All About Your Child

Finally! It is rest and relax day! This is what Allan and I love above all things else, but being overseas with the kids for the very first time, we were uncertain if what we like about having a holiday fits their dream holiday plan too.

So we just went ahead with our own plan for Day 2 and looked forward to hear their review at the end of the day….

Here’s what we did:

Breakfast and Jacuzzi:
Harmoni One’s breakfast starts early and ends early too. There were fellow Singaporeans who came down at 10am and the restaurant manager had to greet them with the shaking of his head. More than 70% of the food were cleared and pushed back into the kitchen already. Last visit to the food galore was 9.45am.

We had a really BIG breakfast, so much so that we could skip lunch. Headed to the Jacuzzi and swimming pool straight after meal. Only the 3 males swam.

I sat by the pool with my new found Malaysian friend and chatted before they head back home that afternoon. In fact, in my tour group, we were the only ones who asked for extended stay. The extra night was at our own expense. In total, inclusive of all the taxes we paid $500+.

Bad Experience with Taxi Driver:
Harmoni One had free shuttle service in the evening to the 3 most popular shopping malls in Batam. They are Mega Mall, Nygoya Hill and BCS Mall.

Since we went BCS Mall yesterday, it was a choice between Mega Mall and Nygoya Hill.

We did not want to wait till evening for our shopping trip because we had already booked for an evening massage. *Grin*

So we decided to go to the Malls on our own.

Mega Mall is only 15mins walk away from Harmoni One, while Nygoya Hill is a 30mins Taxi Drive and it would cost about S$50 to reach there. Hence another S$50 to come back. Total S$100.

None of the people we asked advised us to walk to Mega Mall. All of them said its too dangerous, especially when we have kids with us. *shrugged*

Oh well, so with the help of the hotel staff, we took a cab. [Note: Taxis does not run on meter in Batam. So fare must be stated first.] The hotel staff told us that it would cost 30,000 rupiah (approx. S$7.80) to go to Mega Mall.

We saw the hotel staff talked to the taxi driver a little before he signal us to board the taxi. We assumed that the service would be the same as what we experienced in Thailand, but we were wrong. The hotel staff did not tell the taxi driver where we wanted to go and did not ‘fix’ the price for us.

When we arrived at the entrance of Mega Mall, he asked for 40,000 rupiah! We told him that the hotel staff told us its 30,000 rupiah and we are not ready to pay more than that. After much bargaining, he gave up and we paid 30,000 rupiah. *phew*

Mega Mall:
I was so happy to see A&W again!!! But we were too full to eat even a candy. So we decided to shelf it till our shopping trip ends.

As mentioned in my previous post, Batam is not a shopping heaven for me. Things are pricey and varieties are few. But Mega Mall turned out to be a treasure island for my boys.

They were greeted by a balloon sculptor at Pizza Hut, which we placed order for our dinner to be sent to our hotel later in the evening. Cheap yummy pizza dinner on our hotel bed, Allan and my favourite ‘doing‘ whenever we go overseas in the past. *giggle*

Binbin: “Mommy, I want a dog (from the balloon sculptor), but I am very scared.”

Hhhhmmm…?! That is so NOT Binbin. He is the Go-Getter kind of boy. What made him hold back this time?

Me: “What are you afraid of?”

Binbin: “What if she does not know what is ‘dog’? I don’t know how to speak Batam language.”

OH!!!! *laugh*

Neither did I.

So I turned back to the Pizza Hut cashier and asked what is ‘Dog‘ in their language and she was so nice to help me ‘shout‘ across to the balloon sculptor.

Balloon Sculptor: “You want a ‘dog’? What colour?”

*Faint* She could speak good English!!! *laugh*

Keatkeat’s pink dog was given to him by the Pizza Hut cashier. Though it was pink, but he was still happy with it. *smile*

Almost everything for children in Mega Mall is cheap!!!
For the very first time, I am willing to pay for this art-craft which is so common in Singapore.

I had NEVER agreed to let them try it because I find it expensive. But here, its S$1 to S$3 cheaper. I offered my boys to experience this art-craft, they were so surprised, they gave me the blank face. *laugh*

Keatkeat chose the airplane while Binbin chose the car. Both were sold with the keychain hooks and are now hung on each of their school bags.

Round and round we went up every level and found ourselves in kids-heaven at the highest level.

This ride cost only S$2.00 for 15mins. I remembered my in-law’s paid S$10 for it in Singapore East Coast Park!

The area which they could drive in is rather big too. Totally worth it!

Then we gave a pass for this expensive train ride, but requested for permission for photo shoot.

It costs S$2.00 per person for just ONE small circling on that level, which would only take 1min!

No way were we going to pay for S$4 for the boys for just A Minute of fun.

