It’s Chinese New Year !! So like those who don’t celebrate, we went for a holiday.
This time around, we went with Jaz’s younger sister, Nana & her boyfriend, Dzul.

Exchange rate in Batam : S$1 – Rp 6200
Exchange rate in Bandung : S$1 – Rp 6500 (Golden Money Changer)
Price of flight tickets (Return trip) – Rp 1,970,000 – S$318

6th Feb 2008

I wanted to stretch & make use of my PH as much as possible. So Jaz & I set off to Batam for one night first while Nana & Dzul will proceed to Bandung. We took the BatamFast ferry from Harbourfront to Batam Centre – S$37 (return trip). It was a 45 mins journey. The ferry wasn’t so great. I do not like the seatings… And the aircon does not seem to work. Halfway, some of the boatmen installed a portable fan for us. It was soooo hot! On arrival, we were told by a friend to hail a cab from the roadside.
* Do not take any one of those waiting cabs at the front of the Centre cos they do not use meter.

This is the part where we split… We chose Planet Holiday as our hotel choice. They used Singapore Dollars!! And it cost S$115 per room per night. We specifically chose this hotel cos we thought that there was a casino in here. But to our dismay, we were told by the hotel staff that it has been closed since 2004 and it is now illegal for Indonesia to have any Casinos. ( Bummer! ) So, we were greeted by our friend, Gunawan, at the hotel lobby. He kinda introduced us to a few places & promised to bring us around the next day as it was our first time there.. yea, hehe! So that night we were pretty darn bored…nothing to watch, nothing to do…since there was no casino.. We just took a glance at the swimming pool, which was opened to the public also by the way.. (weird..) So, it can get kinda crowded sometimes. After that, we took a walk at our hotel area. We went to a market across. It was dark..cramped & the clothes looked really old. So we didn’t see anything we like at all. We walked further and sat down at a KFC outlet. The place was nice.. It stands by itself & has 2-3 storeys. Most importantly, they have Colonel Burger!! (Yummy!!) Good news for some of you is that they serve rice in their meal.. But personally, I don’t find the food nice. After dinner, we headed back to our hotel for an early night.. There was really nothing to do! (prolly cos it was a holiday) Luckily there were a lot of mini fireworks (mercun) set off in the dark sky all around the island, a traditional Chinese New Year (& Hari Raya) celebration. So I was entertained for awhile.
* If you are bored & would like to have some seafood, you may try to go to Golden Prawn. It’s a restaurant that serves fresh seafood (kelong style). Take note that it opens only at night.

7th Feb 2008

Gunawan brought his girlfriend along to show us around. We didn’t really have much time as we were going to catch our flight to Bandung later in the evening. So they brought us to Nagoya Plaza. I was pretty excited at first cos finally there was a place to shop! But well, it’s not that great & I ended up not buying anything.. It’s a small mall. We had our lunch at one of the seafood restaurant there & we treated them for being our guide. The meal was just ok… nothing special about it. After that, we waved our goodbyes & made our way to the airport. So we hailed a cab & we got ourselves a new friend. The name’s Ronald. He do not use meter but what the hell… We couldn’t care less at the moment. Along the way, I made him stop us at Nagoya Plaza again cos I wanna buy some food before we board our flight. So, we bought hotdogs & burgers from A&W (pronounced as Ah-Weh). So after paying for our ride – Rp60000 (expensive! you should be able to get cheaper) & exchanging of numbers, we found a spot infront of the airport to eat. I do NOT like my hotdog… (Sigh!) Our flight, Merpati Nusantara Airlines, was delayed for a long time… Our flight was supposed to leave at 1925hrs.. After more than an hour waiting, it finally arrived! (Apparently it is common for its flight to be delayed without notifying passengers). Imagine the boredom! Again, it’s my first time to board a plane from the ground so I was pretty excited & managed to take a few photos.. About 1.5 hours later, BANDUNG!!! Wheeeeeee…………!! I was kinda shocked that their airport is sooo small & is located near a village. But it’s cool… From here, you have to go to the counter & tell them your destination. The guy behind the counter will then give you a number & you will be asked to proceed to the front. When you step outside, there’ll be a few people calling out numbers. Your allocated driver will call out for your number & he will drive you to your destination. The cab here i must say, is much much cheaper..
* Do inform the driver that you want to go straight to your destination. If he shows you around, you may end up paying higher.

