During the short September School Holiday we decided to go to Batam since it's so close to Singapore, means we wouldn't have to spend a long time travelling or spend too much money!
We booked our ferry ride on the Sindo ferry from Singapore Harbourfront terminal. I have no idea what the differences are in all the ferry companies but I guess just like with airlines we just chose whichever one is the cheapest. For the return ferry ticket it cost us SG$134 for 2 Adults and 1 Child. There are plenty of ferries that leave Singapore throughout the day, so you can just choose a timing that suits you. The ride their takes roughly an hour or just under an hour and we were lucky to be blessed with good weather giving us a smooth ride. Our biggest concern is going on a ferry that is bumpy, we just don't have the stomach for it. On the ferry it's free seating, so it's pretty much every man for himself rushing for a seat. Luckily we managed to sit together.
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| Walking to the Ferry |
Once we arrived at the Batam ferry terminal we have to que for the immigration. If you hold a passport that requires the Visa on Arrival, the procedure is pretty easy. If you're staying for less than 7 days the visa price is US$15. There is a small window where you walk up to and pay for your visa in either US$ or IDRupiah. It's best to have exact change because if you give US$ the change is given in the local currency. Once you have your visa on arrival you get to go through a separate line where you get to bypass the long snaking lines of those that don't require visas, kinda like as if you paid to go through faster almost!
After immigration it was a quick and easy walk to our hotel which is literally right next to the ferry terminal! This time we decided to stay at Harris Batam City Centre because of it's convenient location since it's right next to the Batam City Centre ferry terminal and right opposite the Batam Megamall. The mall isn't exactly Mega like the name suggest, but we'll talk about that later.
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| Harris Hotel Batam Center Just a hop, jump and skip away! |
We were there early at about 10-11am and the rooms weren't ready yet, so we left our luggage at the hotel and went across the street to the Megamall to shop and have lunch. I wished there was a pedestrian crossing or something because I'm such a chicken when it comes to crossing the street, especially with Indonesian traffic. After making it in one piece at the mall we basically walked floor by floor to see where we could have lunch. I was literally drooling because there was so much Indonesian food that I wanted to eat. I just LOVE Indonesian food because it's so full of flavour and best of all Spicy!
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| Batam Megamall |
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| Batam Megamall |
There are 5 floors to the mall, the Hypermarket is at the basement and there's a big cinema on the top floor. The rest of the floors are filled up with various shops and Matahari Department Store which is like Singapore's OG department store.
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| On one of the floors there's a stall selling tons of Indonesian snacks. Most were priced around Rp25,000. This is heaven for those who love to snack! |
After walking floor to floor, our group finally settled on lunch at a restaurant called
Cobain, which loosely translates to Try (or Try lah!). The restaurant was packed with locals so you can be assured the food is good and authentic. Just a word of warning, anything with chilli in it is super spicy! But I love it!
After lunch we decided to watch a movie at the Cinema XXI on the top floor of the Megamall. Price per ticket is Rp40,000 and it is an assigned seating cinema just like in Singapore. This is a big cinema chain in Indonesia and the standards here is the same as it is in the capital city. Big, clean, plush and comfortable. We watched Inside Out, loved it! :)
Once the movie finished it was time to check into our hotel :)
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| The view from our hotel lift lobby on 7th floor |
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| King Size Bed |
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| basic bathroom |
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| Standing Shower |
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| The pretty view from our bedroom on 7th floor. |
We're pretty happy with the hotel room. It was spacious and the aircon worked perfectly to cool us down in the hot and humid weather.
After checking in to our room we decided to take a quick dip in the pool. I'm not a big fan of the pool, firstly it's a bit small. Luckily there weren't many people there. Secondly the outdoor area just has a not so pleasant smell in the air which to me is just typical Indonesian air smell which always hangs around even in Jakarta. Thirdly, the water isn't exactly 'crystal clear' if you know what I mean....
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| At least the pool had a semi-decent view. Would have been better if they built it on the roof top. One of the weird thing is it's right beside the restaurant. So you have to walk through the restaurant to go in and out to the pool. So even when you're wet you have to walk through the restaurant. |
Before long it was time for dinner! For dinner we were going to eat at Es Teler 77 at the Megamall, but we decided to change plans after we realised there were people smoking inside. Definitely a put off. In the end we just settled on A&W which is a fast food restaurant like KFC. And so that brings us to the end of day 1! Stay tuned for more on our 3 day trip to Batam.
Click
here to read about our Second Day.
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