An Escape to Batam , Indonesia

Well......... besides Singapore, this would be my first overseas!!

I would like to share my experience with those who are interested to travel to Batam, Indonesia as I found that having some useful information before we get into traveling is really important. As for myself, I have gone through many blogs and reviews to get help in planning my trip as I do not want to miss out any must-visit-attractions or being charged extra just because I'm a tourist.

We had a 3D2N trip there. It is just nice for those who want a free and easy, relaxing trip. But if you want to have a pack itinerary, then 2D1N will be enough for you. 

First day...Friday...

We took 8:50am ferry from Harbour Front Ferry Terminal, Singapore. Of course we have to check in around half an hour earlier for Friday. If you book on weekend, then u might need to be there around 2-3 hours earlier or more as it will be very long queue. We bought our "Wave Master" ferry tickets from an agent and got a cheaper price of $30/pax for 2ways including PDF fuel, departure fee & terminal fee (usual price $38).
However, "Wave Master" only travel to Batam Centre. If you want to go to other terminal like Harbour Bay Terminal, you can get "Batam Fast", etc. 

>>> Ferry ticket agent: Ching (Wechat ID: ching6873) [cash on delivery] 

It took around 45-55min of travel and we reached Batam Centre Terminal around 9am Batam time (one hour later than Malaysia/Singapore time). 

Captured from Ferry~ We saw Batam Centre!!!

The ferry checkpoint building is connected to Mega Mall by a bridge so we just walked there and had our A&W meal!! A must have in Batam!! We had root beer ice-cream float, ice-cream waffles, fried chickens, burgers, and curly fries. The root beer ice-cream float was delicious & refreshing especially after long sitting on ferry! =D

Curly Fries~ Crispy & Delicious!

Ice-Cream Waffles ~ 

Next we booked a private driver to bring us around Batam Island as we thought it would be cheaper as we had 6 people and it would need 2 cabs to travel and we wanted to visit all the attractions available there.

>>> Driver 1 - $55/10 hours for weekdays & $65/10 hours for weekends 
                    - Whatapps: +62 85668812105
                    - Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BatamDriver

>>> Driver 2 - $65/10 hours for weekdays & weekends
                    - Whatapps: +62 89672302654
                    - Website: http://batamdriver.com/contact.html

They are using MVP 7 seaters so can fix in to a max of 7 people. We took the first driver as we travel on Friday and got weekday cheaper price. We paid $60 ++ and the extra as tips for the driver. We started our car tour at 11am and visited the following places:

1) Balerang Bridge (end of batam island) 

Balerang Bridge

Great view captured from the Barelang Bridge

This is the bridge that connects few island of Indonesia together. Except for the first bridge, the rest of the connection bridges are actually very ordinary looking bridges. We only visited the first and the second bridge as we will need today extra $10 for the third bridge onward. We stopped by the first bridge and took some photos as it is very magnificent and is the symbolic building of Batam. It might not comparable to those famous and well decorated bridge, but it is worth a visit as without visit this symbolic building, it is like you never been to batam. 

2) Chocolate Store / Chocolate factory

We just stop by here to have a look as it is always being included in the itinerary by tourism company. Well, it is just a shop that sell variety of chocolates, it is not a factory as what people use to call it. It sells variety of chocolates but the prices are quite expensive. You can get most of them in any hypermarket in the mall at a lower price. 

3) Batam Layer Cakes

This is one of the famous layers cake factory. Another one is Diana Kueh Lapis. Their prices are almost the same. They have variety flavors of layers cake, such as original, prune, cheese, cinnamon, mocha, chocolate, coffee, pandan, raisin, etc. 
They sell in 1kg/box, where $25/box for original & cinnamon & $29/box for the rest. We have buy minimum of 1kg but we can request them to cut into 1/2 kg and put into two smaller boxes. We bought 3 boxes and requested a free delivery to our hotel on Sunday before we check out so we will get freshly baked cake. 
You can always contact them and ask for delivery to your hotel:

Additional information>> Batam Layer Cakes just located opposite of Golden Prawn Seafood Restaurant and nearby Batam Golden City Water Sport. There are variety of water sport available with reasonable price. I have never been there so I can't confirm whether the beach view over there is nice. 

4) First Factory Outlet 

Captured inside the car...

A shop that sells variety of branded clothes especially Polo T-shirt. Those clothes aren't so updated but the prices are indeed cheaper. Even though we always heard from locals, tourism company claimed that this shop sells authentic clothes, but I can't really confirm that all the branded are genuine & authentic one as it looks slightly different than the authentic one. I guess those who use to buy authentic clothes will be able to see the difference so make sure you really know before you decide to buy one. 

5) Maha Vihara Duta Maitreya Buddhist Temple 

The greatest Buddhist temple in South East Asia. It is really big and you can find a lot of beautiful stone statues. There are lots of stall inside it that sell variety of vegetarian foods. 

Taking photo with one of the big statue inside the temple.