Apparently the living standard in Batam is way higher than the living standard here.. So we arrived at our shelter for the day, Mitra Hotel, where Nana & Dzul were staying, had our cheap & delicious dinner there & call it a night. The hotel is cheap but not recommended for people who are fussy… Everything there is quite old but the bed is huuuuge… They are currently upgrading their hotel & will be building up another wing. From the pictures I see, I reckon the hotel will be much more nicer upon completion. You may try it then. Location-wise, not good. There’s nothing there to do…

8th February 2008

After checking out, we paid a very short visit to a flea market not far from our hotel, which is behind a mosque. It was short cos there was nothing much there except for traditional Muslim clothes, books, etc.. So, we hailed a cab which then brought us to our hotel for the night, Aston Hotel & Residence. I admit that I was the one who chose this hotel… cos it looks so nice on the internet & i thought it was at a prominent location, Braga Walk…Even the pool look nice. OK, here’s my personal point of view… The shopping mall below the hotel is not great, the location is not superb, the pool is freaking small BUT the room’s interior is modern & nice, the lobby is also quite pretty. So, we checked in & as usual, we’ll be walking around to check the room. For Rp 925,000 (S$150) with breakfast paid, I expected much more… The room is super small, there is no hair dryer & there is no bath tub!! I immediately asked Jaz to book another hotel cos we decided not to stay there. It’s just not worth the money… Then when we call the hotel staff & informed them of our decision to leave, they told us that they were not going to refund us as we have already entered the room.. But we didn’t even touch anything yet!! Well, it’s against their policy, whatever! He told us that we should have requested to see the room first before checking in. * pointer here people!! *

So, we had no choice but to stay there for the night. After unpacking, we left for Cihampelas Street AKA “Jeans Street”. The shops were beautifully decorated. There’s Spiderman, Rambo, Sharks, etc… I heard that this is their way to attract people into their shops. And this I understand cos they were selling almost the same things! So after visiting a few stores, we went to Cihampelas Walk, a mall… I like this mall… Shopped for a few things here.. Cheap clothes with good materials..
* The shop I recommend the most – FireBolt (Enviromentally friendly, cheap & good quality stuffs + the staffs are super friendly) *

We got hungry so we headed to Dago Atas (Uphill). Funny thing happened… The cab got stalled halfway so Jaz had to go down to push the cab a lil’ before he can move.. haha!! The view is so pretty.. We went to a high class restaurant there called The Valley. We had Hawaiian steak, new york steak, Lamb Chop BBQ, Combo Platter, Coke, Hot Choco & Lemonade for Rp672210 – S$105. Definitely recommended! Good food, not so expensive, good service, nice view… What more can you ask for? It’s all bundled into one! You can dress up a lil’ to eat here as the place is set in a romantic kind of ambience.

9th Feb 2008

After breakfast, we checked out of the hotel & checked in at Grand Aquila for Rp650,000 (1st night) & Rp800,000 (2nd night). Today, we decided to go for a tour. So we booked a Bluebird cab @ Rp500,000 for 6 hours for us to travel around.
* Do not take any other cabs besides Gemah Ripah & Bluebird. These 2 companies are the most trustworthy. The rest of them does not use meter & they will exaggeratingly overcharge you.