*Shake Head*

The fun continued at this gigantic play area.  This place definitely reminded me of Polliwogs and Kidz Amaze, but the price here was too delicious to resist! *laugh*

With LESS than S$8.00, the kids could enjoy unlimited play!!! That is almost 50% off from that of Polliwogs and Kidz Amaze’s entrance fee.

*Super Thumbs Up*

With all those exercises, kids finally felt hungry and so we went to A&W for snack time.

Bad Experience with A&W:

I ordered a set meal which cost 36,000+ rupiah, but change the root beer to Root Beer float.

Instead of adding the price difference between Root Beer And Root Beer float, which is a scoop of ice-cream, he cancelled my meal order and started charging every item individually.

Because I had order other items as well, so I did not do a proper calculation and simply paid 80,000+ rupiah for my entire order. Went back to join my family and only to find out the ‘mistake‘ the cashier made.

Went back to him and the manager, both could not speak proper English and we started a chicken and duck conversation.*eyes rolled*

After plenty of sign language and one-word-one-word kind of English, I think I understood what he meant.

So long as there is a slight change to any of the set meals, every item must be calculated separately. *faint* How inflexible!

Then again, I am in a foreign country, I should respect their culture and policies. So I just turned my head in defeat and went back to the table. *sigh*

Taxi Ride Back to Harmoni One:
Taking a Taxi back was not easy as well: The moment we stepped out of Mega Mall, there was a mini table with a man asking, “Taxi?”

We said, “Yes. To Harmoni One.”

He said, “40,000 rupiah.”

We shook our heads and wanted to walk off, then another man with a walkie talkie stopped us and said, “30,000 rupiah? Harmoni One?”

We said, “Yes.”

Then he started to talk through his walkie talkie and among all the words he spoke, I could only understand ’30, 000 rupiah’. And every time he said that, the other party hung up. Pretty obvious the price was not accepted. After more than 5 calls, finally one taxi driver was willing to take us in.

The taxi drove in from the main road. I had a feeling that the taxi was going to fall apart if I slammed the door too hard. The condition inside was worse. Many parts were torn and broken. Well, so long as there is no foul smell, I am fine with everything else.

Afterall, I am grateful that he was willing to come for us. *smile*

Massage Round 2:
It was great to be back to the hotel and we realised we had to forgo shopping at Nyogya Hill because of the time issue. So after lying down on the bed for a short while, the massage parlor staff called and said that we could go for an earlier massage. Yippee!

Thus we need not wait till 7.30pm. Yeah!

The massage came at the right time. We were aching from all the walking. Just like our first day, the masseuses were super surprise to see Keatkeat and Binbin. Furthermore, seeing them half-naked and all ready for their first oil massage set the four masseuses giggling. *laugh*

Keatkeat has become so pro, he started to chat with his masseuse in the middle of the massage. Asking her lots of questions. *laugh*

Binbin on the other hand shut his chatty Papa off by saying, “Be quiet, so that you can enjoy the massage better.” *Huge Laugh*

At the End of Day 2:
Allan asked the kids: “So do you prefer what we did yesterday or today?”

Keatkeat: “Today, because we can drive the car and make the key chain. I get to take a photograph with ‘Nutty’ (the mascot). I enjoyed eating at A&W too.”

Binbin: “Today, because on the first day, we did not get to go swimming and on the second day we get to go swimming alot. And we also get to go shopping and I ate pizza.”

(Last Day in Batam (Day 3) to be continued…)

Batam, Indonesia is 1 hour behind Singapore. So we lived for another hour when we reached Batam. *giggle*

Our first day in Batam was completely planned by the tour agency. I prefer Free and Easy above all else. I prefer to plan my route and not be given a time to end any sort of fun or being rushed to finish a yummy meal, especially when you have children with you on a trip.

Oh well, on the bright side, one thing for sure, we would not get lost and because of the voucher we bought from Deal.com.sg, we only paid S$78 per person, which included ferry cost, transport back and forth to the ferry terminal, a one night stay at a 4star hotel, an hour of massage, a seafood lunch and lots of shoppping.

Our route:-

1st- Ferry from Singapore Harbour Front to Batam Sekupang Ferry Terminal

2nd- 4 different places to shop. All of which accepts Singapore Dollars. Other than Yong Heng Food Trading provision shop which Allan bought the yummilicious Honey Cake, every other places we shopped in (in my view) are considered expensive.

3rd- After ‘dragging‘ Binbin out of his dreamland (see previous post), we were craving for seafood. Upon arrival at Golden Prawn 933 seafood restaurant, our tour group of 28 was split into 3 groups. We were seated with another family of 6 with 3 kids from Malaysia, of whom we became good friends with on the second day. *wink*

Being tight for time and eating with unfamiliar faces, I was too shy to snap photos of every dish, as I usually would. So in the end, this was the only photo I had (after everyone at my table has left).

