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*

So we kept ‘throwing‘ the tokens into those miserable few ‘working‘ kiddy machines FAST (We were pressed for time, ‘cos we were only given an hour in BCS mall)

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…)