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It was freaking early in the morning!
Woke up at 6am when I was supposed to meet the girls at 6.15am! Nice!
Well this happened like a good three weeks back! ;p
Well this happened like a good three weeks back! ;p
So well.. we booked a full day tour with Batam Spa Villa for me and two other gfs. Cost about S$73 before all the taxes.. After taxes, tipping (mandatory!), it set us back by a total of $107.
Harbourfront Ferry Terminal was super packed that morning! Didn't realise that Batam has taken over JB as Singapore's fave spot! By right, we should be taking the first ferry at 7.50am. Was shifted to the next ferry for no apparent reason! I always believed that when you booked, it means the ferry seat is reserved for you..no? ok i am wrong!
We reached Batam at 8.30am (Batam time is late by an hour)..tick tock tick tock...clock's ticking...was so awfully painful looking at how the immigration officers worked. Took them like 3 minutes to clear a visitor, then turn around...talk, talk, talk, talk..then turn their face to look at you, expressionless as if we should understand that their conversation is far more important than clearing the bloody line.
Two hours just to get out of the terminal..oh my..there goes 2 hours of my life! Crazy! Took the bus to the spa, where I thought I had the best spa message ever...actually even fell asleep. My masseuse was the quietest among the 3 who were assigned to us. The other two (assigned to my friends) seriously need to stop chattering and laughing. I am not sure how well my friends handled them but I definitely can't stand such masseuse. I could hear my girlfren kept asking her masseuse to soften the way she massaged..like close to ten times! ahakz...seems like mine was the best. good job, lady..so I gave her a well-deserved tip! :)
Massage by the sea....
Then after that, we went to the Polo Shop! OMG Polo Shop!?? Guess, this works well with the aunties and uncles...I have no idea what's the big deal, man with Polo! Scrap this from the itinerary pls.. seriously! But the interesting part to this..while the rest of the aunties and uncles were busy spending money on Polo, we decided it's a good time to try out the local delicacies.. and one of them is telur penyu (turtle eggs...)! aWWww... yummy yum yum! And you know how much he 'quoted' me?? 13pcs for 100,000 rupiah!?? siao tin tong! so one pc cost about 7,692 rupiah which is around S$1.10? Still cheap..but I don't think an egg should cost that much..hmmm...ok for an exotic one, maynot so ex but I remembered it was sold for less than a dollar then..in Singapore when it was still legal..i tried to bargain, didnt work..so i left... and then, the seller was upset, tried to bargain further..and eventually, ka ching!
3pcs for S$2! I got my deal! yay! :)
Wyda..My Partner in Crime!
"Penyu" Victim!
Liza tried her first telur penyu!
After that, we made our way to a bungalow in the middle of nowhere.. this bungalow was made into like a cake factory for cake lapis! Smell so good! But wasn't exactly my cup of tea...ok, i admit i didnt bring enough cash! They were selling their cakes for about $25. The ones with prunes are selling for $28. Its ok...maybe next time when I need to please someone back home.
Looks so tempting...
Stomach growling... dancing... asking for food...and yay...we were soon setting off to our next venue..Golden Prawn Seafood Restaurant where we enjoyed a super sumptuous seafood lunch! We had crab...yummy but not much flesh... prawn..super small... (maybe leftovers), fish..but not fresh.had those "gong-gong"..(is there a bloody english name for this animal? pity him)..vegetables..and a tasteless coconut! hahahah...oklah, good enough to fill my stomach!
Oh, prior to our lunch, we also visited their keropok shop.. where I bought instant noodles (their famous maggie goreng!), and a few packs of keropoks or snacks! Being a typical Singaporean, I kept comparing them to the prices back in Singapore. So I didnt manage to bring back much..uurgghhh... After lunch, we watched a Kuda Kepang show..or "horse shows" in English.
"Horse shows" or Kuda Kepang is a signature Indonesian ritual performance where the performers go through a moment of trance and do crazy painful stuff..
Those guys were mad! Eating glass shards...ouuuch! Inserting hot fiery charcoal into their mouth..then after that..they asked you for donations. heh.. :) so bein nice, I gave them lah and hopefully they stop their crazy acts.
