Travelogue: 2 Years Anniversary Trip to Batam 18-04-2015 to 19-04-2015 Day 1

Batam Day 1

Over the weekends, we went to Batam for a 2 days getaway for our 2 years anniversary. Stayed in Turi Beach Resort and bought my package from asia travel for SGD196.38. The package includes 2 return ferry tickets from Tanah Merah Ferry terminal to Nongsa Ferry Terminal, 1 night stay in Turi Beach Resort with breakfast and 2 way hotel transfer. The package excludes Departure and Fuel Surcharge of SGD20 from Singapore and Batam Terminal Fee of SGD6. So each person have to pay SGD26 at Tanah Merah Ferry Terimal when collecting the ferry tickets for both ways.

Its about 35mins ride from Tanah Merah to Nongsa. Another 5mins ride is required from Nongsa Ferry Terminal to Turi Beach Resort. Our ferry ride is supposed to be 12pm but it got delayed. So we reached Turi Beach Resort at about 12.30pm Indonesia time. Just take note that Batam is an hour behind us.

Our room is supposed to be 2 twin beds but we upgraded it to a king size bed at SGD25 due to the weekends. It will be a free upgrade during weekdays. On a happy note, we got an early check in which was supposedly to be 2pm.

We had room at the Tirta Wing. Turi Beach Resort is DAMN big and it has both sides: Tirta Wing and Riani Wing and it has 2 pools. Each wing had its own pool. The room is spacious and each room has a private balcony. The toilet is quite decent but the floors is a little yellowish but overall the facilities are clean just make sure to wear room slippers inside.

The room's television comes with many channels. Channels like AXN, Fox Movie and Singapore Channels as well. So the guest won't be bored in the room.

View from our balcony

Left our baggage in the room and off we proceed to Nagoya Hill Shopping Mall. It's roughly a 45mins ride from the resort. We book a one way cab from the resort which cost IDR160,000. There's another option of 2 way for 4 hours which includes travelling time for IDR320,000. We didnt want to limit our self to the shopping time so we only took the one way.

Its a must to have A&W at Batam cause its extinct in Singapore. We ordered the spicy 2pcs chicken which tasted quite nice. The boy who usually don't take spicy actually like this. The root beer doesn't comes with ice but if you order coke it comes with ice. So its better to order coke to quench your thirst from the hot weather.

Tourist usually go to Nagoya Hill Mall for A&W, Batam Layer Cake and the Hypermarket.

The famous Batam Layer Cake kueh lapis can be bought from here. For original flavour in small size it cost IRD80,000. The kueh lapis is oh-so-flavourful. Love the buttery fragrant taste of kueh lapis.

We also bought a SIM Card from Indosat which is located in front of J.C.O donuts. The SIM Card cost IDR50,000 with a 3GB data. The data is enough for us to use for 2 days but the minutes of outgoing call is too little.

In the Hypermarket of Nagoya Mall, consumers usually purchase the Indomee, tidbits and necessity because it's so much cheaper than Singapore. We found a brand of cup noodle mee goreng which is SUPER TASTY! Kind of regret cause we only bought 2 cups. We will be back for more.

Image Source: miesedaapcup.com

After all our shopping, we proceed to Habourbay Seafood Restaurant for dinner. We didn't want to take a cab from Nagoya Hill Mall because its not run by meter but instead quoting of price. So we walk to the main road and took a Blue Bird taxi by meter. From Nagoya Hill Mall to Habourbay Seafood Restaurant is less than IDR20,000.

We were there at about 6pm. The servers will usually lead guest to the outside seats which has a beautiful sea view. We managed to get a table right beside the sea for a sunset view. From what I researched, many bloggers usually come to this place and it had a good review. 

From what I researched, people usually recommend the cereal prawns, salted egg crab and kangkong belacan. 

IDR75,000 (SGD7.50) for small

The Cereal Prawns are fry to fragrant. Prawns are decent but it goes well with the cereal. Great dish to be accompanied with rice. 

IDR30,000 (SGD3) for small

The kangkong belacan was good. The dish can't go too wrong for the Indonesians and it's only SGD3 for this portion. You won't find it for this price in Singapore.

IDR228,000 (SGD22.80) for 600g

We wanted to order the 1kg crab but they gave us 600g instead which was fine because its IDR38,000 per 100g. The crabs were fresh and you will be able to taste the sweetness of it. Their salted egg are not the runny creamy type instead it is fry to crisp but still tasty. 

Our total bill came to IDR397,100 with 10% tax of IDR36,100 for 1 plate of cereal prawns, 1 plate of kangkong, 600g of salted egg crab, 2 steamed rice and 2 soft drinks which is around SGD40. Still cheaper than Singapore tough.

Harbour Bay Seafood Restaurant

Komp. Harbour Bay No.R 08 jl. Duyung Sei Jodoh, Batu Ampar - Batam, 29461 Batam, Ouham, Central African Republic

Operating Hours: Mon - Sun: 10:00 am - 10:00 pm

Earlier, I mentioned that the outgoing minutes is too little for the SIM card. We called our taxi driver to picked us up after our dinner. And due to blue bird taxi which is not able to come in to habour bay to pick passengers up, we had to walked all the way out of harbour bay to locate our driver. But we lost contact due to the insufficient amount of outgoing calls. But luckily we still managed to message the driver and locate him eventually.

Blue Bird Taxi
Phone: +62 778 421234
Website: Blue Bird

*Photos are all taken by Nikon D5000 except for the layers cake*

>> Continue to Day 2 here