was good enough for us. but if you were any bigger and need room to move about freely, then i think this bathroom is a tad bit small unless you dont mind (hey afterall, how long will you be using the loo right!) then by all means.
so this was our breakfast area at the coffee house. its pretty basic. had breads, some local delights, fried noodles, rice, baked beans, potatoes, waffle and eggs station, fresh fruits, buns etc. not too bad, its just to fill the stomach.
about 10 minutes walk from our hotel, was nagoya hill shopping mall. there's an older wing and a newer wing. its the usual type of mall selling knick knacks, food, clothes, dvds, electronic items, snacks/sweets, pastries etc. spent a couple of hours there. didnt buy much only my favourite peanuts from bali (somehow i managed to find it at one of the little shops) and some instant noodles. folks, if you like eating instant noodles, one brand that i like(and hard to find in singapore or malaysia, and if its sold, it has limited choices) is none other than INDOMIE. and i usually buy the dry noodles coz to me (and to my hubby as well as my brother) they are the best!
look at that. as far as the eye can see, its all instant noodles! i grabbed several packets (each different flavors) to try. spoilt for choices here innit!
more instant noodles to choose from! did you know that lots of singaporeans when they come to batam, they would carry back a carton (or 2) of these instant noodles? yup. its true ok!
these are the shoplots that's facing the nagoya hill shopping mall. let me tell you there's tons of spas and massage parlours to choose from. so what i did was i googled before the trip on the best places to have a good massage/spa but when we were at nagoya hill, i didnt expect to see this (as per the picture) so we decided to walk into a few of these spa outlets and ask for the price list and also to check out the place whether its clean or small etc. alas we settled for one which was called Everyday (you can see it in the picture with the red letterings). price was right and quite clean. it was done deal.
this was the view from the shopping mall of the shoplots down below (where the spas/massage parlours were).
you must be wondering why the hell am i taking a photo of this fast food joint. well from what i've heard, this place/joint is one of the reasons why singaporeans like to come to batam (coz its one of the nearest places to pop by and eat A&W till their hearts content not to mention cheap). famously known for their rootbeers, rootbeer floats and even their waffles with ice cream! i have no idea why there's no A&W chain in singapore at all but we do have it in malaysia (i think one of the first A&Ws opened in petaling jaya and it was a drive in!). anyways, that is the story and that's why i had to take a picture of it. hehehehe but please if any singaporeans reading this, think that im wrong, kindly correct me.
finally for all the smokers out there, if you dont already know, you can smoke indoors when you are in indonesia but of course at the designated smoking areas. like if you're at a restaurant that's airconditioned, you can still smoke inside. get what i mean?
night scene of batam city that i took from our hotel room. pretty colorful huh.
so wnywho, i've come to the end of my blog. hope you've enjoyed my story and pictures. thinking that next time i will have to try out bintan island, indonesia. right, im outta here and have a great week!
ttfn
1.21pm
No comments:
Post a Comment