6) Tua Pek Kong Temple (Vihara Buddhi Bhakti Temple) 

This temple is much smaller. By the time when we reached, we saw some buildings are still under construction and we got to know form the driver that those are new buildings. Perhaps next time we will be able to see a bigger temple with more buildings. There are a lots of small statues located at every corner of the temple, we captured some of their photos as below...

8) Adhi Vinayakar Temple 

Reaching the 'Door' to the temple after some stairs.....

This is a Hindu Temple. It is a bit hidden inside in which we will have to climb up some stairs to reach there. It is pretty small. We just took some photo around and we can't enter into the building where they do their prayer. 

The building where prayer are done.

There is a Kak Dadut Restaurant on the left side of the staircase. I heard it is pretty nice even thou we do not have the chance to try it up. 

Some Local Foods~ 
We heard from the driver that the famous local foods that we must try are Nasi Padang and Ayam Penyet Ria. 

We tried Nasi Padang at Restaurant Sederhana for our lunch. The way they serve the foods is special as they will serve all the foods in small plate on your table and you can take any of those you like to eat, and pay for what you eat. Sadly it is not really nice as those foods were cold and not fresh. Furthermore, considering the hygiene issue as they might take what you din't eat to serve other people again. I'm fine with those Malay style cuisine but my friends weren't really into it. However, it is still worth a try as that's the reason we visit Batam, to get to know their culture.

Nasi Padang 

We spent only less than 5 SGD/person for a meal with delicious drink, which is what we felt worth for as their drinks are really cheap and delicious!

For our dinner, we tried Ayam Penyet Ria in Nagoya Hill Mall. According to the driver Andrew, there are lots of Ayam Penyet restaurants in Batam but the most famous one is Ayam Penyet Ria. Well, it turned out to be much more delicious than Nasi Padang. The best part was, their sambal is very spicy! 

Ayam Penyet with Fried Tempeh, Fried Tofu, white rice & super spicy sambal!

We ended our tour before 9pm by asking the driver to send us to Harbour Bay Food Court. We had our beer and small bites there. The prices for the beers are super cheap as we got around $20/tower!!!

In Nagoya Hill Mall you can get variety of foods from the restaurant inside the mall, as well as from the food street located just outside the mall.

Food Street right outside Nagoya Hill Mall

Second day...Saturday...

For the next day, we had our water sport, massage, seafood dinner and also some beer.
We went to Harris Hotel at Water Front area for our beach activity. The list of services & activities provided by Harris Hotel are as below. Of course you can always Google for their information, and email them for the latest price list. They do reply email promptly! =D

Activities and Services List provided by Harris Hotel, October 2014.

Enjoying their free of charge Beach Volley ball.

Banana Boat~ We bargained for it and got 8sgd/person.

There are also other places for water sport such as Batam Golden City Water Sport as mentioned earlier and also Batam View Hotel, which is also located in Water Front area.

We did our massage in Eska (http://www.eska-wellness.com/). It is just located opposite the Nagoya Hill Mall. They have few branches as in Nagoya Hill Mall and also in Maga Mall. Since this is my first time so I hardly compare it with other massage centers. From my friends, they said that those person who help us to massage seemed inexperienced but still acceptable. Overall the services are good and the prices are cheap as compared to those in Singapore. After the massage, we requested the massage center to sent us to Wey Wey Seafood Restaurant at Harbour Bay Area.

There are two Wey Wey over that area, so make sure you go the the Wey Wey 1, which is the more famous and more delicious one. The reason why we choose Wey Wey over Golden Prawn Restaurant (which is one of the most famous seafood restaurant in Batam) is because Golden Prawn is pretty much expensive as compared to Wey Wey, in which they serve their dish at the price of Singapore Seafood Restaurant. 
These are few of the dishes we had in Wey Wey...

Curry Fish Head

Siput Sedut

Fried Cereal Prawn

Fried Squid with Salted Egg

Avocado Juice with Gula Melaka~ One of the nicest drink I ever had in Batam.

Third & Last day...Sunday...

For the last day, we make it free and easy day so we can sleep more & wake up later! The only thing we have to do is to wait for our Layered Cake delivery and check out! After checked out, we went to Mega Mall earlier for our simple lunch and checked in for our ferry at terminal before 2pm as our departure time was 2:40pm. We were facing long queue and we felt lucky for checking in earlier. 

We booked our ferry one week in advance as we got the advice from the local where 3pm-6pm is always peak hour for people to check in for ferry. If you book you ticket late, you might end up not be able to get the slot you want.

I think these are all I can share with you all. Hopefully these experiences and information can help you all to have a better planning for your Batam trip in future time! 
Feel free to drop any comments and suggestions and questions anytime! =)

>>> Thank you for reading and sorry for any mistake in spelling or grammar as i'm not an English expert. This article is merely for sharing only. 

