My crazy friends (fayeLim, Fen Ming, Yen Ting, Xin Hui, Jason and 3 more friends who I forget how to call them, Sorry.....) and I just had a Batam Trip a daily trip between 10/04/09 and 11/04/09, and I decided to post some pictures taken during my travel and share some experiences at here too.
Our first day to enjoy dinner "A1" restaurant at Batam Island
My friends and I stay at "SWISS" hotel. The building is located at the corner of Baloi and Nagoya, an edge of night entertainment part of Batam Centre. But from the 8 floor that I was staying, there is nothing much to see because of my sight has been blocked by a small hill.
Ready to explore tradisional market at Nagoya
As we know, Batam island is the tradisional and countryside city. Therefore the city is not very well planned, road aren't relatively wide with very pedestrian friendly side walks that are, at places, narrow than the road for automobiles. Now widely known as Batam island, next will be Nagoya, it is the major city center of Batam. Nagoya has it all that you want to have a good time. You can find, numerous shops, restaurants, hotels, spas, discos, karaokes, cinema bars, music lounges, shopping centers/plazas, and more. Also, it will be our first destination to travel.
Everyone is going to crazy at Van
Car/Van transportation is the most important in Batam Island. It is becomes pretty much the main mode of travel accessories here, we decided to make a transportation reservatation on the coming trip. We reserved a van for around 80K Rupiah (around SGD 11++) that valid for a day. Most of car/van transportation is old style, like the one on the photo above, unless it is 5 stars shuttle bus/van. It is pretty much like Malaysia and Singapore's 5 stars shuttle bus/van.
Architecture of the Batam city is mostly based on Chinese and Indonesian. You have the "Kong Zhi" temple that was opened in 1955. There has a lot of people, especially is eldest people go to pray and make a good wish. As to me, I also involved as a part to get a good luck on my career and relationship. Hehe..
Everyone is crazy to shopping and happy to join their local softdrink, "TeaBotol".
There are lots and lots of shopping malls all over Nagoya and other parts of Batam. One of the
largest is the Nagoya Hill Shopping Mall which is huge with 3 levels of lots of shops selling everything from clothes, jeans, lingerie, jewelry, handbags and electronics items. Everyone went there and start to "rob" everything that can be afforted by them, including me as well. I bought a new bag and formal shirt which is only costs me around 100K Rp (around SGD14++)
Enjoy our "Ayam Penyet" with our tour guider
We went to enjoy the massage after shopping at mall. There are many massage centers around Nagoya. Some are pure professional and others a little dodgy. I was recommended by a number of locals the Sport Massage Centre and Spa and had a massage there which was one of the best I've ever had. For a traditional bali massage it is 80K Rp(around 10++) for one hour. After massage, we had our lunch with "Ayam Penyet" with white rice. It is very nice, especially is "sambal". Yum yum..... so delicious and spicy. ^_^
Enjoy a wonderful beach and resort
Before we left from Batam Island, the "KTM" resort will be final place to travel. According to the local information, this resort is most expensive and also provide high quality service if compare with it's competitive. It costs one room with around SGD 70 - 100 per night. Sounds is very expensive to us since we have some budget on this trip, especially some of my friends have a next trip on Bali Island. Back to our topic, we have a nice rest and enjoy the natural sea environment until the time is out of running back to Singapore.
Crazy, Enjoy and Rest for everyone.
At the conclusion, this trip has a lot of funs and laughing because of everyone is crazy to play and enjoy the culture. Despite how much the tired after back from trip, it is still good in our memory. Hope there has more trip this coming soon. ^_^