First stop, Tangkuban Perahu (a must to visit for first-timers like us). Along the way, you should be able to see a whole stretch of stalls with cute lil’ bunnies.. Do not be deceived for these stalls are selling fresh Satay Kelinci (Sate Arnab / Rabbit’s Meat). Back to the topic, here you can see the inactive volcano with Sulfur still producing. You can still see the gas coming out of it. It was so picturesque. It was windy & raining at the same time so we were drenched and freezing our ass off by the time we get back to the cab for our next destination. Next stop was the Ciater (Hot Spring). I couldn’t remember how much I had to pay for the entrance. The place is sooo crowded with families and all. We found a spot, took our footwears off & tried dipping our feet inside. I couldn’t last for 15seconds!! It was too hot for me to handle (Max temp – 42 ?).
* As advised by the place itself, it is not recommended for those with medical conditions like old age, heart problems, diabetes, asthma, high blood pressure & pregnant ladies.

After this we were supposed to be going to Kebun Teh (Tea Plantation) but our ignorant driver got lost, skipped the place & proceeded to our next destination instead. So we missed Kebun Teh & Kampung Daun was our last stop. The driver wasted so much of our time, not planning his route properly cos he went up & down to get to a few places, passing by the places we could have gone first. I seriously have no idea what he was up to. So we had a delicious & hearty meal at Kampung Daun. *Another recommended place.

The food is delicious, it has a great view, a waterfall, nice private huts (where you will be eating) BUT if you are seated at an isolated hut, service can be quite slow. If you wanna dine in a different environment, this is the place to go… Our bill came to Rp469,700 – S$72. While eating, we were discussing whether to extend our tour but we decided against it in case he cheated us again. So we headed back sulkily. We checked into our room…. It was cheaper & much much bigger than Aston. Boy, was I glad! Location was a-ok.. There are quite a number of malls nearby but we weren’t interested. Actually none of our hotels has great locations.. but no worries cos you are just a cab ride away.. After resting for a few hours, we went out to go to Distros (Local designer’s shops) to shop. So we headed down to Jalan Dalem Kaum, Jln Trunojoyo, Jln Geusan Ulun & many more… We just walked & walked & walked around cos there are all along the stretch.. So I can’t remember all the road names that we went to. My advise is to just walk around…even if the street looks dark… haha! (I’m serious..)

10th Feb 2008

It was the day for Nana & Dzul to fly back. But since the flight was only in the evening, we went out early to do some last minute shopping, etc.. So we went to Bandung Supermall ( huge mall) where Nana had her hair permed at Johnny Andrean Salon. We also had our lunch there at the top floor. I had Mi Bakso (slurrrp), so much nicer than the ones I ate in Singapore. Oh, did I mention that there’s freedom in this country?? Unlike Singapore, you can smoke practically everywhere!!! Even in the mall!!! Lalalalla~~ Ok, after they left, we left for Cihampelas walk again.. This time it’s my turn to chop off my long beloved locks @ Johnny Andrean Salon there.
I actually wanted to cut my hair like Vic Beckham & to highlight my hair but I came too late & the shop was closing soon. After paying Rp 30,000 – S$5 for a different haircut, we went off to have dinner at Baso Malang Kerapitan while watching some performances outside the mall. The food was not bad.. I wouldn’t mind eating there again. Only that I forgot what I ate…lol!

11th Feb 2008

We packed our stuff cos it’s our turn to return home. So after breakfast, we checked out & went to Cihampelas Walk again.. hehe… I was kinda unhappy with my hair so I wanted to cut it again. It wasn’t short enough. So I went to cut again… This time around it was better.. at least it looked similar… not same but quite close.. But I wasn’t really satisfied cos I have no time to highlight my virgin hair.. (Big bummer!!) Well, I guess next time then.. But I might not wanna return to this salon anymore. Cos Nana complained that her hair went very dry & the hairdresser did not do a reasonable job. She had to trim her hair back in Singapore a few days after. For me simply, I wasn’t pleased with the haircut even after I gave her the picture. So we took a flight back to Batam after that. Upon reaching Batam, we were welcomed by Ronald, the same taxi driver. So he sent us to the Batam Centre (Ferry Terminal) for Rp 60000. We had to rush to catch the last ferry back.

* Do not do this if you have no extra day to spare in case you missed the last ferry. Dzul & Nana missed their ferry back & had to stay overnight at a nearby hotel in Batam to take the first ferry back.