Batam

Day 1

Our first travel of the year :)

Dear wanted to go for a weekend getaway. After much heartache over arranging a Batam trip at short notice, we were finally on our way.



We took a one-hour ferry from Harbourfront and were met at Batam by the Harris Resort staff.
I was surprised that only a mini van was used to ferry the hotel guests. It's the smallest passenger van I have ever seen. I think the aisle of the van was only like maybe 30cm??


We stayed at the Harris Cabana room, which is like a resort style room located near the (dirty) beach.

We also had our own mini balcony.

After checking out the room, we took the shuttle bus to Nagoya Mall. Nothing much there. The main purpose was to grab lunch, buy toiletries and buy dinner back to the hotel.

Dear always wants A&W when he sees one. The serving was very small lor, cheat money one.

And I got Dear to try bakso noodles. Indo beefballs are fantastic! Dear even ta paoed one bowl back to the hotel.

And Dear's fav Teh Botol, which I introduced to him too. Hahah. It's nice. Can totally see us stocking up on it if we stay tog.

Dear bought a couple of one litre packs from the supermarket. But they were the jasmine tea flavoured one.

After doing wat we wanted, we took the bus back to the hotel. The hotel is act located near the north-western coast of Batam and near the hotel was like a slum area where the poor stayed. Quite sad to pass by the place as we sat in our cushy bus.

The ride back was quite bumpy and Dear wanted to puke from the ride. :p

The hotel pool, which I spent quite some time to learn (or re-learn) swimming from Dear.

We walked around the hotel to explore the place, and came across a scenic dining spot. Coincidentally, we sat here to take our dinner the next day.

Then it was off for our massage. We were in this nice wooden hut for a 90 min massage, and a 30 bubble bath. The bubble bath was pretty fun, though there were A LOT of bubbles!

After the massage, we went back to the room for a late dinner.

The Ayam Pengyat that I tapaoed! So nice!! And only for S$3!!! Shiok lor!

Dear chose to buy back KFC. Which tasted the same, I feel. lol.

After dinner, we bathed, chilled and slept. This was when the fun part (or the highlight of the trip began)

I
'm usually a light sleeper when on hol. I rem waking up in the middle of the night and telling Dear, who has kicked away his blanket and pulled up his top, to cover himself in case he catches a cold.

Later, I woke up at abt 2am to pee. Shortly after I returned from the toilet, Dear fidgeted and got up. I thot I had awakened him or something, and started feeling bad.

He started scratching himself because he has become a victim of mosquito bites. I didn't pay attention, as I thot it was nothing much.

But he started climbing up and down to put down the netting of the bed, switched on the lights, and told me to bluff the mosquitoes that we are awake. He started mumbling about the terrible mosquitoes, saying they took him for a buffet. All the while looking very sad and miserable. I think I've not seen him so distressed.

Imagine my amusement, trying to sympathise but still foggy with sleep. Hahaha. He said he wanted to change the room the next day. I guess he doesn't really like the room anyway.

Seeing that he looked so miserable, I got him to call the front desk and arrange to change a room that night. The staff was obliging, so we packed our things and thronged out of the room in our sleeping attire to a new room. I felt like a refugee escaping.

We moved into their newest wing. Although it is a plain hotel room, I must say it is better than the Cabana room as it is newer.

We watched a little bit of TV and fell asleep once again, this time til the morning.

Day 2

After a good night's sleep, yes it was actually quite a good sleep despite the drama, we went down for breakfast.

The breakfast buffet was miserable. But the place is cheap, so we can't complain too much too.

We decided to take a swim in the late morning, then we went to nearby Delima Seafood for lunch.

Our lunch, with a coconut juice, cost us about S$30?Not a bad price. The food was quite good too.

With a full stomach, we headed back to the hotel where we read mags and chill. Dear got bored and dragged me to bowling.

Dear got lucky with the scores.

We went for the set dinner that night, at the romantic spot we saw yest.

Appetiser:

Pumpkin Soup:

My grilled salmon, which was not too bad

Dear ordered a steak. The photo is not here cos the pic doesn't look very nice haha. And dessert:

Day 3

We almost woke up too late for breakfast and rushed down to eat. The weekend crowd had came in and we had to spend like 5 mins to get a table.

After a disappointing breakfast, we slacked the whole morning in the room watching tv before ordering the pizza for lunch.

We are due to check out after lunch and it was home sweet home. We took the hotel shuttle bus to the run down immigration building and soon we were on our way home.

It was a simple getaway- one that I think I would like to do again soon. It always feel like to be away!

Now I'm missing travelling again!