We had fishball vermicelli soup (ok),
chili crab (super small, but I liked it. Allan and the others on my table didn’t. *sigh* If only I had more time to finish off that ‘neglected’ plate),
black pepper prawn (shell sticks onto the flesh ~ *thumbs down*),
fried sotong (did not eat),
fried fish with gravy (lots of small bones. had a difficult time separating them from the flesh for the kids.)
and the famous Batam Gong Gong sea snail (it was steamed. didn’t like it at all.)

Oh! The Seafood Lunch included a drink of your choice and without hesitation, we chose Coconut!*smile*

4th- Just a short 1min walk from this restaurant was the place which baked the heavenly Kueh Lapis (read my review here)

5th- The tour guide brought us to a temple which claimed to be famous for granting wishes. Well, some went in to pray, others were having a sip at the coffeeshop and the rest of us were busy snapping photos. *smile*

What caught our eyes were the Huge (in both size and numbers) tortoises. They were so reachable, you could easily pick one up and sit it on your lap! *smile*

6th- MASSAGE PARLOUR!!! Aaawww…. what more can I say after the previous blog post ‘Children On Holiday – Batam Day 1 (Part 1)‘ ~ my boys craved for More…

Once is never enough when kids are in loved with whatever that might be…so I am not surprised at all when they became ‘addicted‘ to massage. *giggle*

7th- The tour bus dropped us off at Batam City Square Mall or better known as BCS Mall. According to the tour guide, it is the least pricey shopping mall in Batam. Still, the prices made me feel like I was shopping in Singapore. In fact, some of the items sold there were more expensive.

The ONLY place which we found great bargain was the amusement arcade. Every game costs approximately S$0.30 only!!! Cheaper than the Big Play Area in Jusco, Malaysia.

Without even scanning through the place first, we exchanged approximately S$10 worth of tokens, so that the kids could play almost 33times!

BUT it was a Big mistake!

Half of the place had jackpots of all sorts with adults on every hot seats there. Almost 90% of them were smoking. Well, in Batam, you can smoke wherever you want.

We were trying hard to ‘get rid’ of the tokens by going for every possible kiddy game machines there. Little did we realise that out of those few kiddy machines available, half of them were not working! *faint*

Keatkeat was really good at the magnetic fishing game and with all the tickets collected at the end of the game, we could only exchanged for hair-bands.

So I ended up with 4 hair-bands in total for the trip. 2 from the arcade, 2 from both massages. Ooops! I gave myself away, yup, we went for massage AGAIN the next day.

8th- 1hour sure passed quickly when good times are spent. After BCS mall, we met our gorgeous hotel for the first time ~ Harmoni One. It was almost 8pm (Batam time) after we settled down in our room.

The kids cheered, “Yeah! Finally! Hotel!” *laugh*

Throughout the trip, they have been grumbling, “Why haven’t go hotel yet? I want to see the room…. I want to relax on the hotel bed….. and on and on….” *eyes rolled*

Harmoni One is a very new hotel. You can almost smell the paint. There are other sections of the hotel yet to be furnished. Seriously, we loved everything about the hotel, service, food, ambiance and comfort.

For the first time, we stayed in a hotel which does NOT charge for the refreshments in the room’s mini-fridge. YEAH! (See pictures of the hotel in my previous post.)

However, if you are hoping to receive efficient room service, errrrmmm… then this is not the hotel for you. ‘Reminder calls’ are needed. But that is perfectly fine with us because none of the things which we asked for were considered urgent.

OH! Before I forget, there is one very unusual thing about our hotel room. There is NO TOILET PAPER HOLDER!!! Its a 4 star hotel, but such a basic thing is missing… Hhhmmm… *scratch head*

9th- We had our dinner at the restaurant in the lobby of the hotel. However, we were shocked by the portion given for Allan’s and my order.

The kid’s Spaghetti Bolognese are fine, but Allan’s Carbonara’s portion looked like a 5 year old’s meal; while my Tom Yam soup with rice, had ingredients so few and so tiny (the prawns and squids), I am left with just soup after 3 scoops from the bowl. *Faint*

10th- We explored every level of the hotel and sworn to have our virgin jacuzzi dip the next day. *Grin*

11th- Binbin wanted to feel special and chose to sleep on the couch bed, but ended up tossing and turning for 2 hours before he agreed to give up the idea and sleep on one of the beds. And in less than 5mins, he was snoring away. *laugh*

So Papa, the most sacrificial one, slept on the couch bed for both nights. *hugs*

(Day 2 of our Batam trip to be continued…)