Batam - picture rainforest, beaches and shop houses interspersed with malls and massage parlours. Batam is an island located in the Riau island province very close to Singapore. While Batam does not have the infrastructure nor many places of interest to be considered an island paradise reminiscent to Krabi, Langkawi or even Singapore, what it can compete with is its attractive prices and extremely laid back nature. It's main attractions are few, able to be seen in a days visit, but it's relative proximity from one point to the other stretched the days visit to its limit. The best attractions though, would be found in the various shopping malls and the fact that Batam is easily assessable and is a quick getaway from the hustle and bustle of Singapore. It's relative tranquility might even fare better than rapidly modernising Johor Bahru just North of Singapore.
Getting There
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| SINDO ferry @ Harbourfront Terminal |
Getting there, one can book a ferry from Singapore for a lowly cost of S$30-45 (inclusive of gst) for a return ferry trip (two way trip). It is better if one plan their trip in advance and make a booking beforehand as during long weekends such as today (30th April) where Singaporeans have a public holiday to add to their weekend break, hotels would be fully booked one week in advance. That was the case for my family and we had to settle with a budget hotel for this trip. The ferry terminal is at Harbourfront in Singapore, next to Vivocity shopping centre just opposite Sentosa island. The ferry terminal is a bustling and chaotic place with kids wailing and so many people talking. Although it seems like utter chaos, it's immigration procedure is simple enough. Check in your baggage if you have one, and proceed to the departure gate when your gate have opened for boarding. Then pass the various checkpoints to check your passport and finally join a queue to enter one of the ferries. The ferry I took was SINDO and it have a relatively huge air-conditioned interior. The seats are comfortable, light and soft, and the floor carpeted. There was two huge television screens up front screening Just for Laughs clips. I spent my time lulled to sleep by the gentle rocking of the ferry as the ferry raced towards Batam.
Arrival
The journey took 45 minutes. We arrived at Terminal Ferry Internasional Batam Centre, one of many ferry terminals at Batam, and from there we headed out to find for food in the adjoining shopping mall. We had lunch in one of the restaurants there, noting that the price is similar to that in Singapore. However, when we crossed an overhead bridge and to another shopping centre, Mega Mall, we realise that the prices are half of that in the shopping centre at the ferry terminal! As the day ends about an hour quicker in Batam than in Singapore, we ordered A&W meals, a much missed fast food restaurant in Singapore, to takeàway and eat in our hotel. We took a cab to our hotel, Greenland Hotel, just 5 minutes away from Batam Centre. Greenland Hotel is a fairly new hotel and provides just the basic amenities such as bed, air-conditioning and shower. Fortunately, it was comfortable enough and after watching a not-so scary Korean horror film, Yoga Hakyon, while feasting on a A&W rice meal (which serves plain rice by the way), from one of the over 50 plus channels, I fell asleep.
Arrival
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| A&W restaurant |
Nongsa Market
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| Dried seafood at a Nongsa market |
Nagoya Hill Shopping Mall
Our next destination is Nagoya Hill Shopping Mall. This is one of the largest malls in Batam selling all kinds of goods. The best, in my opinion, is the offers they have in Matahari Department Store. The department store, famous throughout Indonesia, have a wide selection of goods from shoes to pants to shirts from acclaimed international and local brands. I once bought a black and yellow collared shirt at one of their outlets in Jakarta seven years ago and it remains one of my often used shirt. It's high quality and comfortable material enable it to last this long. Well, I managed to buy two pairs of sneakers/dress shoes for Rp 250000 which translates to about S$20 or $10 for a pair and a pair of office pants for Rp126000. I can imagine them to cost hundreds of dollars in Singapore!
Masjid Jabal Arafah
Masjid Jabal Arafah
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| A sign outside the new mosque! |
Afterwards, we took a short break and prayed at a nearby newly opened Mosque, Masjid Jabal Arafah. The swanky clean Mosque have tens of volunteers taking care of the Mosque. Pak Eddy, our driver explained that in truth, there are many rich folks in Batam and thus, they spent their time instead towards maintaining the Mosque or doing other forms of charity. What nice folks! Thus is the laid back nature of these people, not wanting excessiveness but just comfortable enough for themselves.
Barelang Bridge
Barelang Bridge
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| Barelang Bridge |
Our next destination is the main touristy destination, Barelang Bridge, quite a distance from Nagoya. If you were to observe the landscape, the sight of missing cranes and other construction vehicles normally found in construction sites might have resulted in the lack of high rise buildings in Batam. The bridge looks similar to the Golden Gate Bridge but with only two tall arches lined with ropes which kept the bridge up. It is a majestic sight, a construction miracle in a place where rarely can you find a building as tall or majestic as this bridge's likeness anywhere in Batam. I should think this bridge represents the hope and ideals of the people of Batam in being a great state. Around Batam, one can find many places with names similar to that found in Singapore. Orchard Park, Kopitiam, Marina, Sentosa are among other names found around Batam. After taking several pictures on this bridge, our driver drove us across this bridge. He then asked if we wish to drive on as ahead, there are several more bridges linking us to several different islands and finally ending in a dead end. He also warned that the further we go, the less attractive the bridges are and the more desolated the road would become. And it's true! After several kilometres, the road narrows and the distance between the houses we pass increases. After passing our third bridge, Pak Eddy did a U-turn. Our next destination would be Khazanah Plaza.