And then after, we started to get...sleeppy.....the next stop was a garden..I have no idea what garden it was but the tour guide was saying that it's a place to take photos. Hmm... blah... we decided not to go down the bus..and take a nap instead. Soon both my girlfriends were already in LA LA land by the time we reached our next destination, another keropok shop. Being the keypo me, I decided to take a look... and my auntie instincts kicked in, I bought more snacks!
Then we stopped by a souvenir outlet..with a factory outlet opposite it. The souvenir outlet sells those batik kind of apparels, cute keychains, sandals and even a durian cake. The factory outlet has brands like Timber Land etc.
Last but not least, we ended our itinerary at Batam Square Centre. It's pretty big..and we didn't have much time to do shopping..or even window-shop.. got myself 2 tops for a sweet $7! :) and also a meal to last me through the trip back to Singapore!
Two hours just to get out of the terminal..oh my..there goes 2 hours of my life! Crazy! Took the bus to the spa, where I thought I had the best spa message ever...actually even fell asleep. My masseuse was the quietest among the 3 who were assigned to us. The other two (assigned to my friends) seriously need to stop chattering and laughing. I am not sure how well my friends handled them but I definitely can't stand such masseuse. I could hear my girlfren kept asking her masseuse to soften the way she massaged..like close to ten times! ahakz...seems like mine was the best. good job, lady..so I gave her a well-deserved tip! :)
Massage by the sea....
Then after that, we went to the Polo Shop! OMG Polo Shop!?? Guess, this works well with the aunties and uncles...I have no idea what's the big deal, man with Polo! Scrap this from the itinerary pls.. seriously! But the interesting part to this..while the rest of the aunties and uncles were busy spending money on Polo, we decided it's a good time to try out the local delicacies.. and one of them is telur penyu (turtle eggs...)! aWWww... yummy yum yum! And you know how much he 'quoted' me?? 13pcs for 100,000 rupiah!?? siao tin tong! so one pc cost about 7,692 rupiah which is around S$1.10? Still cheap..but I don't think an egg should cost that much..hmmm...ok for an exotic one, maynot so ex but I remembered it was sold for less than a dollar then..in Singapore when it was still legal..i tried to bargain, didnt work..so i left... and then, the seller was upset, tried to bargain further..and eventually, ka ching!
3pcs for S$2! I got my deal! yay! :)
Liza tried her first telur penyu!
After that, we made our way to a bungalow in the middle of nowhere.. this bungalow was made into like a cake factory for cake lapis! Smell so good! But wasn't exactly my cup of tea...ok, i admit i didnt bring enough cash! They were selling their cakes for about $25. The ones with prunes are selling for $28. Its ok...maybe next time when I need to please someone back home.
Stomach growling... dancing... asking for food...and yay...we were soon setting off to our next venue..Golden Prawn Seafood Restaurant where we enjoyed a super sumptuous seafood lunch! We had crab...yummy but not much flesh... prawn..super small... (maybe leftovers), fish..but not fresh.had those "gong-gong"..(is there a bloody english name for this animal? pity him)..vegetables..and a tasteless coconut! hahahah...oklah, good enough to fill my stomach!
Liza savouring her chili crab!
Big big coconut..but super super tasteless.. alamak..
"Horse shows" or Kuda Kepang is a signature Indonesian ritual performance where the performers go through a moment of trance and do crazy painful stuff..
Those guys were mad! Eating glass shards...ouuuch! Inserting hot fiery charcoal into their mouth..then after that..they asked you for donations. heh.. :) so bein nice, I gave them lah and hopefully they stop their crazy acts.
And then after, we started to get...sleeppy.....the next stop was a garden..I have no idea what garden it was but the tour guide was saying that it's a place to take photos. Hmm... blah... we decided not to go down the bus..and take a nap instead. Soon both my girlfriends were already in LA LA land by the time we reached our next destination, another keropok shop. Being the keypo me, I decided to take a look... and my auntie instincts kicked in, I bought more snacks!
Then we stopped by a souvenir outlet..with a factory outlet opposite it. The souvenir outlet sells those batik kind of apparels, cute keychains, sandals and even a durian cake. The factory outlet has brands like Timber Land etc.
Last but not least, we ended our itinerary at Batam Square Centre. It's pretty big..and we didn't have much time to do shopping..or even window-shop.. got myself 2 tops for a sweet $7! :) and also a meal to last me through the trip back to Singapore!
Sunset at Batam... pretty..