>>> Last but not least, most of the Photo are contributed by Ivan & Andrew~ Thank you very much for the nice photos throughout the trip!!! =)

Kam Long Curry Fish Head

Well, I have been eating this for the second time as it taste really nice and appetizing. The famous curry fish head that you must try when you step your foot into Johor Bharu. A lot people from Singapore purposely travel down just to enjoy this. It is always full and you will need to queue up long especially during lunch hour. Well, second time we choose to go early in the morning, around 8:30am, and we are so lucky as we don't need to queue up and we can manage to get a strategic sits, which is below a fan (as it is really hot and sweaty when you eat hot and spicy curry). 

Normally when you queue up, you will have to think of what you wan to order (the size of the curry fish head pot, small, medium, or ?) as they will ask you and start preparing for you so once you get your sits, you don't need to wait long for it. Normally, a medium size is enough for two person. 

Ok now we move on to the curry. The curry gravy is really nice as it is spicy enough, all the texture, spiciness, thickness of the curry gravy are just perfect. I would give it a rate of 8-9/10 points. 

The fish is soft, smooth, and most important, it is very fresh as they only use fresh red snapper head. 

What you can find inside the clay pot are lady's fingers, cabbage, long beans, fried bean curd skin, and of course, coconut milk but is not concentrated. For those with healthy stomach, you will not feel nausea or bloating after eating it. 

 *A medium size fish head curry clay pot.

Price lists (Updated on July 2014):

Choice of Curry Fish Head:

1 person = RM17.00

Small = RM20.00

Medium = RM30.00

Large = RM40.00

Add Vege = RM5.00

Add fried Bean Curd Skin = RM3.00

White Rice (Big) = RM1.00

White Rice (Small) = RM0.50

Choice of Drinks:

Can drink = RM2.00

Chinese Tea = RM0.50

Tapao (Take away) = Add RM1.00 for Container.

There might be a minimum amount valid for take away but they did not mention.

*Photo took in July 2014.

Address: Jalan Wong Ah Fook

Opening Hour: 8am-4pm (Everyday)

Contact Number: 016-7528382/ 016-7962288

It is very easy to reach as after you walk out from JB Kastam, you will pass through another building and then to City Square Mall. You just need to walk through City Square Mall and reach the mall entrance from the other end, then you will reach Jalan Wong Ah Fook. Turn to ur left side and continue walking through Jalan Station, You will see Hong Leong Bank, and continue walking down that path. You will reach Kam Long Restaurant. 

Well, for sure I will be back for third time!! Hope what I wrote can really help those who really knee to try this curry fish head. Enjoy and savor it!!! =D

Soon Soon Heng Bak Kut Teh, Johor Bharu

     Yeah, I'm back again with Food Introductions this time !!! This time I spent my weekend around KSL area so I only be able to try the food around here since I do not have a car to travel around. So for my lunch, I have chosen Soon Soon Heng Bak Kut Teh Restaurant (顺顺兴肉骨茶), just right behind KSL City Shopping Mall, through the exit at KFC, KSL Mall there, which is another exit when u drop by KSL by City Bus to KSL from JB Checkpoint.


 
     Well, this is consider the famous one around Johor Bharu (JB) area. Of course, you can get a much better one all around the other places in Malaysia. Since only two of us, we only order a set for two, which is one bowl of Bak Kut Teh for 2 (RM18). They have other choices like Small bowl, Middle bowl (for 2), Big bowl, and Extra Big bowl. We added on with 2 bowl of You Zha Tiao (油炸条), one bowl of salted pickled cabbage (咸菜), and one bowl of bean curd (豆干).

Bak Kut Teh for 2 (RM18), We are allow to choose the add on such as: Bean Curd, Enoki Mushroom, Meat Balls, Organ's parts like belly of pork, intestine of pork and so on. Some add on will cost extra money.

 Salted pickled cabbage (咸菜) (RM3.50/bowl)

 You Zha Tiao (油炸条) (RM1.50/bowl). This is the best part I personally like about Bak Kut Teh, when the You Zha Tiao soak into the Bak Kut Teh soup!!!

Dried Toufu (豆干) (RM3.50/bowl)

Ok, how it taste like? Basically is it not the type of saturated soup based. It is quite diluted but the herbs taste is still retained. Overall, the meat well cooked, everything just fine. If u ask me to rate it from 1-10 points, I will give it 6-7 points! It is just perfect for someone that crave for Bak Kut Teh in this JB area as this is very convenient to reach and with reasonable price.

Well, there are other dishes on their menu, which are sesame oil chicken (麻油鸡), ginger soup chicken (姜汤鸡), pork trotter (猪脚), etc. All of them are around RM10over /plate.

For their exact location, it is basically in between KSL City Mall and 11@Century Hotel, the road named Jalan Serigala~ There are other nice food restaurants along that street also.

Address: 43, Jalan Serigala, Taman Abad, 80250 Johor Bharu.

Operating Hour: Around 8am - 8pm (When I asked, the Tauke said closing around 8 to 9pm)

Hopefully this bak kut teh can satisfy the appetite of those who crave for it!! Enjoy your JB Food hunting trip~ =)