Khazanah Plaza
Khazanah Plaza
Khazanah Plaza is located pretty far from most conventional places of interest. It's exact location is somewhere in between Barelong Bridge and Nagoya. Pak Eddy also did not recommend this place. The shopping mall is small, consisting of only about 20 separate stalls, a supermarket and an eatery. The reason this place is on the itinerary of most Islamic tour groups in Singapore is that the stalls sells the latest trends for hijabsters, fashionable female Muslims. If one wishes to purchase the hijabs famous hijab Instagrammers wore, this is the place to head to.
Rumah Makan Arai Pinang (Lunch)
We lunched at a restaurant recommended by Pak Eddy called Arai Pinang. This restaurant serves a variety of dishes in plates ranging from fishes, meat and chicken in various sauces to vegetables of all sorts. (Do try their thinly sliced black pepper beef!) Depending on the plates we consumed, we pay accordingly. Our meal for seven only came to about S$30 in total.
Rumah Makan Arai Pinang (Lunch)
Pak Eddy
Pak Eddy is a veteran driver, having worked for 12 years. He recommended many places for us and checked up on our next destination before we head there. His take and history on Batam culture and future is an insightful one. Here are some of his opinion on Batam island from a local's perspective. Progress, if any, is painfully slow such that not much have changed in 10 years. The economy is controlled by the Chinese, with the majority of them owning the businesses and hotels around Batam. There is a cultural barrier between the different races but no obvious enmity so far. The majority of the Indonesian work menial jobs or else study until university and then proceed to work in the capital. The variety of food is limited as compared to Singapore, but they are still sumptuous enough.
Alya Confectionary (Kueh lapis factory)
After a hearty meal, we went to visit a kueh lapis factory called Alya Confectionary. Kueh lapis is a delicious traditional local cake. Kueh lapis, or Layer Cake, like it's name, is made from several layers of the same ingredient, thus creating a special texture and flavour. The factory we went to innovated it's ingredients to include more modern tastes such as cheese, strawberry, nutella and durian to cater to the younger generation and foreigners. The factory is located in a place called Eden Park. My initial skepticism of it was proven true when Pak Eddy drove us into a cluster of residential houses to get to the factory. The factory, it transpired, is run by a family and is actually housed in a terrace house which had been converted into a factory. A couple of ovens and mixers stood in what would have been the kitchen and living room. That day, however, the workers was having trouble in keeping up with the recent influx of orders from visiting Singaporeans to Batam. My parents ordered several kueh lapis but even by the next day, they could not complete baking our orders.
Our initial plan was to spend the remainder of our day at a Go-kart course in the city. However, a quick call by Pak Eddy to the management of the Go-kart confirmed that they had closed for the day at 5pm, thus we were too late (It was 5.30pm then). Thus, we decided to revisit the market we visited earlier in Nongsa. We came back here in search for certain aromatherapy medication which my mother was hoping to find. We did not find them, but we did buy a variety of dried goodies to take back home.
Dinner and Sleep
Our initial plan was to spend the remainder of our day at a Go-kart course in the city. However, a quick call by Pak Eddy to the management of the Go-kart confirmed that they had closed for the day at 5pm, thus we were too late (It was 5.30pm then). Thus, we decided to revisit the market we visited earlier in Nongsa. We came back here in search for certain aromatherapy medication which my mother was hoping to find. We did not find them, but we did buy a variety of dried goodies to take back home.
Dinner and Sleep
We had a light dinner at this special eatery recommended by Pak Eddy. I am still not certain what is the restaurant's name. Apparently it is a famous restaurant where huge consideration was paid to beautify the place. There were statues and a waterfall and bridges; the place was picturesque. We had a choice of eating on chairs or cross-legged in "pondoks", little traditional atap huts. The food too is cheap. After a sumptious meal of black pepper hotplate beef, butter chicken and egg, we headed off to a McDonald to takeaway to our hotel room. That night, me and my brother whom I shared a room with watched the Leicester City game against Manchester United in our hotel room while munching on Double Cheeseburgers. After an exhausting day, we slept early and soundly.
Morning Bakery
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| A wide selection of treats |
The next morning, it was time to head back home. We ate breakfast at the hotel and lunch at this awesome food establishment near our hotel which serves all kinds of food. The food establishment is named Morning Bakery and is said to be owned by a Westerner. In its menu, they serve Chicken Chop, pasta, Nasi Ayam Penyet and many more. I had a Garlic chicken pasta in olive oil (about S$5) and it was really delicious. The bakery next to it also bakes a wide variety of confectionary. There was a wide variety of freshly baked delights such as doughnuts and cakes all of which are sold around a dollar or less.
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| Garlic Chicken Pasta in Olive Oil |
Back home
We checked out and left for Terminal Ferry Internasional Batam Centre at around 4pm. Our ferry back home is at 8.40pm, thus, we spent a large amount of our time lugging our luggage around the adjacent shopping centre, Mega Mall, which also houses a Matahari Department Store. The ferry back is another chaotic affair. Thousands of people were taking the ferries back home in batches of 200 plus every 20 minutes. There was a delay in us taking our ferry back, thus our ferry only departed at 9.20pm which is around 10.20pm Singapore time. I would recommend people to take an earlier ferry back home. We only docked at Harbourfront around 11.45pm and had to cab home as we missed the last train back home. Thus ends a very short getaway, with me content with a new pair of shoes for school/work and precious rare time spent with the family.
