1 - 3 August 2019
Batam Day 1
Off to Batam on my first ferry trip! The journey was supposed to take 1h 15min but we got there in 50 minutes. I somehow managed to take so many photos of sky, sea and cargo ships through the speckled windows of the ferry.
The Indonesian customs are so much more organised and efficient than the Malaysian ones and the officers will actually scold you if you talk too loudly or make too much noise while waiting haha I kinda approve.
Batam is 1h behind SG but we decided to still follow SG time for meals. We went for lunch at the adjoining mega mall, dragging our luggage along. Guess what we had A&W because everyone told us it was a must-have. Tbh, I wasn’t very impressed with this first A&W experience ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
After lunch we shopped around the 3-storey mall. We walked past the Indonesian departmental store Matahari and I was immediately drawn to the large Thor poster haha. I ended up purchasing a Spider-Man hoodie for SGD$19.90 whoo catch me flopping around in it soon.
I then had cotton candy and bubblegum gelato because those are my favourite flavours and the cotton candy one was bLUE. Ok.
The local cuisine is reallllly affordable, most meals (like legit nasi lemak and stuff) are below SGD$3 (⊙v⊙) and the bread is like 50cents wowie.
There was this guy in a Gundam Transformer-ish costume who welcomed us to take photos. My mom took one with him then he asked for money (-｡-; Okay so we blessed him with SGD$1 no biggie.
We went up to the XXI cinema to have a look and it’s so grand, looks just like a hotel lobby and the tix are SGD$3.50 for normal and SGD$6.00 for premiere and the popcorn and drink combo is SGD$2.50 (￣∇￣) I have been championing my cause to watch Hobbs and Shaw, hope it can come true tmr ლ(♥︎ᴗ♥︎ლ)
Thereafter we headed to Hotel Harmoni. For the oldest hotel in Batam, it’s actually sooo well-maintained. The toilet is 💯, there is Fox movies and HBO on tv, the sheets are cOTTON and feel just like a worn-in t-shirt, and they have bOLSTERS like which hotel ever provides those???
Ok so then we took a 15 minute walk in de hot sun to Nagoya Hill Mall. There were many pretty murals along the way.
So basically, this mall has the same shops as the earlier one, just a different layout. I tried the claw machine 4 times for just SGD$1 (includes extra tokens some kind souls gave to us) but obviously I didn’t get a Woody or Buzz.
For dinner we ate at Warung Cobain: 2x selar fish, prawns, kang kong and pandan chicken. It was sUPER SPICY BUT SUPER GOOD. I think I broke my spiciness threshold because after a while I felt okay. The green mustard with lime drink was fantastic though I questioned the mustard at first. The servers were really friendly and enthusiastic - trying to take a selfie with our phone after offering to help us take a family pic, and deliberately photobombing us hah.
We shopped at the hypermart then I bought (diluted heh) peach oolong tea from Sumikko cafe (yas the logo was Sumikko Gurashi).
Okay I don’t know how anyone can write such a long travelogue for one (1) day in Batam but if you read till the end kuddos.
Batam Day 2
Today after a not bad hotel breakfast (great mushroom omelette, baked beans, pancakes), we Grabbed to BCS mall (Batam City Square Mall), one of the oldest malls in Batam. The Grab driver was really nice to give us suggestions about nearby shopping places. Similarly, the shops are about the same as the other malls. Every mall that we’ve visited so far has a cinema and super huge arcade.
We shopped around and spent quite a bit of time in this expansive shop that sells toys and (affordable) collectibles. So as expected I didn’t leave empty handed but with a pack of spidey figurines in various poses. The paint job isn’t that great but for the price it’s (*¯︶¯*).
Then for lunch we ate at D’Penyetz because I said we hadn’t eaten Ayam Penyet yet. We ordered one fried smashed chicken and one marinated with honey black sauce. Really nice but also really SPICY. They sneaked chocolate syrup into the avocado juice so (･_･; Only when we finished eating did we realise they have outlets in Singapore aND THEY ARE A SINGAPORE BRAND. Scammed I tell you. No wonder their wallpaper description of Singapore among the other SEA countries sounded so full of SG pride hah.
Next we went to their supermarket and was amazed by their ice cream - cool flavours and soooo cheap. In total we paid SGD$1.20 for tHREE ice creams. The blue ‘bubblegum’ one was 20cents, no words.
After also getting the 37cents Iron Man water, we walked over to Grand Batam Mall, the one the Grab driver recommended. The outside looks just like a hotel, with the 2 entrances labelled Lobby 1 and 2. This mall house more high end brands and is super new so there are many empty units. There is also an arcade and cinema but I didn’t watch Hobbs and Shaw because my dad didn’t bring his jacket ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.
When we got tired of walking, we took a break at this atas cafe cafe called The Smith where we had macchiato, green tea latte, caramel crunch cake and parisien cake (basically a white choco strawberry cake with a glossy round appearance).
Shortly after shopping at the supermarket, we went for dinner at a2 food court, a huge open air food centre packed with food stalls, like the stalls are so close to each other that their signs merge lol. There were also stray cats walking around. We ordered fried oyster (👍🏻), fried kway teow, and mango and orange carrot juice. Thank God for a safe and enjoyable day (•͈ᴗ•͈ 人)
